CAA News Today

I write to express my sincere interest in joining the CAA’s Board. As CAA repositions itself to best represent and advocate for arts communities globally, I believe I can benefit the Association as it addresses today’s challenges. 

As an art historian and educator, I welcome the chance to share my experience and represent voices of other emerging scholars and professionals from diverse backgrounds. My journey in the arts began at Louisiana State University where I minored in art history. Upon graduation, I was awarded a teaching assistantship for its art history MA program. In 2023, I joined the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; I also teach at Texas Wesleyan University.  

Having an immigrant mother and being a first-generation college graduate, I’ve had ample opportunity to reflect on belonging and the ways that institutions can act as gatekeepers to the detriment of the organizations and the public. In my work, whether promoting exhibitions at the Modern or teaching undergraduates—many of whom lack previous experience studying art or visiting museums—I strive to make art accessible. The CAA’s commitment to supporting the diversity of art practices and practitioners, and its efforts to engage people of all backgrounds with the arts, truly resonate with me. I hope you will agree that my skills and experience, my love for the visual arts, and my devotion to inclusivity within them, will make me a valuable contributor to the Board. 

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I am grateful to be nominated for the Emerging Professional position on CAA’s Board of Directors. CAA has continued to be a source of professional and academic growth for me through sustained engagement and mentorship. As an artist and a scholar, I am constantly thinking of broadening the scope of my work and its impact. If selected, I commit to seeking avenues to continue merging spaces for art practice, scholarship, curation, and design, to have closer interactions that do not silo these disciplines but bring them in closer proximity, similar to the work I am doing in my doctoral studies. This would work to fulfill CAA’s vision of creating new opportunities for dialogue among members while also representing and advocating for the visual arts.  

I hold a BFA, MA and MFA and decided to pursue a PhD because, coming from Zambia, I wanted to tell my own story (and that of the African arts) from a local perspective. CAA continues to champion diverse voices, which is a stance I aim to uphold as a board member. If elected, I would like to be a liaison on the Services to Artists Committee. I have taught grad-level contemporary African art classes. Through teaching, I see the importance of presenting nuanced perspectives when engaging with unfamiliar cultures. Part of my teaching philosophy involves collaboration and community. As such, I aim to bring my attention to detail and nuance to my work as a board member seeking to engage with the diverse perspectives and peoples reflected in CAA membership. Working on CAA’s board would be a unique and valuable experience that I would be honored to undertake. 

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Emily Pugh, PhD, is Principal Research Specialist at the Getty Research Institute, where she specializes in projects related to digital art history and architectural history. She received her PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, where she focused on postwar architecture as well as digital humanities. Her expertise within digital art history centers on the digital media of art history and its related infrastructures, which encompasses the digitization of physical materials, 3D scanning, and computer vision (an approach to image analysis based on artificial intelligence). Emily has been active in CAA in a number of ways. She has regularly contributed to the annual conference, organizing panels and presenting talks on topics related to architecture and to digital art history as well as co-organizing a professional development workshop on digital publishing at the 2017 conference. She also participated in the CAA THATCamps that were organized in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Emily has been involved in CAA affiliated societies as well, having served as an officer for the Historian of Germans and Central European Art and working for many years as the web designer and developer for Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, the online publication of the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art. Emily’s work at the forefront of the technologies of art historical research and scholarship is part of what motivates her to join the CAA Executive Board. Such technologies are changing how art history is practiced, offering both challenges and opportunities to the discipline. Emily hopes her experience and insights on such topics would provide helpful context to the Board in making decisions or developing policy. Indeed, Emily is committed the profession and is eager to contribute to the continued relevance of art history and cultural heritage. 

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Thank you for considering my candidacy for the CAA Board of Directors. Over the years I have engaged in many aspects of the organization from conference participation as a presenter and co-chair of sessions, to committee membership. I currently serve as an Emerging Director and annual conference committee member. As a tenured community college educator and an individual whose academic background includes graduate degrees in art practice, art history, and the philosophy of aesthetics I embody the academic diversity of CAA membership. My service to the organization has been focused on ensuring that CAA continues to reflect the founding core commitment of advancing knowledge and solidarity with our arts communities, but also reflects contemporary global shifts within the interests and increased intersecting disciplines of the membership.

As a membership driven organization I actively maintain that each of us are part of the dynamic ways in which CAA moves forward into the future. I am keen to actively use placement on the Board to continue my work growing the academic, career, and ethnic diversity of membership, and leadership through strategic outreach and recruitment. During my tenure as Emerging Director I effectively worked as a liaison for the Education and Student and Emerging Professionals committees to represent the interest of members within the development of strategic planning and goals of CAA. I believe that my past professional experience in project management and recruitment, my current career in arts education, as well as my sustained commitment and passion for CAA makes me a strong candidate to continue to serve our diverse membership interests on the Board. 

