CAA News

The election of members to serve on the CAA Board of Directors for the 2011–15 term has begun. To participate in the election, all you need is your member number and password. Visit the main board election page or click the candidates’ names below to read their statements and biographies—and to watch their video presentations—before casting your vote:

• Leslie Bellavance, Alfred University
• Brian Bishop, Framingham State University
• dele jegede, Miami University
• Denise Mullen, Oregon College of Art and Craft
• Saul L. Ostrow, Cleveland Institute of Art
• Georgia K. Strange, University of Georgia

How to Vote

Log into your CAA account with your User ID# and password. Then click the Vote Now image at the center of the screen to begin the process. If you are already logged in, click the Home link at left, and then the Vote Now image.

You may vote for up to four candidates, including one write-in candidate, who will serve four-year terms on the board. Ballots that indicate more than four candidates will be void. The election ends at 5:30 PM (EST) on Friday, February 11, 2011.

Send a Proxy

CAA encourages you to attend the Annual Members’ Business Meeting at the 2011 Annual Conference in New York. If you cannot, please check the box appointing a proxy. By doing so, you appoint the CAA board officers named thereon—Barbara Nesin, Andrea Kirsh, Maria Ann Conelli, Sue Gollifer, Anne Goodyear, and DeWitt Godfrey—to vote, in their discretion, on such matters as may properly come before such a meeting.

A quorum of one hundred members is needed to hold the meeting; therefore CAA requests your proxy to ensure that it can take place. Please send your proxy by 5:30 PM (EST) on Friday, February 11, 2011.

Mac Users

If you use a non-Intel Mac that runs Tiger OS X 10.4, you will not see a Submit or Save button at the bottom of the voting form. To vote, please log into your CAA account on an Intel Mac or a PC.

CAA invites you to help shape the future of the organization by serving on the 2011 Nominating Committee. Each year, this committee nominates and interviews potential candidates for the CAA Board of Directors and selects the final slate for the membership’s vote. The candidates for the 2011–15 election have been announced, and voting begins on Wednesday, December 15.

The current Nominating Committee will choose the new members of its own committee at its business meeting, to be held at the 2011 Annual Conference in New York in February. Once selected, all committee members must propose a minimum of five and a maximum of ten people for the board in the spring. Service on the committee also involves conducting telephone interviews with candidates during the summer and meeting by conference call in September to select the final board slate. Finally, all Nominating Committee members attend the following business meeting, at the Los Angeles conference in 2012, to select that year’s committee.

Nominations and self-nominations should include a brief statement of interest and a two-page CV. Please send all materials to: Maria Ann Conelli, Vice President for Committees, c/o CAA Executive Assistant, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Materials may also be sent as Microsoft Word attachments to Vanessa Jalet. Deadline: December 30, 2010.

At its meeting on May 2, 2010, the CAA Board of Directors voted to restore several important programs for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. After a year of conservative budgeting in response to the economic downturn, the board eased financial constraints on the following programs that benefit CAA members.

Professional Development Fellowships

Later this fall, CAA will award five Professional Development Fellowships in the Visual Arts of $5,000 each to outstanding students who will receive MFA degrees in calendar year 2011. Eligibility requirements and application guidelines will be available on the CAA website by June 1, 2010; the deadline for applications will be October 1, 2010.

The number of artists applying for support has always been consistently high. Given this significant interest by artists—as well as the emphasis in CAA’s 2010–2015 Strategic Plan on strengthening programs and support for artist members—the board agreed that renewing artists’ fellowship is an important first step toward full restoration of the fellowship program.

Although the operating budget is lean, CAA hopes that Professional Development Fellowships in Art History can again be awarded to doctoral candidates in 2011.

The Art Bulletin and Art Journal

CAA’s two scholarly print publications, The Art Bulletin and Art Journal, will return to regular quarterly publication in 2011, with four issues appearing next year. In 2010, each journal is producing just three issues in response to the financial constraints of the previous fiscal year. The Art Bulletin combined its March and June 2010 issues, and Art Journal produced a joint Spring–Summer 2010 issue.

Millard Meiss Publication Fund

The CAA Publications Department will once again make grants to publishers from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund beginning this fall. The Meiss fund, founded in 1975, awards grants to support book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects that have been accepted by publishers on their merits, but cannot be published in the most desirable form without subsidy.

The grant program had been suspended for two cycles, in fall 2009 and spring 2010. Awards will also be made in spring 2011, pending later approval.

Nominations and self-nominations are sought for individuals interested in shaping the future of CAA by serving on CAA’s Board of Directors for the 2011–15 term.

The board is responsible for all financial and policy matters related to the organization. It promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts, and it encourages creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practice of art. CAA’s board is also charged with representing the membership on issues affecting the visual arts and humanities.

Nominations and self-nominations should include the following information: the nominee’s name, affiliation, address, email address, and telephone number, as well as the name, affiliation, and email address of the nominator, if different from the nominee. Please forward all information to: Vanessa Jalet, Executive Assistant, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Deadline: April 2, 2010.

