CAA News Today
Your Support Is Vital to the Arts
posted by CAA — December 02, 2016
Imagine our world without culture.
In today’s economy-driven society, it is easy to imagine a world where our past and present cultural history is ignored—or even worse, destroyed. We see educational systems focused more on science and technology and less on the arts and humanities, with art department budgets slashed and employment opportunities shrinking while student debt is rising to an all-time high and our collective historic cultural past is destroyed in the Middle East and other parts of the world.
That’s why the College Art Association is important. For more than a century, CAA has been the preeminent international leadership organization in the field of visual arts. We strive to create an environment where visual artists, art historians, designers, museum professionals, critics, and scholars successfully and freely create and prosper in their professional fields. We do this because we know if these professionals prosper, our culture will not only be preserved, it will thrive.
We ask that you join us in celebrating CAA’s rich history and prosperous future by making a tax-deductible gift to the organization. Your support goes directly to the programs we offer.
Register now for the 2017 Annual Conference, February 15-18 in New York. The Early Registration deadline is December 19.
Together, we can ensure that our culture is preserved.
Sincerely,
Hunter O’Hanian
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer
2017–2018 Nominating Committee Seeks Members
posted by CAA — November 30, 2016
CAA invites you to help shape the future of the organization by serving on the 2017-2018 Nominating Committee. Each year, this committee nominates and interviews potential candidates for the CAA Board of Directors and selects the final slate for the membership’s vote. The candidates for the 2017 Board of Directors’ election were announced on November 29, 2016.
The Board of Directors and the Nominating Committee strive to find the best candidates that represent the broad subdisciplines and practitioners represented in the membership. The 2016-2017 Nominating Committee will select the members of the 2017-2018 committee at its business meeting during CAA’s Annual Conference in New York City in February 2017. Once selected as new members of the Nominating Committee, all members propose, in the spring, five to ten nominations of people to run for the board. Service on the committee involves conducting telephone interviews with candidates during the summer of 2017, and meeting in the fall to select the final slate of Board candidates. Finally, all Nominating Committee members attend their next business meeting, at the 2018 Annual Conference in Los Angeles to select the succeeding committee members.
Nominations and self-nominations should include a brief statement of interest and a 3–4 page condensed CV. Please email a statement and your CV as Word attachments, with the subject line “2017-2018 Nominating Committee,” to the attention of Jim Hopfensperger, CAA vice president for committees, care of Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive liaison. Deadline extended: Friday, January 6, 2017.
Candidates for CAA’s 2017 Board of Directors Election
posted by CAA — November 29, 2016
The 2016-17 Nominating Committee has announced a slate of five candidates for the annual election of four new CAA members to serve on the Board of Directors for a four-year term (2017–2021). Voting will begin in early January 2017. The web pages for the election, which will include the candidates’ statements and biographies, will be published in late December 2016.
The five candidates are:
- Colin Blakely, Director, School of Art, University of Arizona
- Peter M. Lukehart, Associate Dean, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts
- Melissa Hilliard Potter, Associate Professor, Columbia College Chicago
- Julia Sienkewicz, Assistant Professor, Duquesne University
- Greg Watts, Dean & Professor, College of Visual Arts & Design, University of North Texas
If you have questions about the Nominating Committee, the candidates, or the voting process, please contact Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive liaison.
CAA 2017 Annual Conference Keynote, Distinguished Scholar, and Artist Interviews
posted by CAA — November 28, 2016
CAA is excited to present talks by the following special guests at the 105th Annual Conference, taking place February 15–18, 2017, in New York.
Keynote Speaker
This year Mary Miller, a scholar of art of the ancient New World, Sterling Professor of History of Art, and senior director of the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University, will deliver the keynote address during Convocation.
This special event, to be held on the first evening of the Annual Conference, includes a welcome from Suzanne Preston Blier, CAA president, and Hunter O’Hanian, CAA executive director, as well as the presentation of annual Awards for Distinction.
Convocation is free and open to the public.
Distinguished Artist Interviews
Organized by CAA’s Services to Artists Committee, the Distinguished Artist Interviews feature esteemed artists who discuss their work with a respected colleague. The interviews are held as part of ARTspace, a program partially funded by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
First, the artist and activist Coco Fusco will be in conversation with the art historian Steven Nelson of the University of California, Los Angeles. Next, the painter Katherine Bradford will speak with a fellow artist, Judith Bernstein.
The Distinguished Artist Interviews are free and open to the public.
Distinguished Scholar
Kaja Silverman, a historian of art and film, critical theorist, and Katherine and Keith L. Sachs Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, will be recognized as CAA’s Distinguished Scholar for 2017 in this special session.
