CAA News Today
Candidates for CAA’s 2017 Board of Directors Election
posted by CAA — November 29, 2016
The 2016-17 Nominating Committee has announced a slate of five candidates for the annual election of four new CAA members to serve on the Board of Directors for a four-year term (2017–2021). Voting will begin in early January 2017. The web pages for the election, which will include the candidates’ statements and biographies, will be published in late December 2016.
The five candidates are:
- Colin Blakely, Director, School of Art, University of Arizona
- Peter M. Lukehart, Associate Dean, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts
- Melissa Hilliard Potter, Associate Professor, Columbia College Chicago
- Julia Sienkewicz, Assistant Professor, Duquesne University
- Greg Watts, Dean & Professor, College of Visual Arts & Design, University of North Texas
If you have questions about the Nominating Committee, the candidates, or the voting process, please contact Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive liaison.
Call for Applicants to PIPS Committees for 2017–20 Terms
posted by CAA — June 21, 2016
The Professional Interests, Practices and Standards (PIPS) committees address critical concerns of CAA’s members set out in the goals of CAA’s Strategic Plan. CAA invites members to apply for service on one of these PIPS committees.
Committee on Diversity Practices
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/diversity
The Committee on Diversity Practices supports the development of global perspectives on art and visual culture. The committee promotes artistic, curatorial, scholarly and institutional practices that deepen appreciation of political and cultural heterogeneity, as educational and professional values. To that end, the committee assesses and evaluates the development and implementation of curricular innovation, new research methods, curatorial and pedagogical strategies, and hiring practices that contribute to the realization of these goals.
Committee on Intellectual Property
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/ip
The Committee on Intellectual Property monitors and interprets copyright legislation for the benefit of CAA’s various constituencies. In so doing, it seeks to offer educational programs and opportunities for discussion and debate in response to copyright legislation that affects educators, scholars, museum professionals, and artists.
Committee on Women in the Arts
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/women
The Committee on Women in the Arts (CWA) promotes the scholarly study and recognition of women’s contributions to the visual arts and to critical and art-historical studies; advocates for feminist scholarship and activism in art; develops partnerships with organizations with compatible missions; monitors the status of women in the visual-arts professions; provides historical and current resources on feminist issues; and supports emerging artists and scholars in their careers.
Education Committee
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/education
The Education Committee promotes the visual arts as essential human activity; as a creative Endeavor and subject of cultural and historical inquiry and critical appreciative activity, and encourages excellence in teaching at all levels. Its focus is on pedagogy at the higher education level in art history, visual culture, studio, aesthetics, and art criticism, and on the interface between arts teaching and learning research and practice.
International Committee
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/international
The International Committee seeks to foster an international community of artists, scholars and critics within CAA; to provide forums in which to exchange ideas and make connections; to encourage engagement with the international student community; to develop relationships between CAA and organizations outside the United States with comparable goals and activities; and to assist the CAA Board of Directors by identifying and recommending advocacy issues that involve CAA and cross national borders.
Museum Committee
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/museum
The Museum Committee provides a bridge between scholars and arts professionals in the academic and museum fields. It offers a forum for the discussion of issues of mutual interest and promotes museum advocacy issues within CAA. The committee lends support and mentorship for both seasoned and emerging professionals to protect and interpret the arts within museums.
Professional Practices Committee
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/professional
The Professional Practices Committee responds to specific concerns of the membership in relation to areas such as job placement and recruitment, tenure and promotion procedures, scholarly standards and ethics, studio health and safety, and artists’ practices. The Professional Practices Committee also oversees CAA’s Standards and Guidelines.
Services to Artists Committee
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/services
The Services to Artists Committee (SAC) was formed by the CAA Board of Directors to seek broader participation by artists and designers in the organization and the Annual Conference. SAC identifies and addresses concerns facing artists and designers; creates and implements programs and events at the conference and beyond; explores ways to encourage greater participation and leadership in CAA; and identifies ways to establish closer ties with other arts professionals and institutions. To this end, committee members are responsible for the programming of ARTspace and its related events.
Student and Emerging Professionals Committee
http://www.collegeart.org/committees/student
Established in February 1998, the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee is comprised of CAA members who are students, recent graduates, and experienced arts professionals with the intention of better representing students and emerging professionals within the larger CAA and academic framework.
