CAA News

The 99th Annual Conference in New York—which kicks off CAA’s centennial year—takes place February 9–12, 2011. Listing more than 120 sessions, the 2011 Call for Participation arrives in the mailboxes of all CAA members later this month; you can also download a PDF of the publication immediately.

This publication describes many of next year’s panels and presentations. CAA and session chairs invite your participation: please follow the instructions in the booklet to submit a proposal for a paper. This publication also includes a call for Poster Session proposals and describes the Open Forms sessions.

In addition to attending and participating in the wide-ranging panels on art history, studio art, contemporary issues, and professional and educational practices, CAA expects participation from many area schools, museums, galleries, and other art institutions. The Hilton New York is the conference hotel, holding most sessions and panels, Career Services and the Book and Trade Fair, receptions and special events, and more. Deadline for proposals: May 3, 2010.

The 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago, one of the best attended in recent years, had an incredibly diverse array of sessions. Audio recordings for eighty-one of those panels are now available for sale.

A set of MP3 audio recordings from the Chicago conference is available for only $149.95, either as a download or on interactive CD-ROMs. Individual sessions, available only as downloads, are $24.95 each. Please visit Conference Media to view the list of sessions and to order.

Available sessions include such timely topics as “Lifeloggers: Chronicling the Everyday” and “Autofictions, Avatars, and Alter Egos: Fabricating Artists.” Thematic art-historical topics, on analyzing repetition in ancient art and on violence and narrative in early modern art, also make appearances, as do state of the field talks on the art history of the African diaspora and on American-art textbooks. Included in the mix are pedagogical topics involving “Autonomizing Practices in Art, Art History, and Education” and “WTF: Talking Theory with Art and Art-History Undergrads,” among others.

Whether you took part in, attended, or missed a particular conference session, these recordings are a must-have for your library, research, or teaching. Listen to them while walking across campus, while driving in your car or using public transportation, or while relaxing in your home.

In addition to the Chicago sessions, you can also purchase session audio recordings from the 2006–9 conferences in Boston, New York, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Los Angeles. See http://conference.collegeart.org/audio for details.

Photo: The audience of a 2010 Annual Conference session (photograph by Bradley Marks)

The College Art Association (CAA) hosted its 98th Annual Conference in Chicago, February 10–13, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. The program included three days of presentations and panel discussions on art history and visual culture; career-development workshops, mentoring programs, and job interviews with colleges and universities; a Book and Trade Fair of academic and trade art publishers and artist-materials distributors; and a host of special events throughout the Chicago area.

Here are some conference highlights.

Attendance

More than 4,000 art professionals from throughout the United States and abroad—including art historians, visual artists, students, educators, curators, critics, collectors, and museum staff—were in attendance.

Sessions

Conference sessions featured presentations from art-history scholars, graduate students, artists, and curators from institutions across the country and internationally. Conference sessions address a range of topics in art history and the visual arts. In total, over 150 sessions, developed by CAA members, affiliated societies, and committees, were offered.

Career Services

Career Services included three days of mentoring and portfolio-review sessions, career-development workshops, and job interviews. Approximately 185 (mentoring only) interviewees and 26 (mentoring only) interviewers were on hand to participate in Career Services.

Book and Trade Fair

This year’s Book and Trade Fair presented 135 exhibitors, including participants from the United States, Mexico, Turkey, England, Belgium, Scotland, and the Netherlands, displaying new publications, artists’ materials, digital resources, and innovative products of interest to artists and scholars. The Book and Trade Fair also featured book signings, lectures, and art-materials demonstrations, as well as three exhibitor-sponsored program sessions on art materials and publishing.

ARTspace and ARTexchange

ARTspace, a “conference within the conference” tailored to the needs and interests of practicing artists, presented this year’s Annual Artists’ Interviews: Tony Tasset was interviewed by John Neff, and Phyllis Bramson was interviewed by Lynn Warren. Over 150 people attended this extraordinary event. Programmed by CAA’s Services to Artists Committee, ARTspace was made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

ARTexchange, an open-portfolio event where CAA artist members displayed drawings, prints, photographs, small paintings, and works on laptop computers. Fifty-two artists participated in ARTexchange this year.