CAA members have elected four new directors to the CAA board for a four-year term, 2010–14:

• Peter Barnet, Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Roger Crum, University of Dayton
• Jean M. K. Miller, Towson University
• Sabina Ott, Columbia College Chicago

The winners were announced by Paul B. Jaskot, CAA president, at the conclusion of the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, held on late Friday afternoon, February 12, at the CAA Annual Conference in Chicago. The above four will join the board at its next meeting, in May 2010.

CAA invites all members to cast their vote in the current Board of Directors election. Voting ends on Friday, February 12, at 5:00 PM CST. The following six candidates have been chosen by the 2009 Nominating Committee for the current slate:

• Peter Barnet, Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Roger Crum, University of Dayton
• Conrad Gleber, La Salle University
• Arthur F. Jones, University of North Dakota
• Jean M. K. Miller, Towson University
• Sabina Ott, Columbia College Chicago

Please click on each candidate’s name above to read his or her statement and biography—and to watch their special video introductions—before casting your vote for up to four candidates.

About the Election

CAA members may vote for no more than four candidates or may cast votes for write-in candidates (who must be CAA members). The four candidates receiving the most votes will be elected to the board. CAA members may cast their votes and submit their proxies by mail or electronically.

Election results are announced at the close of the Annual Members’ Business Meeting at the Chicago conference, and new board members take office in the spring.

If you have requested your ballot on paper, a ballot and proxy were mailed to you in mid-December. Return them via post by Friday, February 12, 2010, at 5:00 PM CST.

If you have elected to vote online, you have received email notices since mid-December with instructions for voting online. This emails include a PIN for you to vote and to return your proxy. All online voting must be completed by Friday, February 12, 2010, at 5:00 PM CST. If you wish to vote during the conference, CAA is providing a computer for online voting in the registration area.

If you are still receiving your ballot and proxy by postal mail, kindly change your email communication status to “vote online” in the Account Log In section of the CAA website. Voting online is considerably less expensive, and in these difficult economic times it is critical for CAA to save costs where it can.

About the Board

The CAA Board of Directors is responsible for all financial and policy matters related to the organization. It promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts, and it encourages creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practice of art. CAA’s board is also charged with representing the membership on issues affecting the visual arts and humanities.

2009 Nominating Committee

Members of the 2009 Nominating Committee are: Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker, Mills College, vice president for committees and committee chair (ex officio without vote); Jacki Apple, Art Center College of Design; Linda Downs, CAA executive director (ex officio, without vote); Ken Gonzales-Day, Scripps College and CAA board; James Hopfensperger, Western Michigan University; Suzanne McCullagh, Art Institute of Chicago; Edward M. Noriega, Troy University and CAA board; William Wallace, Washington University in St. Louis and CAA board; and Charles A. Wright, Western Illinois University.

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)

Barbara Nesin, the department chair of art foundations at the Art Institute of Atlanta, has been elected president of CAA’s Board of Directors for a two-year term, beginning May 2010. A member of the board since 2006, Nesin has served as secretary for the past two years. She will succeed Paul B. Jaskot, professor of art history at DePaul University in Chicago, who has served as president since May 2008.

An artist and educator, Nesin says, “The work of those who make, interpret, and preserve images in our global culture has never been more important than it is now. As a visual artist who has participated in the formulation of our association’s Strategic Plan for the next five years, I am particularly excited about this opportunity to tangibly demonstrate CAA’s special commitment to expanding services to our artist members. In addition, I view the work of art historians, museum professionals, and teachers as integral and inseparable from the work of artists and designers, and will advocate on their behalf. I am also excited about CAA’s renewed focus on developing partnerships with a variety of institutions, including our own affiliated societies, in order to further CAA’s goals.”

Previous to her appointment at the Art Institute of Atlanta earlier this year, Nesin was associate professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, where she chaired the Department of Art from 2002 to 2005. Before that, she taught art at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, Colorado—the largest community college in the state—while directing its Visual Art Program.

After receiving a BFA in 1975 from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Nesin earned an MBA in 1984 at Long Island University in New York. She worked in the financial industry for twelve years—as a registered representative of the New York Stock Exchange and a vice president and department head of pension trust administration—before attending graduate school, earning her MFA in drawing and mixed media at Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 1996.

An overarching theme in Nesin’s art is a visual bridging of cultural differences by making connections to all aspects of her mixed-diaspora heritage. While her work is clearly about cultural narratives, it is difficult to place it neatly in existing categories. Nesin comments, “Narrow definitions of identity seem outdated in this age of globalization, which follows centuries of migration, exchange, acculturation, and syncretism. We seem to have plenty of new media for deeply entrenched paradigms, and not enough truly independent thinking.” Her mixed-media paintings and drawings often include photo transfers, retablos, and installations in which she employs a strategy of métissage—“mixing” in the political sense articulated by Françoise Lionnet as a practice of cultural survival—to navigate the layered terrain of humanity.

