CAA News

CAA’s two Directories of Graduate Programs in the Arts, covering MA, MFA, and PhD programs in art and art history, are now on sale: $15 for CAA members and $20 for nonmembers, plus $4 shipping.

Published in late 2008 and early 2009, the directories remain the most comprehensive resources available for prospective graduate students in the visual arts, listing hundreds of programs in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere worldwide. CAA will introduce revised, online versions of the directories in fall 2011, with a price to be determined.

The directories come in two volumes, each sold separately: Graduate Programs in Art History includes art history, visual studies, museum studies, curatorial studies, arts administration, and library science; and Graduate Programs in the Visual Arts comprises studio art, graphic design, applied arts and design, film production, art education, and conservation. An index lists schools alphabetically and by state and country for quick reference. An introductory essay presents a detailed description of the elements of a program entry, including explanations of the various kinds of programs and degrees offered, helping place your search and selection process in context.

CAA accepts online purchases from individuals only. If you are ordering on behalf of a school, department, library, museum, or other institution, please download and complete this form and submit it via mail or fax to: CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; 212-627-2381.

Updated on February 23, 2011.

This offer from Rutgers University Press expired in late 2010.

Members receive a special 30 percent discount when preordering the forthcoming book on the history of CAA, The Eye, the Hand, the Mind: 100 Years of the College Art Association. Edited by Susan Ball, this 328-page hardcover book will be published in January 2011 by Rutgers University Press. It will also be available at the 99th Annual Conference and Centennial Kickoff in New York, where a special signing party will take place.

CAA members may preorder the book online for $20.97 (listed at $29.95). The special offer will end soon. Use code 02CAA10 on the Rutgers University Press website, after you “Add to Cart” and before you “Checkout.”

CAA was founded in 1911 with a single stated purpose: “to promote art interests in all divisions of American colleges and universities.” From this humble yet ambitious origin, Ball has organized her book thematically instead of chronologically, with sixteen “purposes” covered in twelve chapters, some written collaboratively. As such, it offers not a comprehensive history but rather a presentation of memorable highlights that tells the complex, contentious story of a venerated organization.

The Eye, the Hand, the Mind reviews familiar aspects of CAA. Craig Houser negotiates the history of CAA’s dynamic publications program, which began in 1913 with the first issue of The Art Bulletin, and Julia Sienkewicz chronicles the evolution of the Annual Conference. Less known is CAA’s traveling-exhibition program in the 1930s, uncovered by Cristin Tierney. More recently, Ellen Levy explores how CAA has similarly supported presentations of artwork by its members, both students and professionals. Other authors investigate myriad other topics: developments in pedagogy and curriculum; political involvements and advocacy work; visual resources, libraries, and issues of copyright; professional support and career development; partnerships with museums and their associations; relationships to other learned societies in the humanities; governance structure and diversity matters; and much more.

Ball, who served as CAA executive director from 1986 to 2006, is now director of programs at the New York Foundation for the Arts. In addition to organizing the book project, she contributed a chapter on the founding of CAA, administrative and financial matters, and the organization’s larger role in the visual arts.

CAA has awarded grants to the publishers of nine books in art history and visual culture through two programs: the Millard Meiss Publication Fund and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant.

Meiss Grants Winners

This fall, CAA has awarded four grants from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund. Thanks to the generous bequest of the late Prof. Millard Meiss, these grants are given to publishers to support the publication of scholarly books in art history and related fields. The 2010 grantees are:

• Cynthia Hahn, Strange Beauty: Issues in the Making and Meaning of Reliquaries 400–circa 1204 (Pennsylvania State University Press)
• Megan E. O’Neil, Engaging Ancient Maya Sculpture at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (University of Oklahoma Press)
• J. P. Park, Ensnaring the Public Eye: Painting Manuals of Late Ming China and the Negotiation of Taste (University of Washington Press)
• Stephen C. Pinson, Speculating Daguerre: Art and Enterprise in the Work of L. J. M. Daguerre (University of Chicago Press)

Books eligible for a Meiss grant must already be under contract with a publisher and be on a subject in the arts or art history. Authors must be current CAA members. Application criteria and guidelines for the Meiss grant are available online or from Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate.

Wyeth Grant Winners

CAA is pleased to announce five recipients of the annual Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant. Thanks to a second generous three-year grant from the Wyeth Foundation, these awards are given annually to publishers to support the publication of one or more book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art, visual studies, and related subjects. Receiving 2010 grants are:

• Marianne Kinkel, Races of Mankind: The Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman (University of Illinois Press)
• Analisa Leppanen-Guerra, Children’s Stories and “Child-Time” in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Trans-Atlantic Avant-Garde (Ashgate)
• Leo Mazow, Thomas Hart Benton and the American Sound (Pennsylvania State University Press)
• Maurie McInnis, Slaves Waiting for Sale: Visualizing the Southern Slave Trade (University of Chicago Press)
• Marian Wardle, ed., The Weir Family, 1820–1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art (University Press of New England)

For the purpose of this program, “American art” is defined as art created in the United States, Canada, and Mexico prior to 1970. Books eligible for a Wyeth grant must already be under contract with a publisher. Authors must be current CAA members. Application criteria and guidelines for the Wyeth grant are available online or from Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate.

CAA is pleased to announce the finalists for the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award and the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for 2011. The winners of both prizes, along with the recipients of ten other Awards for Distinction, will be announced in December and presented in February during a special ceremony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in conjunction with the 99th Annual Conference and Centennial Kickoff.