In addition to remarks from Silverman, the panel will feature talks from Richard Meyer, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History at Stanford University, and Homay King, Professor of History of Art at Bryn Mawr College.
Please join the speakers for a reception immediately following the session in the Third Floor East Promenade. A cash bar will be available.
Conference registration is required to attend the Distinguished Scholar Session.
Film Screening: Eva Hesse
posted by CAA — November 28, 2016
Zeitgeist Films offers a free screening of the acclaimed documentary Eva Hesse (2016) to attendees of CAA’s 2017 Annual Conference. Directed by Marcie Begleiter and produced by Karen Shapiro, the film is the first feature-length appreciation of this important artist’s life and work.
Eva Hesse makes superb use of the artist’s voluminous journals, her correspondence with her close friend and mentor Sol LeWitt, and archival and contemporary interviews with fellow artists—among them Richard Serra, Robert Mangold, and Dan Graham—who recall her passionate, ambitious, and tenacious personality.
The screening will talk place on Wednesday, February 15, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM in the Time Warner Screening Room, Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Center, Museum of Modern Art, 4 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. The museum is half a block from the New York Hilton Midtown, the headquarters hotel.
The audience is limited to fifty people. Please send your RSVP (required) to emily@zeitgeistfilms.com.
Member Partner Designers and Books’ Kickstarter Campaign
posted by CAA — November 22, 2016
Depero Futurista, Dinamo-Azari, Milan, Italy, 1927, artist’s book bound with bolts, 32 x 24.2 cm. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE Rome. Photo by Adam ReichOne of our Member Partners, Designers and Books, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to bring a classic design book back to life.
In 1927 Italian futurist artist Fortunato Depero developed what is still considered the first avant-garde artist book: Depero Futurista, commonly known as the Bolted Book. In an edition of fewer than 1,000 copies, this book is celebrated for its daring experiments in typography, innovative ideas about graphic design, and reinvention of the concept of the printed book (and yes– its binding is two steel bolts!).
You can explore this wonderful book, page by page, on the Bolted Book website.
Designers and Books is partnering with the Center for Italian Modern Art in New York and the MART Museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto to produce the first exact facsimile of Depero Futurista. The facsimile will include an accompanying readers’ guide, featuring essays from a variety of experts, original unpublished materials from the Depero archives at MART, and translations of selected pages of the book.
Your Kickstarter pledge toward this important piece of art and design history will be rewarded with an exact copy of The Bolted Book, the readers’ guide, and full acknowledgement of your support.
The least expensive Kickstarter reward tier currently available for a copy of the book is $141 (including US shipping). Acknowledging the special relationship of this book to the CAA community Designers and Books is making it available for a special price: $109 (plus shipping of $14 for a total of $123)——for a savings of $18.
Since this price is not available to the general public, here is how CAA members can secure a copy of the book for this special price:
1) Go to bit.ly/BoltedBook-Kick
2) Next to the video, click “Back This Project”
3) Click “Make a pledge without a reward”
4) Enter $123 and click “continue”
5) Log in or sign up, then complete the pledge as directed
6) Please email info@designersandbooks.com indicating your name, shipping destination, and the code “CAA.”
You will then receive a confirmation that you are registered for this special offer.
CAA Restatement of Values, November 2016
posted by CAA — November 22, 2016
For more than one hundred years, the College Art Association (CAA) has been dedicated to the creative process through making and thinking about art and how it affects our past, present, and future. We do this through scholarship, publications, convenings, research, and professional development for artists, designers, and art historians. As a member-driven association, we are committed to intellectual rigor, peer review, inclusion, and diversity. We uphold these values by engaging everyone, nationally and internationally; all races, ages, abilities, religions, citizenships, ethnicities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations. We defend academic freedom as forcefully as we reject discrimination, bigotry, sexual assault, and violence against the vulnerable.
As scholars, artists, and educators, we expect the same exactitude from leaders in education, cultural institutions, and, in particular, government. We will continue to advocate in no uncertain terms for an inclusive climate that fosters intellectual honesty, transparency, and human engagement.
Suzanne Preston Blier
Executive Director
Hunter O’Hanian
Complimentary Conference Registration + $250 Scholarship
posted by CAA — November 21, 2016
with support from
Registration is in full swing for the 2017 Annual Conference in New York, February 15-18.
We are always listening to what our members want and seeking out the benefits to fit your needs. That is why we have partnered up our sponsors, multinational publisher, Routledge, Taylor & Francis, and art materials specialist, Blick Art Materials, to create a student scholarship fund to assist CAA Student Members with conference costs.