In the past year the Committee on Diversity continues to address how CAA as an association can positively address diversity awareness, training and implementation and maintains a site for resources on diversity practices: http://www.collegeart.org/diversity/; the Committee on Intellectual Property has organized conference sessions on the new Fair Use Code and maintains a resource cite on intellectual property: http://www.collegeart.org/ip/; the Committee on Women in the Arts provides CWA Picks: http://www.collegeart.org/committees/picks and supports scholarship on women in the arts; the Education Committee organizes conference panels on issues in education, and in 2017 will examine Teaching Art and Art History to Non-Majors; the International Committee promotes interactions between scholars on a global basis and continues to support the CAA/Getty International Travel program that brings international scholars to the annual conference; the Museum Committee focuses on the history and theory of art museums and academia and has implemented its project—Resources for Academic Art Museum Professionals (RAAMP) supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Professional Practices Committee updates and develops important guidelines for the profession; Services to Artists Committee plans and organizes ArtSpace at the annual conference that presents prominent artists and designers, discussions on artist/designer concerns from safety in the workplace to professional development; the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee organizes panels related to emerging professionals and holds mentoring and mock job interviews at the conference. All committees are seeking new members with expertise in these areas.
New this year, each PIPS Committee may propose and present one session on a subject related to their committee charge. If a Committee wishes to propose a second session, that session must be vetted and approved by the Annual Conference Committee.
Committee members serve three-year terms (2017–20), with at least one new member rotating onto a committee each year. Candidates must be current CAA members and possess expertise appropriate to the committee’s work. Members of all committees volunteer their services without compensation. It is expected that once appointed to a committee, a member will involve himself or herself in an active and serious way.
The following vacancies are open for terms beginning in February 2017:
- Committee on Diversity Practices: 3–4 members
- Committee on Intellectual Property: 3–4 members
- Committee on Women in the Arts: 3–4 members
- Education Committee: 3–4 members
- International Committee: 6 members
- Museum Committee: 5 members
- Professional Practices Committee: 7 members
- Services to Artists Committee: 4–5 members
- Student and Emerging Professionals Committee: 3–4 members
CAA’s president, vice president for committees, and executive director review all candidates in the fall, and announce the appointments after November 1, prior to the Annual Conference. New members are introduced to their committees during their respective business meetings at the conference.
Nominations and self-nominations should include a brief statement (no more than 150 words) describing your qualifications and experience and an abbreviated CV (no more than 2–3 pages). Please send all materials to Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive liaison at vjalet@collegeart.org. Deadline: Friday, September 30, 2016. Kindly enter subject line in email: 2017 PIPS Applicant.
2016–2017 Nominating Committee Members
posted by CAA — May 31, 2016
CAA is pleased to announce the members of the 2016–2017 Nominating Committee, which is charged with identifying and interviewing potential candidates for the Board of Directors and selecting the final slate of candidates for the membership’s vote. The committee members, their institutional affiliations, and their positions are:
- Jim Hopfensperger, Vice President for Committees and Nominating Committee Chair, Professor, Frostic School of Art, Western Michigan University
- Jesús Escobar, Harold H. and Virginia Anderson Chair, Department of Art History, Northwestern University
- Helen C. Frederick, Professor, School of Art and Design, George Mason University
- Carmenita D. Higginbotham, Associate Professor, Program in American Studies, University of Virginia, Department of Art
- Thomas Lawson, Dean, School of Art, Jill and Peter Kraus Distinguished Chair in Art, California Institute of the Arts
- Sarah A. Lichtman, Assistant Professor, Director, Design-Curatorial Studies, Parsons School of Design
- Gunalan Nadarajan, Professor and Dean, Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan
- David C. Terry, Director of Programs, Curator, New York Foundation for the Arts
Hunter O’Hanian, CAA’s incoming executive director and CEO, will also serve on the Nominating Committee as an ex-officio member.
CAA publishes a call for nominations and self-nominations for Nominating Committee service on the website in late fall of every year and publicizes it in CAA News and via social media. Please direct all queries regarding the committee to Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive liaison.
Suzanne Preston Blier Is the New CAA President
posted by Christopher Howard — April 04, 2016
Suzanne Preston Blier, a historian of African art and architecture at Harvard University, has been elected president of CAA for a two-year term, beginning in May 2016. A member of the board since 2012, Blier has served as vice president for publications (2013–15) and vice president of Annual Conference (2015–16), and has served on task forces related to the development of CAA’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts and Guidelines for the Evaluation of Digital Scholarship in Art and Art History. She will succeed DeWitt Godfrey, professor of art and art history at Colgate University.
In her statement for candidacy, Blier wrote, “My priorities as president will focus on increasing membership in part through changes to the Annual Conference and enhancing CAA’s place in the community of discourse nationally and internationally through more effective social media engagement and the use of digital technologies. I hope also to broaden our engagement not only at the local and national levels but also internationally.”
Blier earned a BA from the University of Vermont in 1973 and completed a PhD in art history from Columbia University. Blier taught at Northwestern University for two years (1981–83) and returned to Columbia (1983–93) before landing at Harvard, where she is currently Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and Professor of African and African American Studies.
In 2008, Blier helped found an on-line GIS-enhanced database and mapping project supported by the Center for Geographic Analysis at her school that in 2011 was relaunched as Worldmap.
