CAA News Today
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — March 04, 2015
Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.
Day of Protest
It started as a simple question on social media: What would happen if adjuncts across the country walked out on the same day, at the same time? That question got answered last week on the first-ever National Adjunct Walkout Day. There were some big walkouts at a few institutions but, for a variety of reasons, adjuncts at many more colleges and universities staged alternative protests, such as teach-ins, rallies, and talks. The movement led to unprecedented levels of conversation about the working conditions of the majority of college faculty. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
The Solace of Art
Art invites multiple possible readings. At its best, it embraces contradiction, dissent, ambiguity, and idiosyncrasy. It could be said that all art—all nonpropagandist art—is a form of resistance to the idea that the shape, the meaning, the myriad ways of living in and moving through the world should—or even could—ever be one thing. The greatest paintings, performances, sculptures, installations, and films refuse to represent anyone as a type: this is, perhaps, art’s finest attribute. (Read more from Frieze.)
How It’s Being Done: Arts Business Training across the US
As a follow up to its report How It’s Being Done: Arts Business Training in the US, the Pave Program in Arts Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University has compiled a list of arts business training resources available either online or in person at no cost to the participant. The program hopes that you—as well as the artists and arts organizations you work with—find this resource list helpful. (Read more from the Pave Program in Arts Entrepreneurship.)
The Role of Creative Failure
As an artist you’re very demanding on yourself. You see all types of things that you think you could have done better, or that you want to challenge yourself to do. Setting high standards, high expectations—it’s a very self-critical life. You’re often your own hardest critic. But through executing well and through executing poorly, you get better. You see things more clearly. (Read more from NEA Arts.)
Activists Launch “Debt Strike” against College Chain
The debt-forgiveness movement born out of Occupy Wall Street has entered a new stage in its activism around student loans. Recently a wing of the campaign known as Debt Collective announced a “debt strike” by fifteen former students of the for-profit college chain Corinthian Colleges Inc. The former students said they will not repay any more of their student loans in protest of what they describe as predatory lending practices. (Read more from Al Jazeera.)
Let’s Give Service a Real Role
“Sarah, you are doing so well—excellent progress this year. However, the committee recommends that you do considerably less service next year.” That’s the message I heard in every annual evaluation during my PhD program. Even when I received accolades for my research and teaching, I was reminded that service is a third-class citizen in graduate-student training and that I would be better off focusing my energies elsewhere. (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Why Photo Books Are Booming in a Digital Age
Since it set up in 2010, Self Publish, Be Happy, the online platform for self-published artists’ books, has been at the heart of booming interest in photographic books—in buying them, selling them, making them, exchanging them, sharing news of them on social media, attending book-signings that promote them—on a scale that has defied all predictions of the death of the physical book in a digital future. (Read more from the Financial Times.)
The Job Talk Q&A
Every part of a campus visit is important. Your meetings with faculty members count for a great deal. Your formal sit-down interview with the search committee provides critical information for its deliberations. Meals play a central role in establishing the tenor of your relationships with potential colleagues. But in my experience, the most important part of the campus visit is the Q&A after the job talk. (Read more from Vitae.)
Announcing CAA’s Webinar Series on Fair Use in the Visual Arts
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — March 04, 2015
Want to know more about fair use in the visual arts? Have questions about how you can use fair use in your work? Join the lead principal investigators of CAA’s new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, Patricia Aufderheide, university professor in the School of Communication at American University and Peter Jaszi, professor of law in the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University’s Washington College of Law, for a series of webinars offering in-depth tutorials on the Code. CAA will issue Certificates of Participation to those who complete the entire series of webinars. The series will include the following topics:
March 27, 2015, 1:00–2:00 PM (EDT): An Introduction to CAA’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts
April 10, 2015, 1:00–2:00 PM (EDT): Fair Use in Scholarship
May 15, 2015, 1:00–2:00 PM (EDT): Fair Use in Teaching and Art Practice
May 29, 2015, 1:00–2:00 PM (EDT): Fair Use in Museums and Archives
June 5, 2015, 1:00–2:00 PM (EDT): Fair Use in the Visual Arts: A Review
You may register for the first webinar (March 27) here. Registration for the remaining four webinars is available as a series here. Regardless of the number of these sessions you wish to attend, please register for the entire series and participate in whichever sessions you would like.