Her work has been shown internationally, most recently in the 2009 Havana Biennial in Cuba and in Cryptablos: Creole, Black & Jewish, a solo exhibition at the Dillard University Art Gallery in New Orleans. She has also presented work in solo shows in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Accra, Ghana, among others, and in juried and invitational group exhibitions across the United States. She maintains her studio at the Arts Exchange in Atlanta.

Nesin has traveled to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, including numerous trips to Haiti. Her research, which informs her creative work, has been published in Anales del Caribe, Higher Education Exchange, and the Journal of Haitian Studies. Current projects include two books in progress and a creative collaboration with English faculty from Birmingham Southern University in Alabama, funded by a grant from Associated Colleges of the South.

At CAA, Nesin was chair of the Committee on Diversity Practices (2006–9) and cochair of the Governance Task Force (2007–9), which researched and drafted the proposed changes to the CAA By-laws. She also served on the Steering Committee, which wrote the recently approved 2010–2015 Strategic Plan. As secretary of the board, Nesin served on the Executive, Finance and Budget, and Audit Committees. She was also a board member of the Haitian Studies Association from 2005 to 2009 and was the president of Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE), a CAA affiliate, for two years, following eight years of board service.

The CAA board chooses its next president from among the elected directors in the fall of the current president’s final year of service, providing a period in which the next president can learn the responsibilities of the office and prepare for his or her term. For more information on CAA and the Board of Directors, please contact Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive assistant.

Artwork: Barbara Nesin, Sefarad, from the series Art in a Time of War, 2005, mixed media, 36 x 24 in. (artwork © Barbara Nesin; photograph provided by the artist)

The executive summary for CAA’s Strategic Plan 2010–2015 is now available for download from the CAA website. During the strategic-planning process, a task force comprising members of the Board of Directors, CAA staff and committees, and more reviewed the mission, needs, and long-term goals of CAA. The 2010–2015 plan contains new mission, vision, and values statements and identifies seven important goals of the organization that are intended to meet the needs of all members in the visual arts.

The seven goals outlined in the plan focus on promoting the visual arts and meeting the needs of CAA’s membership, while expanding the programs, publications, and finances in order to do so. Some important strategies for accomplishing these goals include strengthening CAA’s ability to represent the visual arts, improving communication with national and international members, and establishing and identifying new sources of earned revenue. In his letter prefacing the summary, Paul B. Jaskot, CAA president, states, “With the plan in place, CAA will be able to advocate for the visual arts nationally and internationally and create new opportunities for dialogue among our members.”

For more details, see Jaskot’s letter, download the executive summary, and read the new mission, vision, and values statements.

Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker is CAA’s vice president for committees. She is also professor of Asian art history, Carver Chair in East Asian Studies, and provost and dean of the faculty at Mills College in Oakland, California.

In line with CAA’s practice to update regularly its Standards and Guidelines for professional practices in the fields of art and art history, the Board of Directors approved three revised guidelines for art historians and a new one for academic art administrators at its meeting on October 25, 2009. This work was carried out by four task forces, established by CAA’s president Paul B. Jaskot and executive director Linda Downs, that were overseen by the Professional Practices Committee.

Professional Practices for Art Historians

Authentications and Attributions (2009): The task force appointed by President Jaskot established the need for a stand-alone and separate document for art historians regarding authentications and attributions of works of art. It was determined that no other issue is more urgent for, and its consequences so specific to, the welfare of the profession than dealing with inauthenticity and false attributions. Not only is the integrity of artists and collections at stake, but the economic well-being of art historians who engage in trying to separate the false from the true is also endangered.

Information about authentications and attributions formerly appeared in A Code of Ethics for Art Historians and Guidelines for the Professional Practice of Art History.

Guidelines for Curatorial-Studies Programs (2009): A growing number of colleges and universities across the country have instituted programs in curatorial studies. The revisions for the document, first published in 2004, are intended to help art departments and administrators organizing curricula and to aid faculty advisors and students determining which curatorial-studies programs are appropriate for an individual’s specific interests, abilities, and career goals.

Standards for Retention and Tenure of Art Historians (2009): This guideline, last revised in 2005, has been amended to embrace community and two-year colleges. Inclusion of community colleges into these standards will make this document relevant for art-history faculty who attempt to achieve the highest stands of professional practices in such institutions. It will also help to validate the objectives of professionals who have few peers to support them in their efforts to improve the practice of art history at their institutions.

Professional Practices for Academic Art Administrators

Standards and Guidelines for Academic Art Administrators (2009): This document will serve as a resource for emerging, new, and current academic art administrators, as well as benefiting other CAA members seeking guidance regarding the role of academic art administrators operating in a visual-arts context. The task force was made up of administrators from diverse geographical regions and varied professional experiences that included program directors, chairs and division heads, directors of schools of art, associate deans, deans, and vice presidents.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank all the members of the four task forces (listed respectively on the webpages of their Standards and Guidelines), who worked together to revise and create these Standards and Guidelines. In particular I want to acknowledge the work of Maxine Payne, chair of the Professional Practices Committee, who so diligently worked on all this material and encouraged each task force along the way.