CAA News Today
Professional Liability Insurance for Art Authenticators
posted by Michael Fahlund — March 08, 2012
Professional liability insurance is essential for art authenticators, appraisers, scholars, artists, curators, and other practitioners in the field of visual art and art history. In today’s increasingly litigious environment, professionals are often subject to lawsuits brought by unhappy clients or other parties who feel they have been harmed by the actions—or inactions—of individuals who worked for them. The financial consequences of such suits, including the costs to defend them, can be devastating. As a result, it is critical that professionals recognize their exposures to financial losses and adopt effective means to deal with them.
Herbert L. Jamison & Co. LLC, a provider of professional liability programs, and Philadelphia Insurance Companies are now offering a comprehensive, affordable professional liability insurance solution to art authenticators to help defend against a damaging financial loss that could occur from alleged mistakes or negligence in conducting professional, fee-based services. Though premiums vary depending on circumstances, the annual premium of one policy—which insures an individual engaged in authenticating works up to $500,000 in value—is $1,000 with a $2,500 deductible.
Several key benefits of this program are:
- Automatic independent-contractor coverage for professional services while acting on the insured’s behalf
- Defense costs in addition to the limit of liability for eligible risks
- Policy coverage for a lawful spouse or domestic partner of the insured, but only for actual or alleged wrongful acts of such individual insured for which said spouse or domestic partner may be liable as the spouse or domestic partner of such insured
- Tailored policy to meet the specific need(s) of clients
- Free sixty-day discovery clause
- Worldwide coverage
Sometimes insurance protection is not enough. The art professional must establish and maintain a loss-prevention program that will help minimize the chance of a professional liability claim being brought in the first place. Examples of effective loss-prevention techniques that can be adopted include:
- Establishing the fees and/or billing practices at the beginning of a client relationship
- Using engagement letters, contracts, and other means to precisely identify the scope of the services to be performed
- Keeping written documentation of all activity, including telephone calls, billing calculations, and the like
- Participating in peer reviews, when feasible
- Avoiding situations that present conflicts of interest
- Obtaining appropriate credentials and certifications and taking continuing-education courses to remain current regarding developments in the profession
- Screening new clients carefully and keeping existing clients informed at all times
- Avoiding giving specific warranties and similar performance guarantees
A well-designed combination of insurance and loss prevention will go a long way in managing the potential liabilities that art professionals must face as they deliver their services to their clients.
CAA recommends that interested individuals contact Kevin J. Hill, vice president at Herbert L. Jamison & Co. LLC, at 973-669-2388 or 800-5264766, ext. 2388.
Humanities Action Alert: Support the NEH and International Educational Programs
posted by CAA — March 08, 2012
Duane Webster, interim executive director of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA), sent the following Humanities Action Alert by email on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Founded in 1981, NHA is a nonprofit organization that works to advance national humanities policy in the areas of research, education, preservation, and public programs.
Dear Colleague Letters Circulating in the House
Dear Colleague,
Please help support the humanities by taking a few minutes to contact your Members of Congress and ask them to sign two important Dear Colleague letters currently circulating in the House of Representatives.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Representative David Price (D-NC) is circulating a Dear Colleague letter in support of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The letter, addressed to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, requests $154.3 million for NEH in FY 2013. This is the same level requested by the President. A copy of the letter is available here. Please ask your Representative to sign this letter. Click here to send an email today. The Alliance has set up a template message for you to customize. You can also contact your Representative by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. The deadline to sign the letter is March 16.
Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education and Foreign Language Programs
Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) is circulating a Dear Colleague letter in support of Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education and Foreign Language programs. The letter, addressed to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education, requests no less than $75.729 million for these programs. This is the same level requested by the President. A copy of the letter is available here. Please ask your Representative to sign this letter. Click here to send an email today. The Alliance has set up a template message for you to customize. You can also contact your Representative by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. The deadline to sign the letter is March 14.
Thank you for your assistance with these important issues. The signatures on these letters will provide an important record of support for federal humanities funding in the House of Representatives.
Sincerely,
Duane Webster
Interim Executive Director
National Humanities Alliance
Winter Art Journal Explores and Exploits Print
posted by Christopher Howard — March 02, 2012
The latest issue of Art Journal, mailed in February, is dedicated to manifestations of print, from the cultural roles of published artifacts in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries (by Michael Leja and the editors of the collective Triple Canopy respectively) to artist’s projects by Richard Tuttle and Matthew Brannon that exploit the physical conditions of the printed journal itself.