The Charles Rufus Morey Book Award honors an especially distinguished book in the history of art, published in any language between September 1, 2009, and August 31, 2010. The four finalists are:

• Molly Emma Aitken, The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010)
• Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Constantinopolis/Istanbul: Cultural Encounter, Imperial Vision, and the Construction of the Ottoman Capital (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009)
• Juliet Koss, Modernism after Wagner (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010)
• Hui-shu Lee, Empresses, Art, and Agency in Song Dynasty China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010)

The Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for museum scholarship is presented to the author(s) of an especially distinguished catalogue in the history of art, published between September 1, 2009, and August 31, 2010, under the auspices of a museum, library, or collection. The three finalists are:

• Mark Laird and Alicia Weisberg-Roberts, eds., Mrs. Delany and Her Circle (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, in association with Yale University Press, 2009)
• Darielle Mason, ed., Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection and the Stella Kramrisch Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009)
• Xiaoneng Yang, ed., Tracing the Past, Drawing the Future: Master Ink Painters in Twentieth-Century China (Milan: 5 Continents, 2010)

The presentation of the 2011 Awards for Distinction will take place on Thursday evening, February 10, 6:00–7:30 PM, in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The event is free and open to the public. The CAA Centennial Reception will follow (ticket required). For more information about CAA’s Awards for Distinction, please contact Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs, at 212-691-1051, ext. 248.

CAA seeks nominations and self-nominations for two individuals to serve on the jury for the Millard Meiss Publication Fund through June 30, 2014. The jury awards grants that subsidize the publication of book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects. It reviews manuscripts and grant applications twice a year and meets in New York in the spring and fall to select awardees. CAA reimburses committee members for travel and lodging expenses in accordance with its travel policy.

Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on another CAA editorial board or committee. Jury members may not themselves apply for a grant in this program during their term of service. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name. Please send a letter describing your interest in and qualifications for appointment, a CV, and contact information to: Millard Meiss Publication Fund Jury, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; or by email to Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate. Deadline: October 15, 2010.

CAA is offering two publishing grant opportunities this fall—the Millard Meiss Publication Fund and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant—that support new books in art history. Both grant programs have a fast-approaching deadline of October 1, 2010.

The publisher must submit the application to either or both grant, though only one award can be given per title. Awards are made at the discretion of the jury for each fund and vary according to merit, need, and number of applications. The Wyeth grant will be awarded in late November; the Meiss award will be announced shortly thereafter.

Millard Meiss Publication Fund

CAA awards grants through the Millard Meiss Publication Fund to support book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher on their merits but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy. For complete guidelines, application forms, a grant description, and past winners, visit www.collegeart.org/meiss or write to publications@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2010.

Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant

Thanks to a second generous three-year grant from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, CAA awards a publication grant to support book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art and related subjects prior to 1970. Books eligible for the Wyeth grant have been accepted by a publisher on merit, but require a subsidy to be published in the most desirable form. For complete guidelines, application forms, a grant description, and past winners, visit www.collegeart.org/wyeth or write to publications@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2010.

The next editions of CAA’s two directories of graduate programs in the arts will be published in an online format in fall 2011. First printed in December 2008 and January 2009 and still available for purchase, the CAA directories are the most comprehensive source books for graduate education for artists and art scholars, with program information for hundreds of schools, departments, and programs in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and elsewhere worldwide. Colleges, universities, and independent art schools are all included.

The pricing structure for the 2011 online editions has not yet been determined. Each current volume costs $49.95—$39.95 for CAA members—plus shipping and handling. You may order them online.

Graduate Programs in Art History includes programs in art history and visual studies, museum studies, curatorial studies, arts administration, library science, and related areas. Graduate Programs in the Visual Arts describes programs in studio art, graphic design, digital media, art education, conservation, historic preservation, film production, and more.

For more information, please send an email to directories@collegeart.org.

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.

Several organizations, including the American Society of Media Photographers, the Professional Photographers of America, and the Graphic Artists Guild, have filed a class-action lawsuit against Google, claiming that by scanning millions of books the internet company has infringed on their members’ copyrights and failed to compensate them for their work.

According to Miguel Helft of the New York Times, the new lawsuit is separate from the Google Book Settlement between the company and a consortium of individuals and authors’ organizations. That decision is pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Helft writes, “Google’s settlement with authors and publishers largely excluded photographs and other visual works. Legal experts said it was not unexpected that Google would face claims from groups that were not part of the original case and are not covered by it.”

Respondents to a recent survey on digital book publishing, produced by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), say that digital book publishing is still a moving target, naming metadata bottlenecks, third-party vendors, and rights issues over images as major concerns.

The report, “Digital Publishing in the AAUP Community Survey Report: Winter 2009–2010,” shares responses to seven questions specifically about digital strategies, technologies, and concerns related to their book-publishing programs. The survey also collected new and updated information on specific e-publishing programs at member presses in order to update the association’s online directory of such projects.

According to the report, university presses are increasingly working to provide print-on-demand services for new and old titles, as well as partnering with digital aggregators such as Google Books for Publishers (91.5% of respondents), Amazon’s Search Inside the Book (76.3%), and Barnes and Noble See Inside (39%).
About 96.5% of AAUP member presses are working with the PDF, and 31.6% and 29.8% respectively using AZW (for Kindle) and EPUB formats. Many presses currently offer excerpts and chapters of books on their websites, and some have entire books available online.