Convocation and Awards for Distinction

More than 600 people attended CAA’s Convocation and Presentation of the 2010 Awards for Distinction. The keynote address was delivered by the renowned photographer Dawoud Bey.

Recipients of CAA’s awards are as follows:

• Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement: Suzanne Lacy
• Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work: Emory Douglas and Barkley L. Hendricks
• Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art: Holland Cotter
• Frank Jewett Mather Award: Terry Smith
• Distinguished Feminist Award: Griselda Pollock
• Distinguished Teaching of Art Award: Dean Nimmer
• Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award: Richard Shiff
• Charles Rufus Morey Book Award: Cammy Brothers, Michelangelo, Drawing, and the Invention of Architecture
• Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award: Debra Diamond, Catherine Glynn, and Karni Singh Jasol, Gardens and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur
• Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize: Michael Schreffler, “‘Their Cortés and Our Cortés’: Spanish Colonialism and Aztec Representation”
• Art Journal Award: Joanna Grabski, “Urban Claims and Visual Sources in the Making of Dakar’s Art World City”
• CAA/Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation: David Bomford

CAA’s well-attended Gala Reception was held at the Art Institute of Chicago’s newly inaugurated Modern Wing. Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, this stunning space served as the kick-off venue for the conference.

Special Events

CAA’s Annual Exhibition, Picturing the Studio, was presented at the new Sullivan Galleries of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sold-out tours explored the riches of Chicago’s arts and architecture, from Frank Lloyd Wright to the city’s historic skyscrapers.

Save the Date

CAA’s Centennial Celebration and 99th Annual Conference will be held in New York City from February 9 to 12, 2011.

About CAA

The College Art Association is dedicated to providing professional services and resources for artists, art historians, and students in the visual arts. CAA serves as an advocate and a resource for individuals and institutions nationally and internationally by offering forums to discuss the latest developments in the visual arts and art history through its Annual Conference, publications, exhibitions, website, and other events. CAA focuses on a wide range of issues including education in the arts, freedom of expression, intellectual-property rights, cultural heritage, preservation, workforce topics in universities and museums, and access to networked information technologies. Representing its members’ professional needs since 1911, CAA is committed to the highest professional and ethical standards of scholarship, creativity, criticism, and teaching.

CAA sincerely thanks all attendees and participants of the 98th Annual Conference in Chicago. Despite weather-related delays, you all helped to make this year’s event one of the most well attended and exciting in recent years.

We look forward to seeing you next year in New York for CAA’s centennial conference, February 9–12, 2011!

The official blog of the 2010 Annual Conference, which began publishing last week, is offering a unique, exciting perspective of this year’s meeting. In place of the usual mix of CAA member artists and art historians, fifteen graduate and undergraduate students from Columbia College Chicago will be giving an hour-by-hour account—in words, pictures, and video—of all things CAA.

Look not only for discussions on sessions, the Book and Trade Fair, and other CAA-sponsored events (bloggers have listed their must-sees), but also for postings from late-night conversations and sunrise coffee talks, as well as buzz from the evening receptions and gallery openings.

Recruited by professors Paul Catanese and Terence Hannum of Columbia College Chicago, the fifteen bloggers include several artists working in the MFA program in interdisciplinary art and media, as well as one art historian in training. Students from other diverse disciplines—public relations, documentary filmmaking, arts and media management, journalism, interactive media, and graphic design—have also joined the blogging team.

Nearly all these young writers have never attended a CAA conference, so their fresh approach to our venerable event is highly anticipated. Your thoughts are also welcome: the conference blog’s comments section is open to everyone.

Aristotle once remarked, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Interviewing well is one such skill that is built not only through sheer practice, but also with constructive feedback.

With this in mind, CAA’s Student and Emerging Professionals Committee will help you polish your interview style and tailor your comments appropriately during two events at the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago. Both sessions will be held on Thursday, February 11, in the Student and Emerging Professionals (SEP) Lounge, found in the Wrigley Room, West Tower, Bronze Level, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

The first event is a morning lecture and discussion about interviewing techniques, where you can learn how to perfect an “elevator speech.” The second is a special afternoon panel devoted to practice interviews, conducted by seasoned CAA members. Both are moderated by Daniel Larkin, administrative assistant, Friends of Materials for the Arts; and Niku Kashef, artist and adjunct instructor, California State University, Northridge, and Woodbury University. Details are below.

