CAA News

Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) since 2009, will deliver the keynote address at Convocation during CAA’s 100th Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration. Convocation takes place on Wednesday evening, February 22, 2012, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall Meeting Room 502AB, Level 2. Scheduled from 5:30 to 7:00 PM, Convocation also includes a welcome from Linda Downs; CAA executive director, an address from Barbara Nesin, president of the CAA Board of Directors; remarks from Susan Hildreth of the Institute of Museum and Library Services; and the presentation of the CAA Centennial Awards.

Born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri, Landesman pursued his undergraduate education at Colby College and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, before earning a doctorate in dramatic literature at the Yale School of Drama. After completing his coursework, he stayed at the school for four years, working as an assistant professor.

Landesman’s ensuing career has been a hybrid of commercial and artistic enterprises. He left Yale in 1977 to start a private investment fund, which he ran until his appointment ten years later as president of Jujamcyn, a company that owns and operates five Broadway theaters. Before and after joining Jujamcyn, He produced Broadway shows, the most notable of which are Big River, Angels in America: Millenium Approaches, Angels in America: Perestroika, and The Producers, all of which won Tony Awards. In 2005, he purchased Jujamcyn and operated it until President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate him to lead the NEA. The United States Senate confirmed Landesman as the tenth NEA chairman on August 7, 2009.

Landesman has been active on numerous boards, including the Municipal Arts Society, the Times Square Alliance, the Actor’s Fund, and the Educational Foundation of America. He has also vigorously engaged the ongoing debate about arts policy, speaking at forums and writing numerous articles, focusing mainly on the relationship between the commercial and nonprofit sectors of the American theater. Over the years, he returned to the Yale School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre to teach.

This week CAA will begin mailing Conference Information and Registration, which provides important details, deadlines, and directions for attending the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, to all individual and institutional CAA members. Nonmembers and those wanting a digital file now can download a PDF of the booklet. The conference, taking place February 22–25, 2012, concludes CAA’s Centennial year.

Following sections on registration and CAA membership, Conference Information and Registration describes travel, lodging, and transportation and explains the basic processes for candidates seeking jobs and employers placing classifieds and renting interview booths. In addition, the publication lists topics for nine professional-development workshops. If you want to connect with former and current professors and students, consult the Reunions and Receptions page. The booklet includes paper forms for CAA membership, conference registration, workshops, special events, and mentoring enrollment.

The contents of Conference Information and Registration also appear on the conference website, which is being updated regularly between now and the February meeting. You may also choose to join CAA and register online.

Registration is now open for the 100th Annual Conference, taking place February 22–25, 2012, in Los Angeles. Register before the early deadline, December 16, 2011, to ensure the lowest rate and your place in the Directory of Attendees.

Registration includes access to all conference sessions and to the Book and Trade Fair. Each registrant will receive a copy of the Conference Program and the Directory of Attendees, along with online access to Abstracts 2012 and free admission to selected museums and galleries in southern California during the conference.

Those interested in Career Services should sign up now to secure a place in several high-demand activities. Register for a variety of Professional Development Workshops covering topics ranging from grant writing to tenure issues to marketing your art. Sign up for Mentoring Sessions that include the Artists’ Portfolio Review and Career Development Mentoring. Employers can rent a booth or table in the Interview Hall or post an ad in the Online Career Center.

You may also purchase tickets for a variety of Special Events taking place in southern California, including:

• Centennial Reception at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• An Evening at UCLA, which includes an open house at the Hammer Museum, followed by a reception at the Fowler Museum
• Santa Monica and Venice Art Tour
• Tour to the Getty Villa
• Tour to the Getty Center

Space is limited, so please register early.

In honor of the host city, a new Art in LA section on the conference website will provide a window on the Los Angeles art scene from now through the conference. Take a look at works recently included in Pulse Los Angeles, an art fair that took place this past weekend.

Making travel plans and hotel reservations? Check out the special discounts available to conference attendees. Students can take advantage of further reductions on accommodations at select conference hotels.

CAA will regularly update the conference website over the next few months, with additional details on the program, awards, tours, and more. A list of session names and chairs will be posted shortly.

The CAA Annual Conference is the world’s largest international forum for professionals in the visual arts, offering more than two hundred stimulating sessions, panel discussions, roundtables, and meetings. CAA anticipates more than five thousand artists, art historians, students, curators, critics, educators, art administrators, and museum professionals to attend the meeting, which brings CAA’s Centennial year to a close.

