CAA News

“My original source of income for the summer (teaching) has fallen through, so I am a bit desperate to find a job,” asks a graduate student of two career specialists at the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the form of a conversation, Julie Miller Vick of the University of Pennsylvania and Jennifer S. Furlong of Columbia University give excellent advice in the Career Talk section of the newspaper’s website.

Among the suggestions provided by Vick and Furlong:

• “If you have experience working with archives, approach museum and university archives in your geographic area to see if they need part-time help with any projects that align with your background”
• “Besides writing, editing and research, think about other areas in which you might build your expertise, such as Web design, graphics applications, computer programming that relates to your discipline, presentation skills, and foreign-language skills”
• “Be sure that you put together a timeline of things you’d like to accomplish this summer and into the fall”

Read the full article—and the entire column archives—at the Chronicle’s Career Talk section.

CAA has received funding from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation to offer two additional years of National Career Development Workshops for artists in 2009–10. The grant allows CAA to continue the 2007–8 program in which ten workshops were presented at various locations in the United States.

Held in underserved areas, the workshops are designed to meet the specific needs of artists in each region. In the past, topics have included presentation skills, writing artist statements, networking, planning, grant preparation, and career options. The workshops have been highly successful, and CAA has forged partnerships with schools, art museums, co-op galleries, and art societies across the nation.

Artworks in Trenton, New Jersey, is the location for the first 2009–10 workshop. Scheduled for May 9, from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM, it will provide tools, tips, resources, best practices, and networking opportunities for artists. Also taking place is a postworkshop networking reception, just around the corner at the Mill Hill Saloon, 300 South Broad Street, in Trenton.

The cost for the complete day, including breakfast and lunch, is $25 ($15 for students and seniors). Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis; contact Artworks at 609-394-9436 to confirm your place. For details regarding the day’s schedule, write to Artworks or Susan Schear, CAA national workshop project consultant.

The Trenton workshop is cosponsored by the Arts and Business Council of Greater Trenton, in partnership with Artworks and the College of New Jersey.

You can enroll in either the Artists’ Portfolio Review or Career Development Mentoring at the 2009 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. These sessions are offered free of charge.

Artists’ Portfolio Review
The Artists’ Portfolio Review offers artist members the opportunity to have slides, VHS videos, digital images, or DVDs of their work reviewed by curators and critics in personal twenty-minute consultations at the 2009 Annual Conference. You may bring battery-powered laptops; wireless internet is not available in the room. Sessions are filled by appointment only and are scheduled for Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day.

All applicants must be current CAA members. Participants are chosen by a lottery of applications received by the deadline; all applicants are notified by email. To apply, download the Career Development Enrol­lment Form or use the form in the Conference Information and Registration booklet. Please send the completed form to: Artists’ Portfolio Review, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Deadline: January 16, 2009.

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 at the 2009 Annual Conference. Career Development Mentoring offers a unique opportunity for participants to receive candid advice on how to conduct a thorough job search, present work, and prepare for interviews. Sessions are filled by appointment only and are scheduled for Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day.

All applicants must be current CAA members. Participants are chosen by a lottery of applications received by the deadline; all applicants are notified by email. To apply, please download the Career Development Enrollment Form or use the form in the Conference Information and Registration booklet. Please send the completed form to: Career Development Mentoring, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Deadline: January 16, 2009.

The Career Services Guide is designed to inform job seekers and employers about career services that are available at the 2009 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Examine this guide carefully so that you will know what to expect from conference interviewing and how best to prepare for a successful experience.

The Career Services Guide will also be published in the January 2009 issue of CAA News as a colored-paper insert; copies will also be available at Orientation and in the Candidate’s Center at the conference.

All Career Services will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, California. For more information about job searching, visit the Career Services section of the conference website.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has published an article on what “Conference Rookies” should expect while on job hunts at academic conferences. Two academic career experts—Julie Miller Vick of the University of Pennsylvania and Jennifer S. Furlong of Columbia University’s Center for Career Education—provide tips and pointers on scheduling interviews, eating, organizing materials, and more.

CAA will soon publish its Career Services Guide on the conference website. The document will also appear in the forthcoming January issue of CAA News and be available at Orientation and in the Candidate Center at the 2009 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. In the meantime, both job candidates and interviewers are encouraged to review CAA’s two Standards and Guidelines dealing with the job search—Etiquette for CAA Interviewers and Standards for Professional Placement—as well as to read CAA’s recommendations for preparing CVs and résumés for artists, art historians, and museum professionals.