Registration is free and open to the public thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The webinars will be available at a later date as archived videos for CAA members.
Questions? Email CAA at nyoffice@collegeart.org.
2015 Annual Conference Highlights
posted by CAA — March 03, 2015
CAA hosted its 103rd Annual Conference from February 11 to 14, 2015, at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City. This year’s program included four days of presentations and panel discussions on art history and visual culture, Career Services for professionals at all stages of their careers, a Book and Trade Fair, and a host of special events throughout the region. Preceding the Annual Conference was CAA’s third THATCamp, an “unconference” on digital art and art history.
Attendance
Over 5,000 people from throughout the United States and abroad—including artists, art historians, students, educators, curators, critics, collectors, and museum staff—attended the conference. Visual-arts professionals from over 54 countries were represented.
Sessions
Conference sessions featured presentations by artists, scholars, graduate students, and curators who addressed a range of topics in art history and the visual arts. In total, the conference offered over 200 sessions, developed by CAA members, affiliated societies, and committees. Approximately 800 individuals presented their work.
Career Services
Career Services included four days of mentoring and portfolio-review sessions, professional-development workshops, and job interviews with colleges, universities, and other art institutions. Approximately 200 interviewees and 50 mentors participated in Career Services. During the week of the Annual Conference, there were over 150 active jobs posted on the Online Career Center and more than 50 employers participating onsite.
Book and Trade Fair
This year’s Book and Trade Fair presented 155 exhibitors—including participants from the United States, France, Turkey, China, Canada, Italy, Russia, and Ukraine—that displayed new publications, materials for artists, digital resources, and other innovative products of interest to artists, scholars, and arts enthusiasts. The Book and Trade Fair also featured book signings, lectures, and demonstrations, as well as three exhibitor-sponsored program sessions on art materials and publishing.
ARTspace
ARTspace, a “conference within the conference” tailored to the needs and interests of practicing artists, presented programming that was free and open to the public, including this year’s Annual Distinguished Artist Interviews with William Pope.L, who spoke to Jenny Schlenzka of MoMA PS1, and Ursula von Rydingsvard, who conversed with Mark Stevens. Over 200 people attended this lively event.
ARTspace also featured four days of panel discussions devoted to visual-arts practice, opportunities for professional development, and screenings of film and video.
ARTexchange, an open-portfolio event in which CAA artist members displayed drawings, prints, photographs, small paintings, and works on laptop computers, took place on Friday, February 13. Nearly 40 artists participated in ARTexchange this year.
The Media Lounge, a space for innovative new-media programming in conjunction with ARTspace, focused on the theme of “alternative economies.” These programs are considered models of social, cultural, and technological economies that transform changing conditions for critical discourse and art making. “Alternative economies” aimed to create a platform that brought together artists, art collectives, new-media practitioners, video artists, film curators, academics, creative thinkers, economists, writers, and activists, with the aspiration to create a space to reflect on intersections of art, culture, and new-media technologies.
Programmed by CAA’s Services to Artists Committee, ARTspace was made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Student and Emerging Professionals Lounge
The Student and Emerging Professionals Lounge served as a hub for networking, information-sharing, collaboration, professional development, and much more. The Student and Emerging Professionals Committee hosted an incredibly informative session on “Teaching Professional Practices in the Arts” to a packed audience; five Brown Bag Sessions with attendance ranging from 25 to 80; a successful social night; and two days of Mock Interviews at full capacity.
Distinguished Scholar Session
Robert Farris Thompson, professor of the history of art at Yale University, was CAA’s 2015 Distinguished Scholar. Grey Gundaker of the College of William and Mary chaired the session, and five additional participants—Charles Daniel Dawson, Wyatt MacGaffey, Rowland Abiodun, Leslie King-Hammond, and Lowery Stokes Sims—joined her in exploring and celebrating Thompson’s many contributions.
Convocation and Awards
More than 500 people attended CAA’s Convocation and presentation of the annual Awards for Distinction, which honor the outstanding achievements and accomplishments of individual artists, art historians, authors, conservators, curators, and critics whose efforts transcend their individual disciplines and contribute to the profession as a whole and to the world at large. Tom Finkelpearl, commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, opened Convocation with a short talk, and Dave Hickey delivered the keynote address.
