CAA News Today
caa.reviews Seeks Editor-in-Chief and Editorial-Board Members
posted by Betty Leigh Hutcheson — March 31, 2010
An online journal, caa.reviews is devoted to the peer review of new books, museum exhibitions, and projects relevant to the fields of art history, visual studies, and the arts.
caa.reviews Seeks Editor-in-Chief
The caa.reviews Editorial Board invites nominations and self-nominations for the position of editor-in-chief for a three-year, nonrenewable term, July 1, 2011–June 30, 2014. This term is preceded by one year of service on the editorial board as editor designate, July 1, 2010–June 30, 2011, and followed immediately by one year of service as past editor.
Working with the editorial board, the editor-in-chief is responsible for the content and character of the journal. He or she supervises the journal’s Council of Field Editors, assisting them to identify and solicit reviewers, articles, and other content for the journal; develops projects; makes final decisions regarding content; and may support fundraising efforts on the journal’s behalf.
The editor-in-chief attends the three annual meetings of the caa.reviews Editorial Board—held in the spring and fall and in February at the Annual Conference—and submits an annual report to CAA’s Publications Committee. He or she pays travel and lodging expenses to attend the conference. The editor-in-chief also works closely with CAA’s New York staff and receives an annual honorarium of $2,000.
Candidates must be current CAA members. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name. A statement of interest in the position, a CV, and at least one letter of recommendation must accompany each nomination. Please mail to: Codirector of Publications, caa.reviews Editor-in-Chief Search, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Deadline: April 15, 2010. Finalist candidates will be interviewed in May 2010.
caa.reviews Seeks Editorial-Board Members
CAA invites nominations and self-nominations for two individuals to serve on the caa.reviews Editorial Board for a four-year term, July 1, 2010–June 30, 2014.
Candidates may be artists, art historians, art critics, art educators, curators, or other art professionals with stature in the field and experience in writing or editing book and/or exhibition reviews; institutional affiliation is not required. The journal seeks candidates with a strong record of scholarship and at least one published book or the equivalent who are committed to the imaginative development of caa.reviews.
The editorial board advises the editor-in-chief and Council of Field Editors and helps them to identify books and exhibitions for review and to solicit reviewers, articles, and other content for the journal; guides its editorial program and may propose new initiatives for it; and may support fundraising efforts on the journal’s behalf. Members also assist the editor-in-chief to keep abreast of trends and issues in the field by attending and reporting on sessions at the CAA Annual Conference and other academic conferences, symposia, and events.
The editorial board meets three times a year, including once at the CAA Annual Conference. Members pay travel and lodging expenses to attend the conference.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on the editorial board of a competitive journal or on another CAA editorial board or committee. 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: Chair, caa.reviews Editorial Board, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Deadline: April 15, 2010.
Ask Your Senators to Increase Support for the Office of Museum Services
posted by Christopher Howard — March 26, 2010
In response to Museums Advocacy Day, held on March 22–23, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter to encourage her fellow senators to ask the Senate Appropriations Committee for $50 million in funding for the Office of Museum Services, a branch of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The amount requested for fiscal year 2011 is a $14.8 million increase over the current fiscal year. Gillibrand’s letter is similar to a separate effort in the House of Representatives, supported by Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Leonard Lance (R-NJ).
The American Association of Museums (AAM) has prepared a form letter that you may use to send an urgent message to your senators. Use the online fields to enter your contact information, which will then select your senator’s name and address. You can then download (as an .rtf) and print the letter to mail or fax, or choose the email option to send your letter right away. You can edit and personalize your missive before sending.
Ask Your Senators to Increase Support for the Office of Museum Services
posted by Christopher Howard — March 26, 2010
In response to Museums Advocacy Day, held on March 22–23, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter to encourage her fellow senators to ask the Senate Appropriations Committee for $50 million in funding for the Office of Museum Services, a branch of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The amount requested for fiscal year 2011 is a $14.8 million increase over the current fiscal year. Gillibrand’s letter is similar to a separate effort in the House of Representatives, supported by Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Leonard Lance (R-NJ).