For the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, taking place February 22–25, 2012, CAA seeks established professionals in the visual arts to volunteer as mentors for two Career Services programs: the Artists’ Portfolio Review and Career Development Mentoring. Participating as a mentor is an excellent way to serve the field and to assist the professional growth of the next generation of artists and scholars.

Art historians and studio artists must be tenured; critics, museum educators, and curators must have five years’ experience. Curators and educators must be currently employed by a museum or university gallery.

Artists’ Portfolio Review

CAA seeks artists, critics, curators, and educators to serve in the Artists’ Portfolio Review. In this program, mentors review and provide feedback on digital images or DVDs of work by artist members in personal twenty-minute consultations. Whenever possible, CAA matches artists and mentors based on medium or discipline. Mentors provide an important service to artists, enabling them to receive professional criticism of their work.

Interested candidates must be current CAA members and prepared to give five successive twenty-minute critiques in a two-hour period on one of the two days of the review: Thursday, February 23, and Friday, February 24, 2012, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day. Conference registration, while encouraged, is not required to be a mentor. Please send your CV and a brief letter of interest to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Deadline: January 6, 2012.

Career Development Mentoring

CAA seeks mentors from all areas of studio art, art history, art education, film and video, graphic design, the museum professions, and other related fields to serve in Career Development Mentoring. In this program, mentors give valuable advice to emerging and midcareer professionals, reviewing cover letters, CVs, digital images, and other pertinent job-search materials in personal twenty-minute consultations. Whenever possible, CAA matches participants and mentors based on medium or discipline.

Interested candidates must be current CAA members and prepared to give five successive twenty-minute critiques in a two-hour period on one of the two days of the review: Thursday, February 23, and Friday, February 24, 2012, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day. Conference registration, while encouraged, is not required to be a mentor. Please send your CV and a brief letter of interest to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Deadline: January 6, 2012.

Career Development Mentoring is not intended as a screening process by institutions seeking new hires. CAA does not accept applications from individuals whose departments are conducting a faculty search in the field in which they are mentoring. Mentors should not be attending the conference as candidates for positions in the same field in which mentees may be applying.

As a CAA member, you have access to a diverse range of mentors at Career Services during the 100th Annual Conference, taking place February 22–25, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. All emerging, midcareer, and even advanced art professionals can benefit from one-on-one discussions with dedicated mentors about artists’ portfolios, career-management skills, and professional strategies.

You may enroll in either the Artists’ Portfolio Review or Career Development Mentoring—please choose one. Participants are chosen by a lottery of applications received by the deadline; all applicants are notified of their scheduled date and time slot by email by February 3, 2012. Both sessions are offered free of charge. Conference registration, while encouraged, is not necessary to participate. All applicants must be current CAA members.

Artists’ Portfolio Review

The Artists’ Portfolio Review offers CAA members the opportunity to have digital images or DVDs of their work reviewed by artists, critics, curators, and educators in personal twenty-minute consultations. Whenever possible, CAA matches artists and mentors based on medium or discipline. You may bring battery-powered laptops; wireless internet, however, is not available in the room. Sessions are filled by appointment only and are scheduled for Thursday, February 23, and Friday, February 24, 2012, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day.

To apply, download and complete the Career Development Enrollment Form or fill out the paper form in the 2012 Conference Information and Registration booklet, which will be mailed to all individual and institutional CAA members in October 2011. Send the completed form by email to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs; by fax to 212-627-2381; or by mail to: Artists’ Portfolio Review, College Art Association, 50 Broadway, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10004. Deadline extended: January 30, 2012.

Career Development Mentoring

Artists, art historians, art educators, and museum professionals at all stages of their careers may apply for one-on-one consultations with veterans in their fields. Through personal twenty-minute consultations, Career Development Mentoring offers a unique opportunity for participants to receive candid advice on how to conduct a thorough job search; present cover letters, CVs, and digital images; and prepare for interviews. Whenever possible, CAA matches participants and mentors based on medium or discipline. Sessions are filled by appointment only and are scheduled for Thursday, February 23, and Friday, February 24, 2012, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day.

To apply, download and complete the Career Development Enrollment Form or fill out the paper form in the 2012 Conference Information and Registration booklet, which will be mailed to all individual and institutional CAA members in October 2011. Send the completed form by email to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs; by fax to 212-627-2381; or by mail to: Career Development Mentoring, College Art Association, 50 Broadway, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10004. Deadline extended: January 30, 2012.

Working as a projectionist or room monitor at the 2012 Annual Conference in Los Angeles is a great way to save on conference expenses. All candidates must be US citizens or permanent US residents. CAA encourages students and emerging professionals—especially those in southern California—to apply for service.