The recipients of the 2015 awards were:
Charles Rufus Morey Book Award
Megan Holmes
The Miraculous Image in Renaissance Florence
Yale University Press, 2013
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award
Susan Weber, ed.
William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain
Bard Graduate Center and Yale University Press, 2013
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for Smaller Museums, Libraries, Collections, and Exhibitions
Lynn Boland, et al.
Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 2013
Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize
Douglas Brine
“Jan van Eyck, Canon Joris van der Paele, and the Art of Commemoration”
The Art Bulletin, September 2014
Art Journal Award
Anna Chave
Art Journal, Winter 2014
Distinguished Feminist Award
Amelia Jones
University of Southern California
Distinguished Teaching of Art Award
Richard Brown
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award
Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu
Seton Hall University
Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work
Charles Gaines
Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974–1989
Studio Museum in Harlem
Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement
Keith Sonnier
CAA/Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation
Melanie Gifford
National Gallery of Art
Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art
Lucy R. Lippard
Morey and Barr Award Finalists
CAA recognizes the 2015 finalists for the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award and the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for their distinctive achievements:
Charles Rufus Morey Book Award
Matthew C. Hunter, Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013)
Karl Whittington, Body-Worlds: Opicinus de Canistris and the Medieval Cartographic Imagination (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2014)
Catherine Zuromskis, Snapshot Photography: The Lives of Images (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013)
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award
Kimberly A. Jones, et al., Degas/Cassatt (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art and DelMonico Books, 2014)
Special Events
Following Convocation, the Museum of Modern Art hosted CAA’s Opening Reception on Wednesday evening, February 11. Over 500 attendees gathered to celebrate the conference while enjoying a stroll through the museum’s permanent collections.
CAA Travel Grant in Memory of Archibald Cason Edwards, Senior, and Sarah Stanley Gordon Edwards
Established by Mary D. Edwards with the help of others, the CAA Travel Grant in Memory of Archibald Cason Edwards, Senior, and Sarah Stanley Gordon Edwards will support women who are emerging scholars at either an advanced stage of pursuing a doctoral degree (ABD) or who have received their PhD within the two years prior to the submission of the application. Julia Louise Langbein of Oxford University delivered her paper “Caricature and Comic Spectacle at the Paris Salon (1857–1880)” in the “Comic Modern” session. and Kristine Tanton of the University of California, Los Angeles, participated in a panel on “Biblical Archetypes in the Middle Ages,” presenting a talk called “Looking onto Galilee: The Narthex Tribune at Vézelay.”
CAA-Getty International Travel Grant Program
In an effort to promote greater interaction and exchange between American and international art historians, CAA brought 15 scholars from around the world to participate in the Annual Conference. This is the fourth year of the program, which has been generously funded by grants from the Getty Foundation since its inception.
The CAA-Getty International Program participants’ activities began with a one-day preconference colloquium on international issues in art history, during which they met with North American–based CAA members to discuss common interests and challenges. The participants were assisted throughout the conference by CAA member hosts, who recommended relevant panel sessions and introduced them to colleagues who share their interests. Members of CAA’s International Committee served as hosts, along with representatives from several CAA affiliated societies, including the American Council for Southern Asian Art, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, the Association for Latin American Art, the Society of Contemporary Art Historians, and the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasia, and Russian Art and Architecture.
This program has increased international participation in CAA’s activities and expanded international networking and the exchange of ideas both during and after the conference.
The recipients were: Mokammal H. Bhuiyan, Dafne Cruz Porchini, Boureima Tiékoroni Diamitani, Ljerka Dulibić, Georgina Gluzman, Angelo Kakande, Nazar Kozak, Savita Kumari, Nomusa Makhubu, Ana Mannarino, Márton Orosz, Andrey Shabanov, Shao Yiyang, Lize van Robbroeck, and Nóra Veszprémi.
Other Exciting Highlights
CAA published the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. This Code of Best Practices provides visual-arts professionals with a set of principles addressing the fair use of copyrighted materials. It describes how fair use can be invoked and implemented when using copyrighted materials in scholarship, teaching, museums, and archives and in the creation of art. The Code’s authors, Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi of American University, presented the document to conference attendees as part of a panel discussion organized by CAA’s Committee on Intellectual Property.