The American Association of Museums (AAM) has prepared a form letter that you may use to send an urgent message to your senators. Use the online fields to enter your contact information, which will then select your senator’s name and address. You can then download (as an .rtf) and print the letter to mail or fax, or choose the email option to send your letter right away. You can edit and personalize your missive before sending.
NEA Announces Research on Informal Arts Participation in Rural and Urban Areas
posted by Christopher Howard — March 26, 2010
Any serious reckoning of how Americans participate in arts and cultural activities must account for demographic and geographic diversity. Prior National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) publications, including the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, already have examined the age, race and ethnicity, gender, and education and income status of arts-goers.
Another way to understand arts participation is by asking where it takes place. Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities is the NEA’s first research publication in several years to examine the “informal arts”—such as playing a musical instrument, attending an art event at a place of worship, or visiting a craft fair. This finding is part of new research from the NEA, announced earlier this during a visit by NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman to Chelsea, Michigan, as part of the NEA’s Art Works Tour. The publication provides an analysis of arts participation in rural and urban areas.
Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities is available in print and pdf on the NEA website.
Getty Closing the Bibliography of the History of Art at the End of March
posted by Christopher Howard — March 25, 2010
CAA learned last week, through the Art History Newsletter, that the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles is withdrawing the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) from distribution on March 31, 2010. With the closing, hundreds of thousands of records and abstracts in the database will soon be unavailable to scholars worldwide—indefinitely.
Subscribers to BHA, which include many academic libraries and research institutions, received notice about the shutdown from the Getty earlier this month. While there are some alternatives—among them Art Index, Avery Index, and ARTbibliographies Modern—the loss of this invaluable resource is immense and will be deeply felt throughout the international art-history community. Indeed, BHA’s “coverage has not been duplicated in any single database available to us,” writes Jill E. Luedke, a librarian and art-subject specialist at Temple University.
Since June CAA has made numerous communiqués by phone and email to the Getty regarding the demise of BHA, receiving only one inconclusive response. From what CAA can gather from other sources, the closure appears to be strictly a budgetary decision. The Getty attempted to find an organization that would purchase the database and software program that they had developed, but found none. CAA was not privy to the negotiations to find a buyer.
As the world’s most comprehensive bibliographic database of publications in art history, BHA covers the visual arts in Europe and America from late antiquity to the present. Copublished with the Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique in France, BHA originated in part as the International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA), created in 1972 under the auspices of CAA and supported by grants from public endowments and private foundations. The Getty’s bibliography includes RILA records from 1972 to 1989 and those from the Repertory of Art and Archaeology (RAA) from 1973 to 1989, and had been growing ever since.
Michael Rinehart, formerly editor in chief of RILA and BHA for nearly thirty years, wrote in 2009: “It is highly unlikely that any commercial vendor will want to maintain it. It is equally clear that the Getty intends to end BHA with or without a plan for its continuation…. Whatever the original understanding between the CAA and the Getty may have been, it is self-evident that the CAA entrusted RILA to the Getty in the expectation that it would continue.”
Art historians and researchers were first alerted to the possible closure in June 2009, and CAA published a response at that time. The Getty released a statement in the same month, but negotiations with other organizations, as noted above, failed to produce a solution to keep BHA alive.
Nominations Sought for the CAA Board of Directors
posted by Vanessa Jalet — March 25, 2010
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.
Join a CAA Award Jury
posted by Lauren Stark — March 24, 2010
CAA invites nominations and self-nominations for individuals to serve on juries for the annual Awards for Distinction for three years (2010–12). Terms begin in May 2010; award years are 2011–13. CAA’s twelve awards honor artists, art historians, authors, curators, critics, and teachers whose accomplishments transcend their individual disciplines and contribute to the profession as a whole and to the world at large.
Candidates must possess expertise appropriate to the jury’s work and be current CAA members. They should not be serving on another CAA committee or editorial board. CAA’s president and vice president for committees appoint jury members for service.