CAA is now taking preorders of Graduate Programs in Art History: The CAA Directory. This easy-to-use directory includes over 260 schools and English-language academic programs in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and elsewhere worldwide. An index lists schools alphabetically and by state and country for quick reference.

Member Rate: $39.95 + shipping and handling
Nonmember Rate: $49.95 + shipping and handling

Please visit our online store to reserve your copy of the directory today. If you are ordering on behalf of an institution or department within a university, please use this form and submit via fax or post. At this time, online purchases can only be processed for individuals.

The directory is your indispensable, comprehensive guide to schools offering master’s, doctoral, and related degrees in art studies, including:

• History of Art and Architecture
• Visual Studies
• Museum Studies
• Curatorial Studies
• Arts Administration
• Library Science

Listings provide:

• Descriptions of specialized courses
• Number, names, and specializations of faculty
• Facilities such as libraries, image libraries, and labs
• Student opportunities for research and work
• Information on financial aid, fellowships, and assistantships
• Details on housing, health insurance, and other practical matters

Graduate Programs in the Visual Arts: The CAA Directory, which includes studio art, graphic design, applied arts and design, film production, art education, and conservation, will be available in early 2009.

Participating as a mentor in CAA’s two Career Services mentoring programs—the Artists’ Portfolio Review and Career Development Mentoring—is an excellent way to serve the field while assisting the professional growth of the next generation of artists and scholars.

Artists’ Portfolio Review
CAA seeks curators and critics to participate in the Artists’ Portfolio Review during the 2009 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. This program provides an opportunity for artists to have slides, VHS videos, digital images, or DVDs of their work critiqued by professionals; member artists are paired with a critic, curator, or educator for twenty-minute appointments. Whenever possible, artists are matched with mentors based on medium or discipline. Volunteer mentors provide an important service to artists, enabling them to receive professional criticism of their work. Art historians and studio artists must be tenured; critics, museum educators, and curators must have five years’ experience. Curators and educators must have current employment with a museum or university gallery.

Interested candidates must be current CAA members, register for the conference, and be willing to provide at least five successive twenty-minute critiques in a two-hour period on one of the two days of the review: Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day.

Send your CV and a brief letter of interest to: Lauren Stark, Artists’ Portfolio Review, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; or email them to lstark@collegeart.org. Deadline: December 12, 2008.

Career Development Mentoring
CAA seeks mentors from all areas of art history, studio art, art education, film and video, graphic design, the museum professions, and other related fields to serve in CAA’s Career Development Mentoring. Mentors give valuable advice to emerging and midcareer professionals, reviewing cover letters, CVs, slides, and other pertinent job-search materials in twenty-minute sessions.

Interested candidates must be current CAA members, register for the conference, and be prepared to give five successive twenty-minute critiques in a two-hour period on one of the two days of the session: Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day. Art historians and studio artists must be tenured; critics, museum educators, and curators must have five years’ experience. Curators and educators must have current employment with a museum or university gallery.

This mentoring session is not intended as a screening process by institutions seeking new hires. Applications are not accepted from individuals whose departments are conducting a faculty search in the field in which they are mentoring. Mentors should not attend as candidates for positions in the same field in which workshop candidates may be applying.

Please send your CV and a brief letter of interest to: Lauren Stark, Career Development Mentoring, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; or email them to lstark@collegeart.org. Deadline: December 12, 2008.

With the Alaska State Council on the Arts, CAA will present career-development workshops for visual artists on Saturday, November 8, 2008, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The workshops will be held at the BP Energy Center, 900 E. Benson Boulevard, in Anchorage.

In a panel discussion “How the Heck to Sell Work Outside” (9:30–10:45 AM), artists and arts professionals from the Anchorage and national art community will discuss the challenges of making work outside an established art market. Strategies for finding new markets and venues will be discussed.

In “Career Alternatives: Beyond the Gallery” (11:00 AM–NOON), Susan Schear will cover the spectrum of artist opportunities available today; what a graduate school degree means in today’s art market; and how to navigate the exhibition world, including galleries, art fairs, museums, and other venues.

In “Beyond Slides: Technology for Artists” (1:00–2:00 PM), presenter Mariano Gonzales will demonstrate basic techniques for documenting artwork and creating digital portfolios. The session will introduce the computer-based technologies used in developing and distributing artists’ portfolios. Participants will learn to prepare digital images for presentation onscreen and in print using affordable hardware and software solutions. CD portfolios, web galleries, PowerPoint slides, and PDF files will also be discussed.