Board of Directors Update
Results of the Board of Directors election were announced on February 13, 2015, during the Annual Members’ Business Meeting. The new directors are:
- Jawshing Arthur Liou, professor of digital art and the director of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University, Bloomington
- Chika Okeke-Agulu, associate professor of art history in the Department of Art and Archaeology and Center for African American Studies, Princeton University
- Rachel Weiss, professor of arts administration and policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Andrés Mario Zervigón, associate professor of the history of photography and acting chair of the Art History Department at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
They will take office at the next board meeting in May 2015.
Jim Hopfensperger of Western Michigan University was voted onto the board for a one-year term.
The CAA board also approved:
- New guidelines developed by the Professional Practices Committee on Fine Art Print Publications for Artists
- A Task Force on Advocacy, which will be chaired by Jacqueline Francis, associate professor at California College of the Arts, to address part-time faculty, diversity, and the interaction of artists and art historians in the public sphere
- A Task Force on the Annual Conference, to be led by Suzanne Blier, Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Art at Harvard University, to develop recommendations for changes that will adapt to the changing needs of the field
- The three-year reviews of the Services to Artists Committee, the International Committee, and the Committee on Women in the Arts
New board officers were elected:
- John Richardson, Vice President for External Affairs
- Charles Wright, Vice President for Committees
- Suzanne Blier, Vice President for Annual Conference
- Gail Feigenbaum, Vice President for Publications
- Doralynn Pines, Secretary
Affiliated Societies
CAA would like to welcome two new affiliated societies:
Thank You
Members of CAA’s Board of Directors and staff would like to extend their gratitude to all conference funders and sponsors, attendees, volunteers, and participants; the organization’s committees and award juries; the New York Hilton Midtown staff; the museums and galleries that opened their doors to conference attendees free of charge; and everyone else involved in helping to make the 103rd Annual Conference such a tremendous success!
A warm thanks to the following for their generous support of CAA:
- Alberta College of Art and Design
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
- Art in America
- Artstor
- Blick Art Materials
- Bloomsbury
- Getty Foundation
- Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Arts
- Knoll
- Laurence King Publishing
- McVicker and Higginbotham
- Museum of Modern Art
- National Committee for the History of Art
- National Endowment for the Arts
- Pearson
- Prestel
- Richmond University
- Samuel H. Kress Foundation
- Terra Foundation for American Art
- Wyeth Foundation for American Art
- Yale University Press
Save the Date
CAA’s 104th Annual Conference will be held in Washington, DC, February 3–6, 2016.
About CAA
The College Art Association is dedicated to providing professional services and resources for artists, art historians, and students in the visual arts. CAA serves as an advocate and a resource for individuals and institutions nationally and internationally by offering forums to discuss the latest developments in the visual arts and art history through its Annual Conference, publications, exhibitions, websites, and other events. CAA focuses on a wide range of issues, including education in the arts, freedom of expression, intellectual-property rights, cultural heritage and preservation, workforce topics in universities and museums, and access to networked information technologies. Representing its members’ professional needs since 1911, CAA is committed to the highest professional and ethical standards of scholarship, creativity, criticism, and teaching.
CAA Seeks Nominations for 2016–20 Board Service
posted by Vanessa Jalet — March 02, 2015
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 2016–20 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: April 1, 2015.
Thanks to 2015 Career Services Mentors and Workshop Leaders
posted by Emmanuel Lemakis — March 02, 2015
CAA wishes to thank the artists, scholars, curators, critics, educators, and other professionals in the visual arts who generously served as Career Services mentors—for the Artists’ Portfolio Review, Career Development Mentoring, the Mock Interviews, and the Professional Development Roundtables—during the 2015 Annual Conference in New York. CAA also appreciates the work of leaders of the Professional-Development Workshops and speakers at Orientation.
Orientation
Susan Altman, Middlesex County College; Michael Aurbach, Vanderbilt University; and Jo-Ann Morgan, Western Illinois University.
Artists’ Portfolio Review
Virginia Fabbri Butera, College of Saint Elizabeth; Michael Bzdak, Johnson & Johnson; Susan Canning, College of New Rochelle; Brian Curtis, University of Miami; Peter Kaniaris, Anderson University; Jason Lahr, University of Notre Dame; Matthew LaRose, Park University; Preston B. Lawing, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota; Suzanne Lemakis; Sharon Lippman, Art Without Walls; Craig Lloyd, College of Mount St. Joseph; Judith Pratt, Judith Pratt Studio; Habibur Rahman, Claflin University; Steve Teczar, Maryville University of St. Louis; and David Voros, University of South Carolina.