Projectionists

CAA seeks applications for projectionists for conference program sessions. Successful applicants are paid $10 per hour and receive complimentary conference registration. Projectionists are required to work a minimum of four 2½-hour program sessions, from Wednesday, February 22 to Saturday, February 25, and attend a training meeting on Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM. Projectionists must be familiar with digital projectors. Please send a brief letter of interest to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Deadline: January 6, 2012.

Room Monitors

CAA needs room monitors for two Career Services mentoring programs (the Artists’ Portfolio Review and Career Development Mentoring), several offsite sessions, and other conference events, to be held from Wednesday, February 22 to Saturday, February 25. Successful candidates are paid $10 per hour and receive complimentary conference registration. Room monitors are required to work a minimum of eight hours, checking in participants and facilitating the work of the mentors. Please send a brief letter of interest to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Deadline: January 6, 2012.

The 2012 Distinguished Scholar Session, taking place at the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, will honor Rosalind Krauss, University Professor at Columbia University in New York. Yve-Alain Bois of the Institute for Advanced Studies will chair a session, called “The Theoretical Turn,” in which five to six participants—among them Harry Cooper, Jonathan Crary, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, and Hal Foster—will explore and celebrate Krauss’s many contributions to the history of art. The Distinguished Scholar Session will be held in Room 515B at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Thursday, February 23, 2:30–5:00 PM.

Krauss’s acute observation of twentieth-century art began at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she received her undergraduate degree in 1962. She began writing criticism in 1966, mostly for Artforum, while working on her PhD at Harvard University, which she earned in 1969. MIT Press published an expanded version of her dissertation as Terminal Iron Works: The Sculpture of David Smith in 1971.¹

Krauss continued writing criticism and generating art-historical essays that challenged steadfast analyses of Auguste Rodin, the Surrealists, and Jackson Pollock, to name a few topics. She joined the Artforum editorial board in the late 1960s and appeared on the masthead as assistant editor from 1971 to 1974. Krauss and her colleague Annette Michelson left the magazine in 1975 to establish the scholarly October, which strove to forge a relationship between contemporary concerns and scholarship, with particular emphases on the history of modernism, its fundamental premises, and the ability of writing to reinvigorate the era. For Krauss and others, October was an opportunity to integrate artists such as Richard Serra and Sol LeWitt into their theoretical convictions and investigative criticism.

Krauss collected her essays into several influential books, including Passages in Modern Sculpture (1977), The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths (1985), and Bachelors (1999). She has also written monographs on David Smith and Cindy Sherman, among others, as well as shorter books such as The Optical Unconscious (1993) and A Voyage on the North Sea (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000). Her curatorial work—which includes Joan Miro: Magnetic Fields (1971) and Robert Morris: The Mind/Body Problem (1994) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Richard Serra/Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in 1986—has resulted in significant advances in art history while relaying her amorous relationship with the provocations of Minimalism and the tactility of sculptural mediums. Most recently, she organized L’Informe: Mode d’emploi with Bois at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1996.

For the last decade, Krauss has battled what she calls the “post-medium condition”—the claim that a momentous shift from a singular artistic medium (such as canvas, plaster wall, or metal armature) to work that amalgamates various materials has only advanced ambiguity in art. In contrast, she suggests that the specificity of the aesthetic medium vitalizes modernism’s strengths, and that contemporary work that integrates text and technology has the capacity to triumph in similar terms. Perpetual Inventory (2011) is Krauss’s most recent publication intent on restoring logic and scrutinizing specificity in the history of art. A personal meditation on the relationships between aesthetics and memory, called Under Blue Cup, is forthcoming.

The integration of literary and philosophical references in her writing, combined with an enthusiasm for ravaging stagnant theories, has made Krauss a tenacious teacher and mentor. She joined Hunter College in New York in 1974, rising to Distinguished Professor both there and at the Graduate Center. In 1995 she transitioned to the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia, where she became Meyer Shapiro Professor of Modern Art and History and then, ten years later,  University Professor. Krauss’s experiences as a scholar and educator culminated in the textbook Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2004), a didactic yet vital interpretation of modern art that was coauthored by Bois, Buchloh, and Foster. (A revised edition is expected soon.) As a further testament to her academic success, Krauss was an honorary degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2008 and another from Harvard University in 2011.

