CAA News Today

The CAA Board of Directors held its first meeting of the year in New York on Sunday, February 13, 2011. Twenty-four board members attended in person at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan.

The board welcomed its first appointed director, Anne-Imelda Radice, a senior consultant for the Dilenschneider Group who has a strong record of public service. The director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services from 2006 to 2010, she also served in the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts and worked as a museum curator and director. Radice earned a PhD in art and architectural history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Rick Asher, president of the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA), summarized the relationships among his organization, CAA, and the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA). For example, NCHA includes two CAA representatives on its board—currently Nicola Courtright and Paul Jaskot, both past CAA board presidents. Asher reminded the CAA board about the upcoming CIHA conference, to be held in Nuremberg, Germany, in July 2012. He also expressed a desire to foster more regional participation and will look to CAA for assistance in the future.

Barbara Nesin, CAA president, and Linda Downs, CAA executive director, thanked the board and staff for an outstanding Annual Conference and Centennial Kickoff. Drawing a record seven thousand attendees this year, the conference presented new approaches to sessions, such as bringing together leaders in the field for the Centennial Sessions, and the use of new technologies. Nesin and Downs commended the Services to Artists Committee for outstanding programming in ARTspace.

The newly elected board members were announced: Leslie Bellavance, Alfred University; Denise Mullen, Oregon College of Art and Craft; Saul L. Ostrow, Cleveland Institute of Art; and Georgia K. Strange, University of Georgia. These four will begin their four-year terms at the next board meeting in May 2011. Nesin thanked five directors who will rotate off the board at the end of April for their dedicated service: Sue Gollifer, University of Brighton; Ken Gonzales-Day, Scripps College; Andrea Kirsh, independent scholar and curator; Amy Ingrid Schlegel, Tufts University; and William E. Wallace, Washington University in St. Louis. The entire board joined Nesin in extending a heartfelt appreciation for the dedication of Paul Jaskot of DePaul University, who joined the board in 2004 and served as president from 2008 to 2010.

In the past eighteen months, CAA has made progress on accomplishing a third of the tasks described in the 2010–2015 Strategic Plan, particularly in communications, membership, and Centennial publications. Andrea Kirsh, vice president for external affairs, reported on an increase in student and artist members and thanked the board for its involvement in solicitations for the Centennial Campaign.

Maria Ann Conelli, vice president for committees, presented the annual review of CAA’s Professional Interest, Standards, and Practices Committees. She commended the Committee on Women in the Arts, the Education Committee, the Museum Committee, the Professional Practices Committee, the Services to Artists Committee, and the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee for their outstanding work this year.

Michael Fahlund, deputy director, announced the recipients of the 2010–11 Professional Development Fellowships: Alma Leiva, Virginia Commonwealth University; Sheryl Oring, University of California, San Diego; Brittany Ransom, University of Illinois, Chicago; Mina T. Son, Stanford University; and Amanda Valdez, Hunter College, City University of New York. Fahlund also discussed the recently launched podcasts series on career-development topics.

Sue Gollifer, vice president for Annual Conference, confirmed the record attendance of seven thousand attendees and applauded the great success of the Centennial Sessions. She also thanked Jean Miller, a fellow board member, for helping her organize the first Strategic Plan Focus Group Discussion, which was devoted to technology and communications.

Anne Collins Goodyear, vice president for publications, presented the Resolution and Recommendations on Editorial Safeguards and Procedures, which represented the results of an eighteen-month review of CAA publications and research into similar scholarly publishers. After a thorough analysis of the editorial practices of The Art Bulletin, Art Journal, and caa.reviews, the task force concluded that CAA is among the leaders in addressing safeguards and editorial practices. The Recommendation on Editorial Safeguards and Procedures will soon be published on the CAA website.

Patricia McDonnell presented a preliminary report from the Task Force on Practical Publications, which she heads. The board convened the task force to address the expressed need for publications on pedagogy and professional development, and the final recommendations will be presented to the board at its May meeting. (Read the task force’s previous report from September 2010.)

Officer elections were held, and the following members will begin their one-year terms in May: Patricia McDonnell, vice president for external affairs; Maria Ann Conneli, vice president for committees; Anne Collins Goodyear, vice president for Annual Conference; Randall Griffin, vice president for publications; and DeWitt Godfrey, secretary. In addition, three board members have been elected to the 2011 Nominating Committee: Jay Coogan, Jacqueline Francis, and Patricia Matthews.

The board approved applications from four organizations to become CAA affiliated societies: Art, Literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence (ALMSD); the Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA); the Curator’s Network at Independent Curators International; and the National Alliance of Artists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (NAAHBCU).

The board welcomes your thoughts on the above issues and more in preparation of its next full-day meeting, scheduled for Sunday, May 1, 2011. Send your ideas and suggestions to Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive assistant. You may also read about the previous board meeting, held in October 2010.