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I am truly honored to be nominated to serve as a CAA Board Member. CAA has been my home in academia for more than twenty years and has been pivotal in my professional development. This is the best time to be member of CAA. Now witnessing unprecedented change in the arts, education, museums and scholarship, we are adapting with the times to best serve our members. 

I have served as a CAA conference presenter, professional development mentor and served CAA’s International Committee and currently serve CAA’s Museum Committee. I am committed to our mission to advance the highest standards of instruction, knowledge, and practice in the visual arts, to foster intellectual engagement, and to advance skills that enrich individuals and society. 

Serving our diverse membership, I bring to CAA three- decades of experience as an artist, university educator and scholar. I seek to support the Board’s Strategic plan to embrace our membership in the arts, art history, education, museums and scholarship. I also seek to support diversity, our members’ professional journeys and address and support equitable compensation and fair labor practices, as well as navigating changes brought through new technologies. 

As a Board member I bring experience as an artist, arts and education advocate, and experience serving global organizations – and will support our Board in identifying solutions for CAAs future. 

Exhibiting artist and arts scholar. I will use my creative skills to advocate for the needs of creative practitioners especially in enhancing their careers through professional development. I trained in art and theory in London and Tokyo and specialized in cross-cultural collaboration in the arts during my PhD in the UK. I served on the curatorial team that created the inaugural Taipei Biennial in 1998 and am now initiating the Inclusive Biennial, an art biennial focused on diversity and inclusivity. I also serve on the 2025-2026 Fulbright U.S. Student Program National Screening Committee selecting our future generations of artists. 

Serving college educators. Trained in advanced curriculum design in art colleges, I began teaching in universities in 1999 and have served as Professor of Record from Modern and Contemporary Art History at Renmin University, Visiting Professor of Art History and Cultural Industries, Peking University, Beijing and have lectured on art and entrepreneurship at universities in Asia and Europe. As Fulbright Visiting Associate Professor of Art at Visva Bharati University in India I was the first American Scholar to combine studio practice with contemporary art history with project-based learning. advised on the Future of Art Education at the Thought Leadership Institute. 

Fostering connection. Connection is essential for educators in all stages of their careers and as a CAA Board member I seek to enhance our CAA offerings both in and outside of our conferences with workshops and networking opportunities. Sponsored by the US Department of State, I created models for cross-cultural educational exchange in Mongolia and have led Fulbright research projects in Mongolia (2014), China (2017), India (2022) and Sri Lanka (2022). I served as Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in India and my research has made me aware of the potential for organizations to enhance their international focus and reach. I have also led events in France, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. As a Columbia University research scholar, I am examining the future of education in a rapidly evolving arts and technology landscape, particularly the impacts of AI on the roles, rules and structures of our professions. 

An advocate: CAA is our home in academia. At our CAA conferences, I listen and better understand our members’ goals and career challenges. Some have shared how career advancement at times feels like musical chairs. It is important is that we foster inclusive professional communities that can support members to advocate for themselves in their careers at all stages. This has been a key inspiration for my own training as a coach and mentor serving artists and educators. I have initiated coaching pilots at Yale Center for British Art, California State University, University of Melbourne, and recently initiated India’s first mentoring program to serve tribal communities. 

Supporting CAA’s Committees, Juries and Editorial Boards: Active in CAA’s International and Museum Committees, I am experienced working with diverse interest groups and can assist in CAA Fundraising and public events to expand CAA’s reach. I lead an Artistic Research Working Group. where we are exploring the futures of research in art education. For the past seven years, I also serve on the Editorial Board for ProjectAnywhere, a journal at University of Melbourne, Australia. 

I support solutions for our strategic and financial direction and expanding CAA’s global reach. In addition to my training in the arts, I also trained in organizational strategy at Boston University (M.Sc. Management) and California State University. (MBA) and have advised global organizations including 3M, Du Pont, General Electric, Dow, and Bayer on their marketing, financial and strategic goals. These experiences uniquely enable me to support our Board and our membership to expand CAA’s reach, build sponsorship and support collaboration with other organizations. In New York, I serve on the board for a children’s charity and the Editorial Board for ProjectAnywhere at University of Melbourne and served as a New York Chair of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals. 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve CAA and our membership.

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I am excited to work alongside other Board members to expand and strengthen CAA’s influence, and to encourage the highest standards of creative and scholarly innovation. 

