CAA News Today
CAA signs on to ACLS statement on recent Kansas Board of Regents Actions
posted by Allison Walters — February 01, 2021
CAA, along with 23 other member societies, has signed on to a statement issued by the ACLS urging the Kansas Board of Regents to uphold employment protections for faculty.
The statement urges the Kansas Board of Regents to withdraw its endorsement of the proposed policy to ease the path to suspending, dismissing, or terminating employees, including tenured faculty members, without undertaking the processes of formally declaring a financial emergency.
It also calls attention to the statement co-signed in summer 2020 by leaders of cultural institutions and scholarly societies, including CAA, attesting to the importance of teaching and research to sustaining a robust economy and a just democracy.
CAA Solidarity Statement
posted by CAA — June 05, 2020
The College Art Association (CAA) condemns all forms of systemic racism, violence, bias, aggression and the marginalization of Black, Indigenous, and all Peoples of Color (BIPOC) as well as discrimination based on race, intersectionality, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. As a community of those who study, teach, write about, advocate for and/or create art and design, we have committed our life’s work to learning-from, exploring-with, and creating-towards our shared humanity. As a membership organization we choose to use our voices to speak to one another and speak up for one another.
To ensure lasting change:
- We encourage the creative community to examine biases, micro-aggressions, and who we leave out.
- We encourage learning from sharing narratives of BIPOC.
- We encourage providing services and support for underrepresented and entirely non-represented members of the community.
- We will work to create and promote standards and systems that actively support equity in anti-racist teaching, research, publication and creative practices.
In solidarity, CAA, its board, and its staff continue to amplify equity, diversity, and inclusion and call our community to action with us in this commitment to change.
CAA Values Statement on Diversity and Inclusion
For additional resources see the Committee on Diversity Practices as well as resources shared via CAA News, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
CAA Statement on Firing of Graduate Student Strikers at UC Santa Cruz
posted by CAA — March 12, 2020
UCSC graduate students on strike, March 2020. Photo: Mat Weir, via GoodTimes
The CAA Advocacy Committee approved the following statement in March 2020.
CAA condemns the termination of employment for graduate student strikers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, calls for their reinstatement, and urges the university to commence negotiations with the students as soon as possible. This action has affected graduate students in the visual arts, which will impact their lives in serious ways, including the loss of medical insurance and residency status. We consider that their demands for an appropriate augmentation of salary in line with the increased costs of living are legitimate and note that they now have the support of the UAW, with whom the university is contracted.
Graduate students are indispensable workers who cannot be expected to execute their teaching duties and to pursue their own research when housing and food costs are not affordable with their current wages. CAA maintains that graduate students should be compensated at a level that makes it possible for them to flourish on campus as research assistants, teachers, and emerging scholars. A fair wage correlated with cost of living increases is a necessary precondition for their own work, essential to fulfilling the educational mandate of their departments, and essential for the dignity of all workers at the university. To punish students for exercising their rights to demand a decent wage is, in our view, unjust and unacceptable, and all penalties should be reversed immediately.
Further Reading
UC Graduate Students Threaten More Strikes as Movement Grows (Los Angeles Times)
Why We’re Striking for Fair Teaching Wages at UC Santa Cruz — Even With a Baby on the Way (Washington Post)
California University Fired 54 Grad Students Who Were Striking for Higher Pay (CNN)
Why Graduate Students at UC Santa Cruz Are Striking (New York Times)
CAA Standards and Guidelines for Part-Time Professional Employment (CAA)
Explore Our List of Resources for Teaching Remotely, Emergency Grants, and More
posted by CAA — March 09, 2020
The University of Washington announced last week that it would cancel in-person classes and have students take courses and finals remotely. Image: The UW campus in 2017, photo by Priyaranjan Pattnayak.
To help stop the spread of COVID-19 throughout the United States, several universities, including the University of Washington, Stanford, Columbia and Princeton, have chosen to temporarily forgo in-person classes in favor of remote learning. The decision to transition classes is part of an attempt at “social distancing,” the practice of limiting large gatherings and in-person contact to slow the transmission of the virus.
In most of these cases, it has been left up to faculty to make decisions about how to move their classes online. In an effort to crowdsource resources, we’ve gathered tweets and links that instructors are sharing to help, and will continue to update this list as we receive new ones.
For the most up-to-the-moment updates, please visit our Twitter feed. You can also explore resources others are sharing here.