Blier’s involvement in CAA spans several decades. She originally served on the board from 1989 to 1994. She was a member of the Art Bulletin Editorial Board from 2003 to 2007, serving one year as chair, and participated on the juries for CAA’s Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art (2004–6) and Charles Rufus Morey Book Award (2009–11). Blier also helped to shape CAA’s Strategic Plan 2015–2020 and, in her role as vice president, chaired both the Annual Conference Committee and the 2016 task force that brought significant changes to the Annual Conference organization and structure.
“In my own academic work,” Blier continued in her statement, “I have come to understand firsthand the importance of engaging broad and diverse communities of participants; my work initiating an open source website focused on an array of mapping projects, has offered me opportunities to see the imprint that new technologies can have in the lives of both faculty and students.”
Blier’s most recent book is Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, c. 1300 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), which won the 2016 PROSE Award for Art History and Criticism. She also wrote several other books of note: African Royal Art: The Majesty of Form (London: Calmann and King, 1998); African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), which received CAA’s Morey Book Award in 1997; and The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), which won the inaugural Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association. The production of both African Vodun and The Anatomy of Architecture were supported by grants from CAA’s Millard Meiss Publication Fund. Blier’s books have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Korean. A publication edited with David Bindman, called The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art, is forthcoming from Harvard University Press.
Her scholarship has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including African Arts, Journal of African History, American Journal of Semiotics, Anthropology and Art, and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. A short essay “Art, Mimesis, and Tigritude” can be found in the June 2013 issue of The Art Bulletin as part of the series Notes from the Field: Mimesis. Other essays in CAA’s flagship journal are “Kings, Crowns, and Rights of Succession: Obalufon Arts at Ife and Other Yoruba Centers” (September 1985) and “Imaging Otherness in Ivory: African Portrayals of the Portuguese ca. 1492” (September 1993). Both articles were selected by members of the Art Bulletin Editorial Board for the Centennial Anthology of the Art Bulletin’s “greatest hits,” designating important articles and reviews since the journal’s 1913 founding to mark CAA¹s Centennial in 2011.
Annual Conference Committee Seeks Members
posted by CAA — March 11, 2016
CAA invites nominations and self-nominations for at-large members of the Annual Conference Committee to serve a three-year term, beginning on May 1, 2016. We welcome all members to participation in the nomination process. Working with the Programs Department staff, this committee selects the sessions and shapes the program of the Annual Conference. The committee ensures that the program will reflect the goals of the association and of the Annual Conference, namely, to make the conference an effective place for intellectual, aesthetic, and professional learning and exchange, and to provide opportunities for participation that are fair, equal, and balanced.
The Annual Conference Committee meets at least two times a year at the call of the vice president for Annual Conference and the committee’s chair. Members must be available throughout May and June to review and select 2017 conference content from the submitted proposals. Please send a 150-word letter of interest and a CV to Katie Apsey, CAA manager of programs. Deadline: April 15, 2016.
Annual Conference Committee Seeks Members
posted by CAA — March 08, 2016
CAA invites nominations and self-nominations for at-large members of the Annual Conference Committee to serve a three-year term, beginning May 1, 2016. Working with the Programs Department staff, this committee selects the sessions and shapes the program of the Annual Conference. The committee ensures that the program will reflect the goals of the association and of the Annual Conference, namely, to make the conference an effective place for intellectual, aesthetic, and professional learning and exchange, and to provide opportunities for participation that are fair, equal, and balanced.
The Annual Conference Committee meets at least two times a year at the call of the vice president for Annual Conference and the committee’s chair. Members must be available throughout May and June to review and select 2017 conference content from the submitted proposals. Please send a 150-word letter of interest and a CV to Katie Apsey, CAA manager of programs. Deadline: April 15, 2016.
CAA Seeks Publications Committee Member
posted by CAA — February 29, 2016
CAA invites nominations and self-nominations for one member-at-large to serve on the CAA Publications Committee for a three-year term, July 1, 2016–June 30, 2019.
The Publications Committee is a consultative body that meets three times a year. It advises the CAA Publications Department staff and the CAA Board of Directors on publications projects and meets with chairs of the editorial boards of The Art Bulletin, Art Journal, and caa.reviews three times each year. The committee chooses candidates to serve on CAA’s book-grant juries; sponsors a practicum session at the Annual Conference; and, with the CAA vice president for publications, serves as liaison to the Board, membership, editorial boards, book-grant juries, and other CAA committees.
Each year the committee meets twice in New York and once at the CAA Annual Conference. Members pay their travel and lodging expenses to attend the annual conference meeting. Meetings in the spring and fall currently are held by teleconference. Members of all committees volunteer their services to CAA without compensation.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should serve concurrently on other CAA committees or editorial boards. Applicants may not be individuals who have served as members of a CAA editorial board within the past five years. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name; self-nominations are also welcome. Appointments are made by the CAA president in consultation with the vice president for publications.
