CAA News Today

CAA’s Online Career Center, the major database for job classifieds in the academic art world, is also an indicator of professional trends in the visual arts. As anticipated in this economic downturn, job postings decreased for full-time positions from CAA’s fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007–June 30, 2008) to fiscal year 2009 (July 1, 2008–June 30, 2009).

In addition, indicators from the US Department of Education and the American Association of University Professors show an increase in contingent faculty (e.g., part-time or adjunct positions). CAA, however, is not able to keep statistics on contingent faculty since most hires are made locally and not posted nationally on the Online Career Center.

General Jobs Statistics

Overall, the Online Career Center posted 1,263 jobs in FY 2009, down from 1,757 in FY 2008. A total of 643 jobs have appeared in the first six months of the current fiscal year (July 1–December 31, 2009).

In the charts below, please keep in mind that each job can be posted to multiple categories, so there is not a one-to-one relationship between job and category. Also, the category “Any” is for employers that are looking for someone to teach a broad range of classes.

The ten most frequent postings by specialty for studio art and art history in fiscal year 2009 are used as the baseline in the following four charts:

Studio Art	FY09	FY08
Any	629	1,005
Graphic/Industrial/Object	185	246
Digital/Media/Animation	150	220
Drawing/Printmaking/Paper	96	130
Sculpture/Installation/Environmental Art	92	99
Ceramics/Metals/Fiber	89	92
Photography	85	143
Art Education	73	90
Film/Video	70	89
Foundations	59	90

The above statistics represent a 30.7 percent decline in the number of positions posted in studio art.

Art History	FY09	FY08
Any	445	561
Contemporary Art	101	107
Twentieth-Century Art	79	89
General Art History	77	110
Renaissance/Baroque Art	60	64
Japanese/Korean Art	56	39
Nineteenth-Century Art	52	61
Chinese Art	49	39
South/Southeast Asian Art	45	47
Art of the United States	35	49

The above statistics represent a 14.3 percent decline in the number of positions posted in art history.

A comparison of the top-ten specializations posted in last six months (July 1–December 31, 2009) to the same period in 2008 demonstrates an overall decline of 28.9 percent in studio-art job postings.

Studio Art	2009	2008
Any	320	524
Graphic/Industrial/Object	109	124
Digital/Media/Animation	80	112
Drawing/Printmaking/Paper	45	74
Sculpture/Installation/Environmental Art	72	32
Ceramics/Metals/Fiber	42	69
Photography	50	63
Art Education	33	56
Film/Video	39	55
Foundations	31	46

Similarly, job postings in art history has seen an overall decline of 36.9.

Art History	2009	2008
Any	234	329
Contemporary Art	34	77
Twentieth-Century Art	26	60
General Art History	38	56
Renaissance/Baroque Art	25	46
Japanese/Korean Art	28	47
Nineteenth-Century Art	21	42
Chinese Art	28	41
South/Southeast Asian Art	24	38
Art of the United States	22	24

 

Jobs by States and Provinces

All postings indexed by US state and Canadian province include the following top ten in the two previous fiscal years, and the first six months of the current year.

FY 2008 (July 1, 2007–June 30, 2008)

1. New York	196
2. California	139
3. Pennsylvania	107
4. Texas	100
5. Illinois	99
6. Michigan	87
7. Massachusetts	81
8. Georgia	70
9. Florida	62
10. Ohio	55

FY 2009 (July 1, 2008–June 30, 2009)

1. New York	119
2. California	92
3. Pennsylvania	78
4. Illinois	75
5. Georgia	72
6. Texas	64
7. Massachusetts	62
8. Ohio	58
9. Michigan	55
10. Indiana	33

First half of FY 2010 (July 1–December 31, 2009)

1. New York	66
2. Illinois	50
3. Pennsylvania	42
4. Texas	36
5. California	31
6. Florida	28
7. Georgia and Missouri	27
8. Massachusetts	26
9. Michigan	25
10. Ohio	23

 

2010 CAA Annual Conference in Chicago

As of February 2, 54 employers have indicated they are interviewing at the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago: 16 booths and 31 tables in the Interview Hall have been rented, and 7 employers have told CAA about plans to interview offsite. Additional employers, which do not always inform CAA of their presence, are expected.

These numbers are similar to those for last year’s conference, when 59 institutions came to Los Angeles. CAA rented 9 booths and 37 tables in the Interview Hall; 13 employers interviewed offsite.

In comparison, at the 2008 Annual Conference in Dallas–Fort Worth—held before the recession had emerged—CAA rented 40 booths and 64 tables in the Interview Hall. Thirty institutions made interview arrangements elsewhere, bringing the total for that year to 134.

That’s a 56 percent drop in the number of institutions between the 2008 and 2009 conferences, and nearly the same decrease (60 percent) when comparing 2008 to the early totals for 2010.

Interviews at the Annual Conference, however, are just one part of Career Services offered by CAA in Chicago. Schools and institutions also meet informally with job seekers in the tables section of the Interview Hall. CAA offers professional-development workshops and roundtable discussions on a variety of career-related topics at the conference, and networking is encouraged in the Student and Emerging Professionals Lounge, which is host to special events throughout the 2010 conference.

Contact

You may request statistical information in other specializations for studio art and art history from Eugenia Lewis, CAA controller.