Is your institution canceling in-person classes? Log it here:
If you hear of colleges and universities cancelling F2F classes (including moving them online), please add them to this Googledoc. Thanks to @BryanAlexander and all who are helping gather & share info on the situation. #covidcampus https://t.co/XlwjeG4Nnd
— Laura R. Prieto (@Laura_R_Prieto) March 9, 2020
Resources for getting started:
So many of us in #higherEd #academicTwitter are looking at teaching online. We’ve collected some resources to help support you and your students. https://t.co/trA7WFCvrm #covidCampus
— Jacqueline Wernimont (@profwernimont) March 10, 2020
Faculty/teaching colleagues at colleges and universities. I am going to start a bare bones thread with some resources about moving to teach online. I am going to work this weekend on contingency plans myself and here are some links I need to read:
— Barbara Smith (@nanaslugdiva) March 6, 2020
ART & DESIGN EDUCATORS: considering schools seem to be going online only, let’s start a thread of best practices for teaching art & design classes online. What platforms? How do you structure you class? How do you give lectures? Run critiques? Let students show work?
— Mitch Goldstein (@mgoldst) March 10, 2020
Stanford is taking its classes fully remote. @beth_seltzer and I created (and are actively updating) a resource for our instructors to provide short-term support solutions. If you’re needing something similar, feel free to check out what we’ve done: https://t.co/ylyPOBQsC6
— Jenae Cohn (@Jenae_Cohn) March 7, 2020
Princeton will switch to digital classes after Spring Break to mitigate possibility of #COVID2019. I was part of the task force that built Harvard’s digital infrastructure during our week-long Boston Bombing lockdowns in 2013. Dynamic & interactive learning can thrive online!
— RL Barnes (@DigitalHistory_) March 9, 2020
On including your students in an online learning plan:
As mentioned earlier- critical question here. Talk to your students and set up a backup plan. Don’t rely on your institution. As a thought- ask your students what they can do if stuck at home for X number of weeks. Involve them in the process when possible. #CovidCampus https://t.co/SPC0OWPeHd
— Dennis E. Showalter (@DShowalterPhd) March 9, 2020
Explore more resources using #CovidCampus:
*USEFUL RESOURCES ALERT* follow the hashtag: #CovidCampus https://t.co/Kvm9lzP5s6
— Eric Mistry, MA, MBA (@ericmistry) March 9, 2020
A great resource for art historians ⬇️ #CovidCampus https://t.co/Zv1K88zJCB
— CAA Advancing Art & Design (@caavisual) March 12, 2020
HELPFUL LINKS
As Art Schools Cancel Student Shows, One Instagram Account Pledges to Give Them Life (ARTnews)
The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections (MCN)
Online Art & Design Studio Instruction in the Age of “Social Distancing” (Facebook group)
COVID-19 Freelance Artist Resources (link)
A New Medical Emergency Grant for Artists (Hyperallergic)
15 Tips for Working Remotely (American Alliance of Museums)
Online Teaching – In the context of COVID19 (Simon D. Halliday)
Art History Resources via Smarthistory (link)
Internet Assistance for Low-Income Families (link)
RELATED READING
Opinion: Please Do a Bad Job of Putting Your Courses Online (Rebecca Barrett-Fox)
The Coronavirus and the Ruptured Narrative of Campus Life (The New Yorker)
How to Close Colleges Without Hurting Vulnerable Students (The Washington Post)
Have a resource to contribute? Email Joelle Te Paske, CAA media and content manager, at jtepaske@collegeart.org
CAA Affiliate ACSAA Condemns the Assault on Democratic Institutions and Intellectual Freedoms in India
posted by CAA — January 17, 2020
The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA), a CAA Affiliate Society, has condemned the ongoing assault on democratic institutions and intellectual freedoms in India. Read their statement below.
The American Council of Southern Asian Art (ACSAA), a non-profit organization and a community of academics and humanists, condemns the ongoing assault on democratic institutions and intellectual freedoms in India.
Both the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), signed on 11 December 2019, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) Act, to be implemented in 2021, are openly discriminatory laws. We denounce any attempt at exclusion based on religion, caste, gender, race, or sexual identity, and find both laws to be antithetical to the Indian constitution and its democracy. In particular, as researchers and teachers of India’s art and architecture across millennia, we are committed to preserving the rich contributions of Muslims to its visual culture and intellectual life. We see this commitment as directly threatened by the violent, often state-sanctioned, erasure of such contributions, in instances such as the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the occupation of Kashmir, the renaming of cities, and the rewriting of academic curricula along Hindutva lines.
