CAA News Today

Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.

Director at Uzbekistan Museum Is Dismissed and Accused of Crimes

A significant trove of modern Russian art, preserved not least by its obscure location, was engulfed in controversy last week after its longstanding director was summarily dismissed on accusations of forgery and theft. Marinika M. Babanazarova, director of the Savitsky Collection in Nukus, Karakalpakstan, said she learned that she was being forced out after running the museum since 1984. (Read more at the New York Times.)

Tips for New Teaching Assistants

This time each year, at universities like mine, hundreds of new teaching assistants prepare to teach undergraduates for the first time. Here are three principles that underscored my presentation to the graduate students this year, in hopes that they will be helpful to new teachers elsewhere. (Read more at Inside Higher Ed.)

Will Artist Royalty Rights Go Global?

A delegation of art world, copyright, and government experts from eight countries, plus European Union representatives, have called for an international review of royalty rights for artists following a conference at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. The issue was officially added to the organization’s agenda on July 3, and the topic is due to be debated in December. (Read more at the Art Newspaper.)

How Standup Comedy Became the New Performance Art

Why is the art world suddenly taking comedy so seriously? Artist and “concrete comedian” Sean Patrick Carney, who has led seminars on and written about the intersection of art and comedy, identifies art’s recent comedic turn with a renewed sense of political urgency: “People are frustrated and pissed off, justifiably so, about multiple social issues around race, economics, misogyny—you name it.” (Read more at Artspace Magazine.)

Will the Candidate Stay?

I am from a large city in the Northeast and received two on-campus interviews at small, teaching-centered public institutions in the Midwest and the West. Both jobs ultimately went to candidates who were from the area where the schools were located—they received their PhDs from a university in the area and/or adjuncted at a school in the region. What can candidates do to overcome a hiring committee’s concerns over whether they will stay in a position once hired? (Read more at Vitae.)

We Took a Tour of the Abandoned College Campuses of Second Life

Once upon a time, in the year 2007, people were really excited about Second Life. Businessweek ran a cover story with the headline “Virtual World, Real Money.” Brands opened stores in Second Life malls. Many universities set up their own private islands to engage students; some even held classes there. Most of these virtual universities are gone—it costs almost $300 per month to host your own island—but it turns out a handful remain as ghost towns. (Read more at Fusion.)

See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me: Museums Need Tech Entrepreneurs

According to the NEA, overall museum attendance fell from 2002 to 2012. More alarming still, museumgoers 75 and older were the only demographic to increase over that same period. Clearly, the museum world has a millennial challenge—namely, how can the world’s great institutions engage a twenty-first century, screen-addicted generation? How do you integrate new technology into something as classic and physical as the museum-going experience? (Read more at Entrepreneur.)

Developing Adjuncts

Non-tenure-track faculty members are the majority of the teaching force, so how are colleges and universities helping them to develop as teachers? As for many issues related to adjuncts, there’s a significant data gap on the topic, in part because adjuncts are diverse and decentralized, making them hard to study. But a new survey seeks to close the gap, and early responses provide insight into how colleges and universities’ teaching and learning centers are supporting their part-time faculty members—or not. (Read more at Inside Higher Ed.)