The final Art Journal Centennial essay by Sarah Suzuki surveys up-to-the-moment practices in printmaking, while a piece by Harper Montgomery focuses on a Mexico City street exhibition of prints in 1929 as an instance of the political dimensions of distributing art prints. Finally, an essay by Bruce Hainley, “Store as Cunt,” explores the subversive 1960s work of the artist Sturtevant.
The Triple Canopy essay, “The Binder and the Server,” which received the 2012 Art Journal Award at the CAA Annual Conference last month, and Seth McCormick’s review of Hiroko Ikegami’s book The Great Migrator: Robert Rauschenberg and the Global Rise of American Art are featured as free content on the journal’s website.
Take NAMTA’s Triennial Artists & Art Materials Survey
posted by Christopher Howard — February 28, 2012
The International Art Materials Association (NAMTA), an organization of more than 550 professional art-materials businesses, conducts a study of artists and art materials every three years and is asking all artists, art students, and art instructors to contribute by completing an online survey by Monday, April 2, 2012. The survey is open to American and Canadian artists, over the age of 18, working in any medium. CAA especially encourages art students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels to participate.
Prizes
For individuals: Two lucky survey participants are eligible to win $200 each in gift certificates to an art-supply store.
For schools: A gift box of art supplies will be awarded to the top five colleges that have the most students complete the survey. The gift box includes: Strathmore drawing pads, Golden and Liquitex acrylic paint sets, Winsor and Newton oil paint sets and brushes, a $100 gift certificate to Art Supply Warehouse, the Artist’s Magazine, and a book, Rethinking Acrylic.
Participants must register to receive the executive summary and to enter the drawing by clicking on the link on the thank-you page after submitting their completed survey. The drawing and executive summary sign-up is separate from the survey to keep the survey anonymous. All survey responses are anonymous and will only be reported as part of summary figures like totals or averages. Visit the website of Hart Business Research, which is administering the survey, to learn more about how to enter the drawing and competition.
NAMTA is donating $1 for each completed survey (for the first five hundred completed) to scholarships through the NAMTA Foundation for the Visual Arts.
About the Survey
The survey is the first phase of a larger study, titled Artists & Art Materials 2012, which will also include a questionnaire for retailers of art supplies. In the study’s second phase, Hart Business Research will analyze this survey data as well as data from the National Endowment for the Arts, various artist nonprofits, the United States Census, and individual artists’ websites to build a comprehensive picture of artists’ evolving activities. The report will be announced in summer 2012, accompanied by an executive summary that will be made available to all survey participants.
Thanks to Conference Attendees and Participants
posted by Christopher Howard — February 27, 2012
CAA warmly thanks the five thousand attendees, participants, exhibitors, and guests who made the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles a tremendous success.
In the next few issues of CAA News, you will read more about the conference—including summaries of ARTspace, the Distinguished Scholar session honoring Rosalind Krauss, the speakout sessions, and more—as well as reports from the meetings of the Board of Directors and the Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees, which all have full, exciting agendas for the coming year.
The 101st CAA Annual Conference will take place in New York, February 13–16, 2012. The 2013 Call for Participation, which solicits your papers and presentations for the event, will be published and mailed in March and also be available on the CAA website as a PDF for download.
Image: Graduate Public Practice from the Otis College of Art and Design presented “Re/Locating Learning: Public Practices as Art” at the Los Angeles conference (photograph by Christopher Howard)
Results of the 2012–16 Board of Directors Election
posted by Christopher Howard — February 24, 2012
The CAA Board of Directors welcomes four newly elected members, who will serve from 2012 to 2016:
- Suzanne Preston Blier, Harvard University
- Stephanie D’Alessandro, Art Institute of Chicago
- Gail Feigenbaum, Getty Research Institute
- Charles A. Wright, Western Illinois University
Barbara Nesin, CAA board president, announced the election results during the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, held on Friday, February 24, at the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles.
The Board of Directors is charged with CAA’s long-term financial stability and strategic direction; it is also the association’s governing body. The board sets policy regarding all aspects of CAA’s activities, including publishing, the Annual Conference, awards and fellowships, advocacy, and committee procedures.
For the annual board election, CAA members vote for no more than four candidates; they also cast votes for write-in candidates (who must be CAA members). The four candidates receiving the most votes are elected to the board.
Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members
posted by CAA — February 22, 2012
See when and where CAA members are exhibiting their art, and view images of their work.
Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
February 2012
Abroad
Angela Ellsworth. Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia, August 4–27, 2011. Training, Walking, and Drawing. Drawing and performance.
Mid-Atlantic
Patricia Cronin, Memorial to a Marriage, 2012, bronze (artwork © Patricia Cronin)Patricia Cronin. Conner Contemporary Art, Washington, DC, February 4–March 10, 2012. Patricia Cronin: Bodies and Soul. Sculpture.
Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern. Center for Visual Arts Gallery, Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, New Jersey, January 31–February 29, 2012. objex.desire. Painting, printmaking, and sculpture.
Midwest
Rachel Epp Buller, Agnes in Brief, 2011, mixed-media monoprint, 20 x 10 in. (artwork © Rachel Epp Buller)Rachel Epp Buller. Steckline Gallery, Newman University, Wichita, Kansas, January 27–February 17, 2012. Those Were the Days. Mixed-media monoprints and boxes.
Installation view of Patricia Villalobos Echeverría’s exhibition, Nodes [N 42° 57’47" W 85° 40’07"] (artwork © Patricia Villalobos Echeverría)Patricia Villalobos Echeverría. Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, Michigan, December 9, 2011–February 16, 2012. Nodes [N 42° 57’47" W 85° 40’07"]. Video and sculptural installation.
Linda Stein. Burnell R. Roberts Triangle Gallery, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio, February 2–March 7, 2012. The Fluidity of Gender: Sculptures by Linda Stein. Sculpture.
Linda Stein. Ford Gallery, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, March 19–April 18, 2012. The Fluidity of Gender: Sculptures by Linda Stein. Sculpture.
Northeast
Mark Williams, Untitled (White Horse), 2007, strands of lights and staples, 54 x 39 in. (artwork © Mark Williams)Mark Williams. Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut, January 19–April 1, 2012. The War Is Over. Painting, printmaking, watercolor, photography, drawing, sculpture, and light drawing.
South
Cora Cohen, 033-11, 2011, archival ink jet, Flashe, and watercolor on paper, 29½ x 21½ in. (artwork © Cora Cohen)Cora Cohen. D. M. Allison Art, Houston, Texas, January 14–February 18, 2012. Cora Cohen: Works on Paper. Watercolor and mixed media.
West
Angela Ellsworth. Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, November 3–December 31, 2011. They May Appear Alone, in Lines, and in Clusters. Sculpture.
Invitation card for Clarence Morgan’s exhibition, Material TracesClarence Morgan. Fairbanks Gallery, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, February 13–March 6, 2012. Material Traces. Painting, drawing, and mixed media.
Contribute to a Journal Issue on Digital Art History
posted by Christopher Howard — February 21, 2012
In 2013, Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation intends to publish a special issue dedicated to the topic of “Digital Art History.” For full details on the issue, please visit the Taylor and Francis webpage for the journal.
At present, the field of art history has amassed considerable knowledge concerning how to digitize texts and images and make them widely available in well-structured formats. However, the state of the field with respect to scholarship in the digital age is less clear. Visual Resources seek to answer the following questions and more:
- What kind of art-historical scholarship is now possible in the digital environment that could not be done before?
- What new types of questions can be posed now?
- How might digitized resources (texts and images) be used to produce innovative scholarship?
- How might the digital environment allow scholars to address existing or “traditional” questions with new evidence or conclusions?
While exploring what is now possible, it is also important to consider the challenges that the field of art history still faces with respect to scholarship in the digital age. Contributors might also ask what prevents the field of art history from widespread adoption of the new research tools and techniques associated with the digital humanities.
Visual Resources invites researchers and educators in art history and visual studies to submit proposals for this special issue. Abstracts should be 750 words in length and be accompanied by a one-page CV that includes up-to-date contact information for the proposed contributor(s). Abstracts and CVs should be sent to Murtha Baca and Anne Helmreich, coeditors for this special issue. Deadline: March 23, 2012 (5:00 PM PST).
Meet Baca, Helmreich, and representatives from Taylor and Francis at the upcoming CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon, February 24, 2012, 2:30 PM, at the Routledge booth in the Book and Trade Fair. Refreshments will be served at the booth.