Please send a letter of interest, CV, and contact information to: Vice President for Publications, c/o Deidre Thompson, College Art Association, 50 Broadway, Fl 21, New York, NY 10004. Materials may also be via email to dthompson@collegeart.org. Deadline: April 21, 2016.
CAA Announces Formation of Committee on Design
posted by CAA — February 23, 2016
Dear College Art Association Members:
In 2015, CAA established a Task Force on Design charged with suggesting positions the organization might adopt toward design, design studies, designers, design educators, historians, and theorists. The CAA Board of Directors is delighted to announce the approval of a new Committee on Design, approved during the recently concluded 2016 CAA Annual Conference.
The Committee will replace the Task Force and be among CAA’s ten standing Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees. The Committee on Design will promote and advance issues in design practice, design history/theory/criticism, and design education through advocacy, engagement, and a commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners. The committee will further support discussion and action in these areas to stimulate intellectual curiosity and advance skills that enrich the individual and society.
CAA invites members to apply for service on this inaugural Committee on Design. To apply, kindly forward a statement of interest (250 words or less) and a 3–4 page condensed résumé noting in the subject line Committee on Design to vjalet@collegeart.org. Initial application review begins on March 30, 2016, with appointments to two-year terms anticipated by May 1, 2016.
Until May 1, the Task Force on Design will continue work on revising CAA’s Standards and Guidelines for Retention and Tenure of Art and Design Faculty and seeks input from CAA members. We invite you to review and comment upon the current draft. Please send any comments and/or questions to designfeedback@collegeart.org.
Responses at your earliest convenience, and especially prior to March 15, 2016, are greatly appreciated as the Task Force wishes to complete this project for a May 2016 approval by the CAA Board of Directors.
Thank you in advance for input toward advancing design interests within CAA.
Sincerely,
DeWitt Godfrey,
President
Jim Hopfensperger, Chair,
CAA Task Force on Design
Call for Board of Directors Nominations
posted by CAA — February 19, 2016
CAA seeks nominations and self-nominations from individuals interested in shaping the future of the organization by serving on the Board of Directors for the 2017–21 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 the humanities.
Candidates must be current CAA members. Nominations and self-nominations should include a short statement of interest, a condensed résumé of no more than 3–4 pages, and 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 send all information by mail or email to: Vanessa Jalet, Executive Liaison, College Art Association, 50 Broadway, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10004. Deadline: March 30, 2016. If sent by email, kindly enter “Nomination for Board of Directors” in the subject line.
CAA Appoints New Committee Members and Chairs
posted by CAA — February 18, 2016
CAA’s nine Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees welcome their newly appointed members, who will serve three-year terms (2016–19). In addition, two new chairs will take over committee leadership. New committee members and chairs began their terms at the 2016 Annual Conference in Washington, DC. CAA warmly thanks all outgoing committee members for their years of service to the organization.
A call for nominations for these committees appears annually from July to September in CAA News and on the CAA website. CAA’s president, vice president for committees, and executive director review all nominations in November and make appointments that take effect the following February. CAA’s vice president for committees is an ex officio member of all nine groups.
New Committee Members and Chairs
Committee on Diversity Practices: Christopher Bennett, University of Louisiana, Lafayette; Kim Blodgett, Westminster Schools; and Radha Dalal, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar.
Committee on Intellectual Property: Elizabeth Varner, National Art Museum of Sport, Indiana University.
Committee on Women in the Arts: Andy Campbell, Rice University; Jennifer Rissler, San Francisco Art Institute; and Laura E. Sapelly, Pennsylvania State University.
Education Committee: Dina Bangdel, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar; Judy Bullington, Belmont University; Rebecca Easby, Trinity Washington University; Johanna Ruth Epstein, Independent Art Historian and Critic; and Anne Norcross, Kendall College of Art and Design, Ferris State University. The new chair is Richard D. Lubben of South Texas College.
International Committee: Janet Bellotto, Zayed University; Les Joynes, University of the Arts London; and Elisa Mandell, California State University, Fullerton.
Museum Committee: Laura Flusche, Museum of Design Atlanta; Judy Hoos Fox, c2 (CuratorSquared); and Elizabeth Rodini, Johns Hopkins University.
Professional Practices Committee: Michael Bowdidge, Transart Institute, Glasgow; and Meghan Kirkwood, North Dakota State University .
Services to Artists Committee: Joan Giroux, Columbia College Chicago; Alice Mizrachi, Artist and Educator; and Gabriel Phipps, Indiana University, Bloomington. Niku Kashef of California State University, Northridge, is the new committee chair.
Student and Emerging Professionals Committee: Sooyon Lee, Cornell University; Annie Storr, Montserrat College of Art; and Amanda S. Wright, University of South Carolina.