I come from a background in studio practice. I established a career in arts administration and curatorial work after building a resume from part-time jobs in various cultural organizations. I worked full-time while pursuing my graduate degrees, gaining invaluable practical experience alongside senior management and skilled staff at all levels to launch complicated, international projects. As a result, I maintain a diverse professional network and a keen sensitivity to creative career-building strategies. I believe that my insights will benefit students and young professionals who are eager to pursue a career in the arts.

Inclusivity is central to my professional and personal ethos. I enjoy working across teams to reach multiple, concurrent goals. I demonstrate keen negotiating and problem-solving skills, anticipating and avoiding potential pitfalls and remaining adaptable while staying true to mission. My own scholarship has addressed 19th- through 21st-century art in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and South Asia as well as the history of identity politics in art criticism. I have lived in California and Hong Kong in addition to New York City.  

I feel confident that my pragmatic and collaborative nature, positive attitude, and international perspective will be assets to CAA and its members. I hope to have the opportunity to support arts advocacy on the Board of Directors. 

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CAA has experienced various changes in its organizational profile since I became a member in 2002. It has played an integral role in my scholarly development and been a significant factor in my advancement within academia. Every year I look forward to taking advantage of CAA’s interesting variety of conference activities and opportunities for professional networking.

As visual arts professionals it is critical that we keep CAA strong and relevant. As a board member I hope to assist the next generation of practicing artists and scholars in using CAA as a resource in their personal journeys. Helping them become conversant with professional standards and best practices will strengthen our members, departments, and standing within the academic community. Having served on various CAA committees and scholarly panels, I have a good sense of how CAA operates and the desire to explore its untapped potential. 

Nationally speaking, organizations such as ours have seen declining memberships resulting in the emergence of some underserved groups. Visual artist memberships are down a bit and we should pay more attention to the needs of those working in community colleges. While the “scale” of CAA has become a bit smaller over the last few years I remain optimistic and believe that these developments may stimulate some rethinking about how we manage the annual conference, identify conference cities, and address the evolving needs of our members.

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I am a graphic artist, designer, educator, and researcher with a disability, dedicated to integrating creative coding, diversity, accessibility, belonging, and healing into my professional practice. Originally from South Korea, I moved to the United States in 2005 to pursue graduate studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). When I arrived in Baltimore, my academic mentor introduced me to the College Art Association (CAA), which provided my first exposure to a vibrant international community of visual artists, designers, and educators in America. Since 2014, I have been an active member of the CAA and currently serve on the CAA Annual Conference Committee. In this role, I collaborate with CAA staff and leadership to oversee session selections, review abstract submissions, and mentor new association members.

In 2022, I was honored to receive the Society of Experiential Graphic Design Educator Award for founding and organizing the visionary art and design conference and curated exhibition titled “Evolving Graphic Design.” I also secured substantial funding, amounting to $71,680 from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and $10,000 from the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust. My work has been recognized in esteemed publications, including The Washington Post, PRINT, The New York Times Magazine, Letter Arts Review, Creator’s Project, and Designboom.com. I have contributed to notable academic texts such as “Graphic Design: The New Basics” and “Type on Screen,” published by Princeton Architectural Press, as well as “Data-Driven Graphic Design” by Fairchild Books in England. My research and artistic contributions have been featured in papers from organizations such as Leonardo (MIT Press), the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA), the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), and the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD). I have been invited to present and exhibit at various international conferences, including the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH).

I hold a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Graphic Design, specializing in Interactive Media from MICA, an MFA in Information Design with a focus on Graphic Art from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computer Science from Chungbuk National University in Cheongju, South Korea. Additionally, I am actively involved in committees for the CAA Annual Conference and the Academic Task Force of the Society of Experiential Graphic Design. I also serve as a reviewer for panel proposals submitted to Leonardo and for grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. My freelance work includes collaborations with The New York Times Magazine, and I have held teaching positions at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago State University, and Valparaiso University. Previously, I served as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Interaction Design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In 2023, I received a diagnosis of a long-term disability, which has presented significant challenges. I am currently engaged in cardiac rehabilitation and therapy, with plans to return to the workforce after 2024. This experience as a disabled artist and designer has provided me with a new perspective, enriching my understanding of the world and positively influencing my work in unexpected ways. I believe fostering a sense of belonging is essential in any community, as it promotes comfort and support among its members. From 2025 to 2029, I intend to cultivate this sense of belonging within the CAA in collaboration with the Board of Directors. My goal is to strengthen and inspire collaboration between the CAA and various underrepresented academic fields and communities, including theology, psychology, sociology, health, and well-being, thereby promoting innovative visual creativity and transformative narratives for a positive future for the CAA.

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