Statement

I would be honored to serve on the board of an organization, such as the College Art Association, which aligns with my professional and personal interests. My love for the arts stemmed from an interest in expanding historical narratives around race through visual storytelling. This passion has led me around the world, particularly with my graduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies as a Fulbright Scholar in London. As an emerging arts professional I bring an international and interdisciplinary perspective to all of my work. If selected to serve on the board, I would not only be a voice for the rising generation of diverse arts professionals, but also an ear to differing perspectives and viewpoints. In my recent role as the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum, I worked closely with the department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to organize the recent virtual summit Advancing Change: The Future of Museum Leadership which gathered diverse museum professionals from around the country to ask pressing questions in the arts field. In my current role as Programs Manager at NXTHVN, I offer insight on how to merge direct community engagement with nationally recognized arts programming. Working with emerging curators and artists daily, I also have a unique perspective on the types of support rising arts professionals need. If given the opportunity, I hope to continue to strengthen CAA’s commitment to intellectual engagement and diverse perspectives. I greatly respect CAA’s continued excellence in its publications and conferences, and thank the selection committee for considering me for this opportunity.

Read Victoria McCraven’s CV

Statement

My name is Ashanté Kindle and I am a current MFA candidate at the University of Connecticut. I am writing to share my interest in an opportunity to serve on the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee. I recently had the opportunity to serve on the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Task Force for the School of Fine Arts at my university with a focus on students for my specific committee. Serving on the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee with CAA would allow me an opportunity to continue to serve other students and be surrounded by like-minded peers as well.

Read Ashanté Kindle’s CV

Statement

In the past 18 years of my professional journey, I have progressed from a design educator of a vocational training institution to a Dean of Woxsen School of Arts and Design, India. This journey created opportunities for me to understand several art forms in India and global, design communities and their challenges, design students from local communities, society’s perception about art education, and art as a profession are the areas I would like to bring to the Board.

I am a certified design thinker, and I would like to share my knowledge in the implication of the design process and how we can combine strategy and creativity to innovate and add value to society. The social role of art is one of the areas, interests me more.

My KRA as a Dean of Woxsen School of Arts and Design allows me to develop goals and strategic planning for the different committees of the university includes, lead and drive the research publications of the entire school. Contribute and regularly participate in IQAC activities to maintain the quality of the university’s external and internal stakeholders. This role involves understanding and implementation policies and monitors the progress. I am also responsible for leading many innovative initiatives to increase students’ employability by connecting academia and industry.

One of my significant roles is to initiate international collaborations with global universities. The Woxsen University has thirty partner universities across the globe. The main keywords of my role in internationalization are coordination, understanding the policy aspects of the universities in the context of diverse cultures and countries, and set goals. I have constantly been working on creating systems and processes in coordination with senior management. Inclusion of diversity in the school is another lead role required to understand the culture, people, policies, gender, race, politics in a local and global context.

Apart from my academic leadership and administration roles, I am also associated with the national and international Association. My role as an RJED India representative (Restorative Justice Education, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) corporation) is to promote the practice of Restorative

Justice in Indian schools and colleges. This role challenges me to understand the global perspective of RJED and the implementation challenges in the Indian context (https://www.restorativejustice.com/team.html). In addition, I am responsible for resolving the conflict between the shared meaning of local people and international concepts. So, I feel that qualifies me to set policy as well as determine and monitor programs at CAA.

I found the essential duty of the board members is to provide a strategic direction to the inclusion of diversity in art. The inclusion and diversity vision of the association is one of the essential aspects that inspired me to show my interest in joining CAA. Thus, promoting CAA’s vision and mission in India motivates more art educators, artists, and critics to join the community. Promoting awareness to increase the diversity in the art and design industry includes educational institutions, people, parents, and groups with different cultures and ethnicities. To increase diversity, I propose that the Association recruit its members from different places with varied skills, experience, gender, and socio-economical levels.

Read Adity Saxena’s CV

Statement

In preparation for a workshop proposal for CAA 2020, my collaborative partner Dr. Amy Hamlin and I learned that CAA possesses little useful demographic data relevant to 21^st century issues of concern to its membership. While conference programming is increasingly impressively intersectional, with much attention to bias, decolonization, accessibility, precarity and the crisis in humanities and higher education, it is difficult to know if the membership is being served. As a participant observer of the most recent Strategic Plan draft process, I was pleased to see that the Advocacy section included this line: “Collect and publish CAA membership data as an advocacy tool.” In the final plan, the line had been removed. My particular mission as Board Member would be to bring it back, and implement it.

As a long-time participant in CAA advocacy issues (I literally wrote the history, see CV), I have watched with pride when response to an issue of interest to membership has been swift and decisive. I have studied with dismay opportunities missed, and the subsequent fall-out. With affirmation that I possess the criteria enumerated in the Handbook, I would use my experience and deep knowledge of CAA’s history to buttress this organization’s ability to deliver the mission and vision articulated in its plan and statement.

Read Karen J. Leader’s CV

Statement

My name is Tiffany Lin, and I am honored to be nominated to join the CAA Board of Directors. I currently teach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Art. Prior to my career in higher education, I worked as a social worker and arts educator at various public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. These professional experiences have dramatically influenced my pedagogical approach, and I have entered the realm of higher education through a synthesis of these experiences. As a member of the UNLV Art Department’s Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Committee, I collaborate with colleagues to envision and implement policies for a more equitable landscape, one in which access to visual arts education is not stratified by any visible or invisible difference.

My teaching philosophy is grounded by the concept of “meeting the student halfway”, incorporating a compassionate, holistic lens that acknowledges the intersectional underpinnings of the individual. The majority of my student body identify as young people of color, most of whom are first-generation college attendees or immigrants, as my parents once were. If nominated to the Board, I would strive to address the cultural chasm that first-generation and non-traditional art students and faculty face in attempting to navigate academia and the professional visual arts world. Fostering a truly diverse CAA constituency would require explicit efforts to recruit and retain this demographic, traditionally underrepresented in higher education.

For the past two years, I have served as a member of UNLV’s MFA Application Review Board and the Graphic Design Curriculum Working Group. Although my artistic practice is multidisciplinary and largely analog, based in drawing and social practice, I primarily teach undergraduate graphic design courses. I have noted the increasing divide between fine arts and design, as institutions face external pressures to supplant fine arts programs with exclusively design based education. I stand firmly behind the transformative power of a broad humanities and arts-based education, and would advocate for maintaining an interdisciplinary focus that unifies both art and design curricula.

It would be an absolute honor to serve on the CAA Board of Directors and work toward creating a boldly inclusive visual arts community on an international scale.

Read Tiffany Lin’s CV