Interviewing Strategies: Interview Techniques and Perfecting Your Elevator Speech
Thursday, February 11, 9:15–10:15 AM
This panel discussion will be an honest and frank discussion on interviewing techniques, focusing on gauging and adapting to the cues of the interviewer, appropriate levels of intellectual detail, and how to keep your “elevator speech” crisp.

Mock Interview Session
Thursday, February 11, 1:00–4:00 PM
These fifteen-minute mock interviews will allow conference attendees to practice interview questioning and techniques, applying what was learned in the morning session. CAA volunteer interviewers include art-history professors, studio-art professors, artists, and more. To schedule an interview, please call Daniel Larkin at 646-246-5497 between 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM (any day of the week). Please note that interviews will be made on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Students and Emerging Professionals Committee looks forward to dynamic discussions and hopes you can join us. If you have questions about these events, or about the committee itself, feel free to contact Daniel Larkin at the phone number listed above.

While at next week’s Annual Conference in Chicago, be sure to attend the Annual Members’ Business Meeting on Friday, February 12, 5:15–6:15 PM. The meeting—held in Grand EF, East Tower, Gold Level, Hyatt Regency Chicago—is open to all current CAA members. CAA President Paul Jaskot will preside

Representatives from the Board of Directors and members of the CAA staff will review the year’s accomplishments and financial status, and the results of the 2010 board election will be announced. The board and staff will also be on hand to respond to your questions, so please come and share your insights and concerns.

Image: Blaise Tobia, professor of digital media at Drexel University, speaks at the 2009 Annual Members’ Business Meeting (photograph by Kenna Love)

Are schools mostly looking for professors of Renaissance or modern art? Does California have more teaching jobs than New York? Are there fewer open positions now compared to last year?

CAA’s Online Career Center, which publishes job classifieds in higher education and the museum world, is also an indicator of professional trends in the visual arts. In advance of next week’s Annual Conference, CAA has prepared basic statistics culled from this website, answering the questions above and giving members a sense of what job prospects might be like in Chicago and nationwide.

Using CAA’s two most recent fiscal years and the first half of the current one, this web-only article presents the total number of jobs posted in the Online Career Center, the top-ten specializations within studio art and art history, and the US states with the most open positions, among other facts. The article also compares the number of employers interviewing in Chicago to those at the Los Angeles and Dallas–Fort Worth conferences in 2009 and 2008, respectively.

The Career Services Guide is designed to inform job seekers and employers about career services at the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago. The publication, which will help you navigate Career Services events and provides answers to frequently asked questions, is available now as a PDF. Study this guide carefully so that you will know what to expect from conference interviewing and how best to prepare for a successful experience.

Job candidates can review the basics of the conference employment search. Read about Orientation, the introduction to Career Services where you can ask questions, and the Candidate Center, your home base at the conference. Also, learn more about the Online Career Center, where you can search for position listings, post application materials, and arrange interviews. The guide includes tips for improving your CV, portfolio, and supplemental application materials.

Employers will find details in the guide for renting interview booths or tables as well as recommendations for posting jobs and conducting interviews at the conference. You can begin preparations now for Career Services through the Online Career Center or onsite at the Interviewer Center.

The Career Services Guide will also be published with the January 2010 issue of CAA News, and copies will be handed out at Orientation and in the Candidate’s Center. All conference Career Services will take place at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. For more information about job searching, professional-development workshops, and more, visit the Career Services section of the conference website.

The Conference Survival Guide for the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago was published in mid-December as a downloadable Word file. Written by CAA’s Student and Emerging Professionals Committee, the guide offers guidance to students, emerging professionals, and others attending their first conference for traveling to Chicago and navigating conference activities. Suggestions include:

• options for travel funding
• budget travel ideas and lodging information
• dining and transportation suggestions
• effective strategies for successful participation in the conference
• suggestions for networking during the four-day event
• city resources and sightseeing recommendations

For more details about the Conference Survival Guide and CAA committees, please contact Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive assistant.