CAA News
New Officers for the Board of Directors
The CAA Board of Directors voted to fill four vice-president positions and the position of secretary during its recent meeting, held February 24, 2008, at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
A week before the meeting, the candidates running for each post, (who must be current Board members or officers running for reelection), submitted statements citing their qualifications and describing their plans should they be chosen by the Board. At the meeting each candidate spoke briefly, and Board members were given the chance to ask questions. Statements by the elected officers are printed below, abbreviated and edited for publication.
Vice President for External Affairs
Anne Collins Goodyear, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: It is an honor and a pleasure to serve a second term as vice president for external affairs. I have learned a great deal from my first year. With the addition of Nia Page, CAA’s new director of membership, development, and marketing, and with a new External Affairs Subcommittee, I will enjoy building on my previous experience. With Page’s input, I believe great strides can be taken to increase membership and enhance income from development and marketing. Above all, I look forward to working with fellow Board members toward our mutual goals. The year ahead brings us closer to our upcoming centennial celebration, which will provide an important opportunity to hone our thinking about what we value in CAA, and to shed light on areas in which we can continue growing or making improvements. I look forward to putting our insights into action.
Vice President for Committees
Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker, Mills College: Committee work is the lifeblood of any nonprofit institution. It allows an organization to reach all its constituencies, to work in focused areas, and to report to and advise boards and administrators. During my three years on the CAA Board of Directors, I have participated on three committees: the Annual Conference Committee, the Nominating Committee, and the Committee on Women in the Arts. This experience has given me insights into how CAA operates and the knowledge of what is needed for a functioning committee system to operate in its most useful and supportive way. I have been in academia for more than twenty-five years and have sat on and chaired many committees, including the Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee and the Faculty Executive Committee at Mills. As provost and dean of the faculty at Mills, I work closely with the chairs of all college committees and appreciate the work that they do, knowing how important it is to running the college. With my background and experience in academic and CAA committee work, I am honored to represent the CAA Board as vice president for committees.
Vice President for Annual Conference
Susan Galassi, Frick Collection: I am honored to serve for a second year as vice president for Annual Conference. Working on the Annual Conference Committee for the past three years with Board members and regional representatives, and especially with Emmanuel Lemakis, CAA’s director of programs, has given me invaluable insight into the conference’s vital role in promoting exchange among our increasingly diverse and global constituencies. I have also gained a true appreciation of the complex workings of the event—as well as recognized the difficulties in achieving its multiple goals in the space of four days. As head of the Conference Task Force initiated by the CAA president, I will devote my energies to looking afresh with artists, art historians, and museum professionals at ways in which the conference can become yet more responsive to CAA’s membership—from graduate students to distinguished figures—and how flexibility and balance can be achieved in the event. I welcome input on the conference from all CAA members.
Vice President for Publications
Buzz Spector, Cornell University: I appreciate the support from my fellow Board members for my appointment as vice president for publications. I bring to the position a long-running interest in the editorial process, sharpened by many years of experience as an editor in various capacities. I have worked as an editor on magazines, books, and other print materials at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business; as founder and editor of WhiteWalls, a magazine of writings by artists; as reviews editor for the former Los Angeles–based art magazine ArtCoast; and as editor (1989–90) of the “Artists’ Writings” section of CAA’s Art Journal. I am keenly interested in maintaining the high editorial standards we have achieved in our publications and supporting the critical acuity of our editorial boards in their service to the scholars, critics, and artists whose contributions appear in our pages.
Secretary
Barbara Nesin, Spelman College: I look forward to the opportunity to serve as secretary of the Board of Directors. CAA’s secretary is also a member of the Executive Committee, which advises the Board between its regular meetings and participates in the Board’s exercise of its management duties for the organization. To do this effectively, I believe that my broad range of experience and training as both an artist and an administrator are pertinent. I have served in a number of administrative positions and on the executive committees of numerous other nonprofit boards. As an exhibiting studio artist, I am deeply committed to CAA’s educational, service, advocacy, and inclusive missions. Further, I see art history and studio art as inseparable, which is evidenced not only by my published research that informs my creative work, but also by my leadership in implementing greater inclusiveness in art-history survey curricula in the State of Colorado and through the recent recognition of World Art as a bona fide discipline in CAA’s membership categories.
I am eager to become active in the deliberations of the Executive Committee, where I can further contribute to the Board’s work of setting and implementing clear goals and objectives. My familiarity with budgets, financial statements, investment performance reports, and the like will be useful to the committee.
Currently, as cochair of the Governance Task Force and chair of the Committee on Diversity Practices, I have worked effectively with each as a team, soliciting and giving careful consideration to the input of all committee members, the Board, and the general CAA membership. We have made good progress toward our goals, and I am excited about the forward momentum the Board has been taking.