Career Development Mentoring
Susan Altman, Middlesex County College; Frances Altvater, University of Hartford; Michael Aurbach, Vanderbilt University; Brian Bishop, Framingham State University; Colin Blakeley, Eastern Michigan University; Karen Carter, Kendall College of Art and Design, Ferris State University; Leda Cempellin, South Dakota State University; Jaia Chen, Shelton State Community College; Kevin Concannon, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Anne D’Alleva, University of Connecticut; Rebecca DeRoo, Rochester Institute of Technology; James Farmer, Virginia Commonwealth University; Joan Giroux, Columbia College Chicago; Reni Gower, Virginia Commonwealth University; Jim Hopfensperger, Western Michigan University; Dennis Ichiyama, Purdue University; Carol Krinsky, New York University; Elisabeth Leach; Heather McPherson, University of Alabama, Birmingham; Jo-Ann Morgan, Western Illinois University; Jeff Nathanson, Arts Council of Princeton; Niki Nolin, Columbia College Chicago; Mark O’Grady, Pratt Institute; Christopher Olszewski, Savannah College of Art and Design; Morgan Paine, Florida Gulf Coast University; Doralynn Pines, Metropolitan Museum of Art, retired; Judith Pratt, Judith Pratt Studio; David Raizman, Drexel University; Jack Risley, University of Texas at Austin; Dinah Ryan, the Principia; Paul Ryan, Mary Baldwin College; Gerald Silk, Tyler School of Art, Temple University; Andrew Jay Svedlow, University of Northern Colorado; Joe A. Thomas, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University; Larry Thompson, Samford University; Ann Tsubota, Raritan Valley Community College; Philip Van Keuren, Southern Methodist University; and Barbara Yontz, St. Thomas Aquinas College.
Professional Development Roundtables
Michael Aurbach, Vanderbilt University; Brian Curtis, University of Miami; Dennis Ichiyama, Purdue University; Peter Kaniaris, Anderson University; and Leo Morrissey, Georgian Court University.
Mock Interview Sessions
Dina Bandel, Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar; Colin Blakely, Eastern Michigan University; Maria Ann Conelli, Brooklyn College, City University of New York; Jacqueline Coutré, Queens University; Stephanie Dickey, Queens University; Adam Fung, Texas Christian University; Carol Garmon, University of Mary Washington; Joann Giroux, Columbia College Chicago; Bertha Gutman, Delware County Community College; Kim Hartswick, Brooklyn College, City University of New York; Rebecca Harvey, Ohio State University; Richard Heipp, University of Florida; Heidi Hogden, University of South Dakota; David Howarth, Zayed University; Eldred Hudson, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Dennis Ichiyama, Purdue University; Matt King, Virginia Commonwealth University; Andrea Kirsch, Rutgers University; David LaPolambara, Ohio University; Brittany Lockard, Wichita State University; Carolyn Martin; Tamryn McDermott; Jo-Ann Morgan, Western Illinois University; Thomas Post, Kendall College of Art and Design; Lauren Puzier, Sotheby’s Institute of Art; David Yager, University of California, Santa Cruz; and Megan Koza Young, Prospect New Orleans.
Brown Bag Lunches/Sessions
Leda Campellin, South Dakota State University; Maria Ann Conelli, Brooklyn College, City University of New York; Jacqueline Coutré, Queens University; Lauren Grace Kilroy-Ewbank, Brooklyn College, City University of New York; Brittany Lockard, Wichita State University; Carolyn Martin; Tamryn McDermott; Lauren Puzier, Sotheby’s Institute of Art; Georgia Strange, University of Georgia; and Megan Koza Young, Prospect New Orleans.
Professional Development Workshops
Susan Altman, Middlesex County College; Michael Aurbach, Vanderbilt University; Barbara Bernstein, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and University of Virginia; Steven Bleicher, Coastal Carolina University; Mika Cho, California State University, Los Angeles; Curtis Fletcher, University of Southern California; Amanda French, George Mason University; Gigi Rosenberg; and Blaise Tobia, Drexel University.