We stand in full support of the students and teachers at Aligarh Muslim University and the Jamia Millia Islamia, following the events of 15 December 2019; at Jawaharlal Nehru University, following events there on 5 January 2020; and everyone currently participating in peaceful protests and demonstrations across the country. We see the brutal attack at JNU—organized and executed by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student faction of the Hindutva organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a member of the Sangh Parivar—as one more instance of a widespread denial of the rights of Indian citizens to critique their government peacefully and openly.
The accusations of “anti-nationalism” directed at marginalized communities at these confrontations – particularly Muslims, Dalits, and women – are reminders of the extent to which extremists will go to erode the secular principles on which the country was founded.
To date, there have been no arrests or investigations into the identity of the attackers at JNU, despite indisputable evidence. We deplore the negligence of the Delhi Police, who looked on as the attacks happened, and call for both an immediate investigation and the resignation of JNU’s Vice Chancellor, M. Jagadesh Kumar. Following as it does the instances of police violence at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia, as well as long-term interventions including cuts to funding and fee hikes, the JNU attack urgently increases our concern, as part of the global academic community, for public higher education and critical thought in India.
The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) is dedicated to advancing the study and awareness of the art of South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayan regions, spanning all periods and forms of artistic production.
Related reading: In Photos: The World’s Largest Democracy Is in Upheaval (Quartz India, December 15, 2019)
Police Fire Tear Gas as Delhi Protesters Decry Citizenship Law (Al Jazeera, December 15, 2019)
I Saw Police Stand by as Masked Men Attacked Students at a Top Delhi University. It Was Yet Another Assault on India’s Intellectuals (Time, January 8, 2020)
Behind Campus Attack in India, Some See a Far-Right Agenda (New York Times, January 10, 2020)
CAA Endorses ACASA’s Statement Concerning Destruction of Cultural Patrimony in Bafut
posted by CAA — December 16, 2019
On September 24, soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) attacked and looted the Royal Palace, in Bafut, North-West region. © Creative Commons/ShareAlike 3.0, via Human Rights Watch
CAA endorses its affiliate society, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), in condemning recent reports of theft, property damage, as well as violence at the Palace of Bafut in Cameroon.
The site is an important part of the history and culture of the Bafut population in the northwest region of Cameroon, and continues to function as a center for religious rites and ceremonies. The violence and destruction to the Bafut Palace threatens the safety and identity of the Bafut people and the maintenance of their distinctive cultural traditions. As such it deserves protection from the Republic of Cameroon and pressure from organizations and governments to restore damaged structures and return stolen artifacts.
Read ACASA’s statement below.
Statement Concerning Destruction of Cultural Patrimony in Bafut
20 November 2019
The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA)—an independent professional association which exists to facilitate communication among scholars, teachers, students, artists, museum specialists, collectors, and all others interested in the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora—condemns the violent aggression perpetrated by the Republic of Cameroon against the Palace of Bafut, a site included on UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites since 2006. Human Rights Watch reports that “On September 24 [2019], soldiers from the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) attacked and looted the Royal Palace in Bafut, North-West region.” (https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/11/world-heritage-site-attacked-cameroon#) Fon Abumbi II of Bafut protested the aggression in a letter dated September 24, 2019 and addressed to the Governor of North West Region. In addition to causing damage to buildings within the palace and perpetrating violence against those who had been neither charged nor tried in a court of law, these troops representing the authority of the State shamelessly stole historical objects from the palace museum.
According to the World Monuments Fund, the palace “embodies Bafut cultural identity and remains a center for religious rites and traditional ceremonies. Over 50 houses are clustered around the site’s spiritual core, Achum Shrine, and are used by the Fon (king), his wives, and the royal court.” (https://www.wmf.org/project/bafut-palace) The palaces and museums of the North West Region of Cameroon serve as invaluable repositories of the long-standing traditions and material cultures of these vibrant kingdoms. These palaces and associated sites—where ritual practices have long been performed—foster and house the heritages, both tangible and intangible of these communities. The violent destruction and looting of such a site may be understood as an attempt to erase the cultural identity of the Bafut population. As a site listed on the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites, Bafut Palace is recognized as holding even greater than just local significance, constituting a primary locus of cultural heritage for the entirety of Cameroon, and indeed the world. The Cameroonian State must treat these places as the internationally significant cultural heritage sites that they are.
ACASA calls on the Republic of Cameroon to protect sites of cultural heritage as required by being party to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property. According to Article 4(3) of the aforementioned convention, it is the obligation of the State “to prohibit, prevent and, if necessary, put a story to any form of theft, pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism directed against, cultural property….” In light of this international obligation, the Cameroonian State must bring to justice and punish appropriately those responsible for this heinous act. Furthermore, every effort must be taken to return looted items of cultural heritage to the palace museum of Bafut.