CAA inaugurated its Distinguished Scholar Session in 2001, first honoring James S. Ackerman of Harvard University. Since then, the organization has recognized the most illustrious writers, teachers, and curators, including Leo Steinberg (2002), John Szarkowski (2006), Linda Nochlin (2007), Svetlana Alpers (2009), and Jonathan Brown (2011).

1. MIT Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has published Krauss’s books mentioned in this article, unless indicated otherwise.

The Exhibitor and Advertiser Prospectus for the 2012 Annual Conference in Los Angeles, California, is now available for download. Featuring essential details for participation in the Book and Trade Fair, the booklet also contains options for sponsorship opportunities and advertisements in conference publications and on the conference website.

The Exhibitor and Advertiser Prospectus will help you reach a core audience of artists, art historians, educators, students, and administrators, who will converge in Los Angeles for CAA’s 100th Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration, taking place February 22–25, 2012. With three days of exhibit time, the Book and Trade Fair will be centrally located in the Los Angeles Convention Center, where most programs sessions and special events take place. CAA offers several options for booths and tables that can help you to connect in person with conference attendees.

In addition, sponsorship packages will allow you to maintain a high profile throughout the conference. Companies, organizations, and publishers may choose one of three packages, sponsor specific areas and events such as Convocation, ARTspace, and the Distinguished Scholar Session, or work with CAA staff to design a custom visibility package. Advertising possibilities include the Conference Program, distributed to over five thousand registrants, and the conference website, seen by thousands more.

The priority deadline for Book and Trade Fair applications is Friday, October 28, 2011; the final deadline for all applications and full payments, and for sponsorships and advertisements in the Conference Program, is Friday, December 9, 2011.

Questions about the 2012 Book and Trade Fair? Please contact Paul Skiff, CAA assistant director for Annual Conference, at 212-392-4412. For sponsorship and advertising queries, speak to Helen Bayer, CAA marketing and communications associate, at 212-392-4426.

CAA’s Services to Artists Committee invites artist members to participate in ARTexchange, an open forum for sharing work at the 2012 Annual Conference. Free and open to the public, ARTexchange will be held on Friday, February 24, 5:30–7:30 PM, in a central location at the Los Angeles Convention Center. A cash bar will be available.

ARTexchange is an annual event showcasing the art of CAA members, who can exhibit their paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and digital works using the space on, above, and beneath a six-foot folding table. Artists may also construct temporary mini-installations and conduct performance, sound, and spoken-word pieces in their space. In the past, many ARTexchange participants found the event to be their favorite part of the conference, with the table parameter sparking creative displays.

To be considered for ARTexchange in Los Angeles, please send your full name, your CAA member number, a brief description of the work you want to exhibit (no more than 150 words), and a link to your website to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Artists presenting performance or sound art, spoken word, or technology-based work, including laptop presentations, must add a few sentences about their plans. Accepted participants will receive an email confirmation. Because ARTexchange is a popular venue with limited space, early applicants will be given preference. Deadline extended: January 6, 2012.

Participants are responsible for their work; CAA is not liable for losses or damages. Sale of work is not permitted. Participants may not hang artworks on walls or run power cords from laptops or other electronic devices to outlets—bring fully charged batteries. For the first time, CAA will provide wireless internet to ARTexchange participants free of charge.

Top image: The artist Dennis Olsen chats about his work with a fellow printmaker, Pantea Karimi, at ARTexchange in 2011 (photograph by Bradley Marks)

Bottom image: The interdisciplinary artist Rachel Hines performs a work called Interview during ARTexchange in New York (photograph by Bradley Marks)

The website for the 100th Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration, taking place February 22–25, 2012, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, is now live. Get a taste of conference highlights and read about what you receive with registration, such as access to all program sessions and admission to the Book and Trade Fair.

You may also begin thinking about your travel plans: American Airlines, Amtrak, and Avis provide promotional codes for special reduced rates, and CAA offers three travel stipends for attendees, including twenty awards through the newly established CAA International Travel Grant Program, generously funded by the Getty Foundation. Companies and organizations interested in exhibiting in the Book and Trade Fair will find application materials, booth descriptions, and preliminary schedules.

Between now and February, CAA will update the website regularly, with new information on the Awards for Distinction presentation, special receptions, postconference tours, and more. Later this month, CAA will publish the names of the three conference hotels and list room rates and reservation instructions. The titles of program sessions, events in ARTspace, biographies of the Convocation speaker and Distinguished Scholar, participants in the Annual Artists’ Interviews, and topics of professional-development workshops will come later this fall.

Online registration will open in early October 2011, with the lowest rates available for members and nonmembers alike between then and early December.