Important Conference Information: Registration, Parking, and More
posted by CAA — February 20, 2012
CAA’s 100th Annual Conference takes place this week: Wednesday–Saturday, February 22–25, 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Checking In
Early, advance, complimentary, exhibitor, and press registrants can check in at the registration area in Concourse Foyer, Level 1, at the Los Angeles Convention Center beginning Tuesday, February 21, at 5:00 PM. Each registrant is entitled to a conference tote bag, the Conference Program, the Directory of Attendees, online access to Abstracts 2012, and entry to the Book and Trade Fair (open Thursday–Saturday). Your tickets to special events and workshops will be included in your registration packet. If you have not yet purchased tickets for the Centennial Reception and for professional-development workshops, you can do so at registration. These tickets are subject to limited availability.
Registration days and hours are:
- Tuesday, February 21, 5:00–7:00 PM
- Wednesday-Friday, February 22–24, 8:00 AM–7:00 PM
- Saturday, February 25, 8:30 AM–2:30 PM
Plan Ahead
Two large, non-CAA events—ceremonies for newly naturalized US citizens—will take place on Wednesday, February 22, at 9:00 AM and at 1:30 PM. Approximately ten thousand new citizens and their guests are expected to attend each ceremony. CAA strongly recommends that you check in at registration on Tuesday evening. If you arrive on Wednesday, please allow yourself ample time before your first session.
Parking
Parking at the convention center is available in either the West Hall or the South Hall parking lots. The West Hall parking is closest to the conference and located off LA Live Way, between 11th Street and Pico Boulevard, The entrance to South Hall parking is off Venice Boulevard, west of Figueroa Street. Convention-center parking costs $12 per day (subject to change). Overflow parking areas can be found nearby—please download and review this map. Parking rates vary from $10 to $25 per day, and most lots have a daily rate of less than $20 per day. All parking is first-come first-served. For more information, contact the Los Angeles Convention Parking Office at 213-741-1151, ext. 5850.
Hotel Discounts and Shuttle
The Millennium Biltmore has a few rooms left in the CAA block. Prices start at $120 per night for students. Call 800-245-8673 to make your reservation. CAA offers a free shuttle-bus service between the convention center and the Westin Bonaventure and the Millennium Biltmore. The JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE and the Figueroa Hotel are within easy walking distance of the convention center.
Abstracts
Your conference registration includes access to the Abstracts 2012, which is available online as a PDF. This publication is not available in print. Log into your CAA account using your CAA User/Member ID# and password and click the Abstracts 2012 icon on the welcome screen to download the 1.9 MB document. If you do not know your User/Member ID# or password, follow the help instructions on the log-in screen.
People in the News
posted by CAA — February 17, 2012
People in the News lists new hires, positions, and promotions in three sections: Academe, Museums and Galleries, and Organizations and Publications.
The section is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
February 2012
Academe
Joseph BasileJoseph Basile, a professor of art history and chairperson of the Department of Art History at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore since 1994, has been named associate dean for liberal arts at his school.
Angela Ellsworth, a sculptor and professor of art at Arizona State University in Phoenix, has been awarded tenure.
Dennis FarberDennis Farber, a faculty member in the Foundation Department at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore since the 1990s, has been named associate dean of foundation studies at his school.
Anne Marie OliverAnne Marie Oliver, assistant professor of intermedia and contemporary theory at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, has been named cochair of the master’s degree program in critical theory and creative research at her school.
P. Gregory WardenP. Gregory Warden, professor of art history and associate dean for research and academic affairs in the Meadows School of Art at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, has been appointed president of Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland. Warden will leave his current institution at the end of academic year 2011–12.
Museums and Galleries
David Bomford (photograph by Bradley Marks)David Bomford has left his position as acting museum director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. Bomford, who joined the museum in 2007 as associate director for collections, will return to London to pursue research, scholarship, and writing.
Joy Garnett (photograph by Bradley Marks)Joy Garnett, a New York–based painter and the editor of NEWSgrist, has become director of Theodore:Art, a gallery that has recently relocated from Manhattan to Brooklyn.
Suzanne Folds McCullagh has been named Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Chair and Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. A museum staff member since 1975, McCullagh succeeds Douglas Druick as the head of her department.
JoAnne NorthrupJoAnne Northrup, previously chief curator at the San Jose Museum of Art in California, has joined the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno as director of contemporary initiatives.
Martha Tedeschi has been named Prince Trust Curator in Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. A museum staffer since 1982, Tedeschi takes the curatorial reins from Douglas Druick.
Sheena Wagstaff, chief curator at Tate Modern in London since 2001, has been recruited as the new department head of twentieth- and twenty-first century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Kenneth Wayne, a consultant for arts organizations since 2010 after leaving a curatorial post at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, has joined the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York, as deputy director for curatorial affairs.