In “Collaboration as an Artistic Practice” (2:15–3:45 PM), Two Girls Working: Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki ask the question, “Why collaborate?” As a model for this workshop, they will use their national, interview-based project Trappings, which is a collaboration not only between two artists but also with project participants and commissioning organizations. The artists will discuss the advantages, concerns, and challenges of collaboration that they have encountered in Trappings.

For preregistration, please call the Alaska State Council on the Arts toll free at 888-278-7424.

CAA’s National Career Development Workshops for artists are supported by a generous grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation. Topics are chosen in discussion with each venue and its constituents and range in format and subject in order to provide relevant and useful career-development counsel. For more information about the workshops, please write to Melissa Potter.

In locations around the country, CAA offers workshops for visual artists on a range of topics, from health and safety in the studio to grant writing to professional relationship building. Each workshop is developed in collaboration with regional institutions to serve the specific interests of their local constituencies. Please check back periodically as more workshops are announced for 2008. Below are two upcoming workshops.

Cleveland, Ohio
On October 22, 2008, 10:30 AM–3:00 PM, CAA will offer career-development workshops at the Cleveland Institute of Art. The program will take place at the Russell B. Aitken Auditorium and include “The Tools of Self-Promotion: How to Initiate and Build New Relationships,” with Jackie Battenfield; a lunch and networking event; and “Pricing Your Work,” with Susan Schear of ArtIsIn.

Anchorage, Alaska
On November 8, 2008, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM, CAA will offer a day of professional-development workshops hosted by the Alaska State Council on the Arts at the BP Energy Center in Anchorage. The program will include a panel discussion called “How the Heck to Sell the Work Outside” and workshops entitled “Career Alternatives: How to Support Yourself as a Working Artist,” “Beyond Slides: How to Be an Artist in the Twenty-First Century,” and “Working in an Artist Collaborative,” presented by Two Girls Working. There will be an afternoon reception.

More Information
CAA’s National Career Development Workshops are supported by a generous grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation. Questions regarding the workshops for artists should be directed to Melissa Potter, CAA career development associate.

Participating as a mentor in CAA’s two Career Services mentoring programs—the Artists’ Portfolio Review and Career Development Mentoring—is an excellent way to serve the field while assisting the professional growth of the next generation of artists and scholars.

Artists’ Portfolio Review
CAA seeks curators and critics to participate in the Artists’ Portfolio Review during the 2009 Annual Conference in Los Angeles. This program provides an opportunity for artists to have slides, VHS videos, digital images, or DVDs of their work critiqued by professionals; member artists are paired with a critic, curator, or educator for twenty-minute appointments. Whenever possible, artists are matched with mentors based on medium or discipline. Volunteer mentors provide an important service to artists, enabling them to receive professional criticism of their work. Art historians and studio artists must be tenured; critics, museum educators, and curators must have five years’ experience. Curators and educators must have current employment with a museum or university gallery.

Interested candidates must be current CAA members, register for the conference, and be willing to provide at least five successive twenty-minute critiques in a two-hour period on one of the two days of the review: Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day.

Send your CV and a brief letter of interest to: Lauren Stark, Artists’ Portfolio Review, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; or email them to lstark@collegeart.org. Deadline: December 12, 2008.

Career Development Mentoring
CAA seeks mentors from all areas of art history, studio art, art education, film and video, graphic design, the museum professions, and other related fields to serve in CAA’s Career Development Mentoring. Mentors give valuable advice to emerging and midcareer professionals, reviewing cover letters, CVs, slides, and other pertinent job-search materials in twenty-minute sessions.

Interested candidates must be current CAA members, register for the conference, and be prepared to give five successive twenty-minute critiques in a two-hour period on one of the two days of the session: Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27, 8:00 AM–NOON and 1:00–5:00 PM each day. Art historians and studio artists must be tenured; critics, museum educators, and curators must have five years’ experience. Curators and educators must have current employment with a museum or university gallery.

This mentoring session is not intended as a screening process by institutions seeking new hires. Applications are not accepted from individuals whose departments are conducting a faculty search in the field in which they are mentoring. Mentors should not attend as candidates for positions in the same field in which workshop candidates may be applying.

Please send your CV and a brief letter of interest to: Lauren Stark, Career Development Mentoring, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; or email them to lstark@collegeart.org. Deadline: December 12, 2008.