Nominations and self-nominations should include a brief statement (no more than 150 words) outlining the individual’s qualifications and experience and an abbreviated CV (no more than two pages). Please send all materials to: Vice President for Committees, c/o Lauren Stark, Manager of Programs, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Materials may also be sent to lstark@collegeart.org; all email submissions must be sent as Microsoft Word attachments. Deadline: April 16, 2010.
The following jury vacancies will be filled this spring:
- Charles Rufus Morey Book Award: 2 members
- Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award: 3 members
- Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize: 2 members
- Art Journal Award: 2 members
- Frank Jewett Mather Award: 1 member
- Distinguished Teaching of Art Award: 1 member
- Distinguished Feminist Award: 2 members
- Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art: 2 members
- CAA/Heritage Preservation Award: 2 members
No jury members are needed for the Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award, the Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work, and the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement.
March Issue of CAA News Published
posted by Christopher Howard — March 19, 2010
The March CAA News—which presents a wrap-up of the wildly successful 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago—has just been published. You may download a PDF of it immediately.
This issue offers conference summaries from multiple perspectives by key players, including CAA’s conference director Emmanuel Lemakis, Services to Artists Committee members Brian Bishop and Sabina Ott, and more. Dawoud Bey’s keynote address at Convocation is reprinted in full, and a report from the Board of Directors meeting is also included. And don’t miss the wide selection of full-color photographs from the many conference events.
If you missed the web article on the Coalition on the Academic Workforce’s statement on part-time faculty, or the calls for editorial-board members of CAA’s journals, you can catch up with the March newsletter.
The CAA News editor is still accepting submissions for the Endnotes section for the May issue. Please send your listings for recent solo exhibitions, books published, and exhibitions curated, as well as news about your new position or your grant or fellowship, to Christopher Howard.
Interested in advertising in CAA News? Please contact Bradford Nordeen at 212-691-1051, ext. 252.
Voice Your Opinions on Copyright-Infringement Issues and Federal Law
posted by Christopher Howard — March 18, 2010
The Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), a federal agency in the Executive Office of the President, seeks opinions on how the federal government should enforce copyrights and handle infringements. In a two-part survey, IPEC not only solicits written submissions about economic costs associated with intellectual-property violations, but also requests specific recommendations on how such violations can be dealt with. All comments should be sent by email.
Public Knowledge, a digital-issues interest group based in Washington, DC, writes, “The request for comments seems geared to take in complaints from big media companies and other major holders of copyrights, patents, and trademarks,” but also that it is “open to everyday consumers, citizens, and members of the public.”
An area that art historians may wish to address, for example, is the way that copyright controls on images have made it difficult for electronic texts to include copyrighted art images. For artists, an area of concern is the high cost of registering copyright in a visual image, and lack of good bulk registration tools at the US Copyright Office for visual-image rights holders.
Read more about the issue on the Public Knowledge website, which also includes a sample letter that you can tailor to your needs. Deadline: 5:00 PM on March 24, 2010.
Voice Your Opinions on Copyright-Infringement Issues and Federal Law
posted by Christopher Howard — March 18, 2010
The Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), a federal agency in the Executive Office of the President, seeks opinions on how the federal government should enforce copyrights and handle infringements. In a two-part survey, IPEC not only solicits written submissions about economic costs associated with intellectual-property violations, but also requests specific recommendations on how such violations can be dealt with. All comments should be sent by email.
Public Knowledge, a digital-issues interest group based in Washington, DC, writes, “The request for comments seems geared to take in complaints from big media companies and other major holders of copyrights, patents, and trademarks,” but also that it is “open to everyday consumers, citizens, and members of the public.”
An area that art historians may wish to address, for example, is the way that copyright controls on images have made it difficult for electronic texts to include copyrighted art images. For artists, an area of concern is the high cost of registering copyright in a visual image, and lack of good bulk registration tools at the US Copyright Office for visual-image rights holders.
Read more about the issue on the Public Knowledge website, which also includes a sample letter that you can tailor to your needs. Deadline: 5:00 PM on March 24, 2010.