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Student Scholarship
CAA’s Annual Conference Partner Sponsor, Routledge, Taylor & Francis will award four (4) CAA Student Members with complimentary registration and an additional $250 in scholarship money to help with conference expenses such as travel, housing, or meals. Receipts will be required for reimbursement.
Blick Art Materials Student Scholarship
CAA’s Annual Conference Presenter Sponsor, Blick Art Materials will also fund conference registration fees for four (4) CAA Student Members. No travel expenses are available.
Criteria for the Scholarship
Awardee will be chosen by lottery on the following criteria:
- Individuals must be registered for the Annual Conference by the Early Registration deadline
- Individuals must be current CAA student members (proof of student status will be required by the 8 winners chosen)
- Individuals cannot receive conference registration or travel reimbursement from their institution or employer
What does this mean for you? It means register today for the 2017 Annual Conference before the Early Registration deadline for a chance to be one of the lucky 8 CAA Student Members to receive one of these scholarships. Recipients will be randomly selected by CAA and announced in mid January.
We look forward to seeing you in New York!
Staff Interview: Doreen Davis
posted by CAA — November 21, 2016
In our first staff interview, we spoke with Paul Skiff, assistant director for Annual Conference. Continuing in the staff interview series, we spoke with Doreen Davis, who currently holds the record for longest-serving CAA staff member.
How long have you worked at CAA?
Twenty-six years.
What do you do at CAA?
I am the manager of member services.
What does CAA mean to you?
CAA has many meanings, but the greatest meaning to me is that it represents the opportunity for me to grow, for me to share what I have learned, for me to plant the seed of possibilities and leave behind a bigger, better organization than the one I first started working for. CAA will always be the organization that challenged me to be better and to have the flexibility to make our members feel that we are not just an organization. We are their partner for as long as they are members, whether active or lapsed.
Can you talk about one of your favorite member moments?
One member was very dissatisfied on several occasions and continued to be very mean on the phone. Even after I resolved her membership issues, she did not say “thank you” but instead hung up. The conference was approaching, and I am usually stationed at the “Problem Information Booth.” I hoped and prayed that I would not see her at the conference, because she would definitely come to that booth. Well, I was not so lucky. She showed up and, after reading my badge, said, “Hi Ms. Davis, I am so and so. I want to apologize for my behavior—it was so unlike me. I was going through a rough period, but thank you for your patience and your help.” I responded, “You are very welcome, and enjoy the conference.” Whew!
What do you like best about the arts and working in the arts?
I love that art can transcend time, and if art is good it will last forever. I also love that we can have an unlimited number of interpretations of art. Everyone sees or hears roughly the same thing, but each of us has our own opinion of it. Our experiences in life help shape our opinions of art. No two people experience the exact same thing, so our interpretations are bound to vary. I love working for the arts because I see how my efforts positively affect people in need. Nonprofits are a great place to maximize your mental talents along with your compassion.
Do you have a favorite moment from the Annual Conference each year?
One of my favorite moments was encountering a job seeker who had an interview, but because she was not a current member she was not allowed in the Interview Hall to meet with the employer. I gave her an individual-membership brochure with an application and walked her into the hall. She took it and thanked me. I said to myself, maybe she will join. She came back later and informed me that the interview went well. I said, “Congrats!” I forgot all about her until a few months later, when she sent me an email telling me she had been hired. Because of that, she took out a membership!
New in caa.reviews
posted by CAA — November 18, 2016
Mary Manning visits Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition “presents ninety-two works that depict members of the artist’s vast social circle” and shows how Sargent’s “personal relationships and growing prestige afforded him substantial access to creative personalities who would influence his understanding of the arts.” Read the full review at caa.reviews.
Angelina Lucento reviews Hyperrealism: When Reality Becomes an Illusion, an exhibition at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The show illustrates how the photo-realist members of the Union of Artists of the USSR used painting “to examine the role of the technologies of reproduction and transmission on the perception of the postwar socialist body and the spaces of its existence.” Read the full review at caa.reviews.
Grace Lees-Maffei provides a summary of design history in the essay “Design History: The State of the Art.” The author sketches “the history of design history for those unfamiliar with it, including the international spread of the subject,” and focuses “on the current state of the field with reference to several key topics and work currently in progress.” Read the full review at caa.reviews.
caa.reviews publishes over 150 reviews each year. Founded in 1998, the site publishes timely scholarly and critical reviews of studies and projects in all areas and periods of art history, visual studies, and the fine arts, providing peer review for the disciplines served by the College Art Association. Publications and projects reviewed include books, articles, exhibitions, conferences, digital scholarship, and other works as appropriate. Read more reviews at caa.reviews.