CC:
Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon
Henri Etoundi Essomba, Ambassador of the Republic of Cameroon to the US
Peter Henry Barlein, US Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon
Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, Minister of Arts and Culture for the Republic of Cameroon
UNESCO
World Monuments Fund
What Do You Think? On the Victor Arnautoff Murals and Controversial Artworks
posted by CAA — September 09, 2019
Please share your comments using the form at the end of this post.
One of thirteen The Life of Washington murals by Victor Arnautoff, George Washington High School, San Francisco. Image courtesy George Washington High School Alumni Association.
CAA invites comments from our members regarding our position on the San Francisco Unified School District and its Board of Education’s decision to destroy, and later its reversal and decision to cover up, WPA-era murals by Victor Arnautoff at George Washington High School.
We spoke out against the initial vote, in opposition to the destruction of works of art and from the hope that creating a contextual reading of the murals might be of some value to the school and its students and an alternative to destroying them.
We also acknowledge that many, including CAA board members, find the murals offensive and damaging to the students’ learning environment, and supported the Board of Education’s decision.
Last month, during a reportedly contentious meeting, the School Board voted to cover up the murals rather than destroy them.
What do you think? Should the murals by Victor Arnautoff be covered up? Should they be destroyed? What are other alternatives?
More broadly, what place do controversial works of art hold in our society? What role do you feel CAA should play in these situations?
We want to know what you think and why. Let us know using the form, below.
CAA Statement on the Removal of WPA Murals by Victor Arnautoff
posted by CAA — July 09, 2019
One of thirteen The Life of Washington murals by Victor Arnautoff, George Washington High School, San Francisco. Image courtesy George Washington High School Alumni Association.
On June 25th, the San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Education voted to destroy an important series of murals by artist Victor Arnautoff, which he painted as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program inside George Washington High School in 1936. The series of 13 murals, entitled The Life of Washington, includes imagery of dead Native Americans and imagery of slaves working at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, which the school board determined was offensive.
CAA opposes the recent ruling by the San Francisco Unified School District and its Board of Education. By voting to destroy the murals, the Board is advancing an agenda of erasing history in order to appease contemporary critics. CAA firmly believes in the preservation of art historical records and works that serve to educate and inform the public. The murals should be viewed as an opportunity to examine history, to ask questions, and to create discussion around ideas, events, and facts that are woven indisputably into American history.
David Raizman
Interim Executive Director
Editor’s note (8/21/19): The views expressed above do not necessarily represent the views of CAA’s membership.
Further reading: San Francisco School Will Cover Controversial George Washington Murals (New York Times)
A Controversial WPA Mural Is a Litmus Test for the Longevity of Public Art (Hyperallergic)
Art Professor Dewey Crumpler Defends Victor Arnautoff’s WPA Murals (National Coalition Against Censorship)
Action Needed: Restoring Tax Equity for Artists
posted by CAA — May 02, 2019
We urge our members to help support the Artist-Museum Partnership Act of 2019 (HR 1793), an important initiative to restore tax equity for artists. If passed the act would allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work when donating to an institution or charity, rather than only the cost of supplies. While collectors donating artwork can currently deduct fair market value, artists are not permitted to.
First introduced in 2005, the measure has passed the Senate more than once in the past, but it still hasn’t become law.
Rep. John Lewis is now circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter in support of the act, which we urge all representatives to sign on to.
Click here to find your representatives.
For more on CAA’s advocacy efforts, click here.
For Third Year in a Row, Trump Administration Threatens to Cut NEA and NEH Funding
posted by CAA — March 19, 2019
For the third consecutive year, the Trump administration is aiming to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Trump unveiled a $4.75 trillion budget—the largest in federal history—on March 11, but details about his plans for the NEA and NEH were announced yesterday in the administration’s full proposal. According to the documents, the NEA’s budget is marked at $29 million and the NEH’s is at $38 million—which the proposal describes as “sufficient funding for orderly termination of all operations over two years.”
Since 2017, Trump has been vocal in his desire to eliminate the two agencies entirely. In 2019, each of the agencies was allocated a budget of $155 million, despite similar calls for elimination in 2018 and 2019. The US federal budget for 2020 will ultimately be decided by Congress.
We’ll be fighting back again this year and hope that you do, too. The most effective way to make your voice heard is through your local representatives. Call. Email. Write letters.
Urge your representatives to sign on to this NEA funding letter and this NEH funding letter, which ask for budgets of $167.5 million for each agency.
Signing deadline: March 27, 2019
Click here to access the CAA Arts and Humanities Advocacy Toolkit.