CAA News Today
Propose a Session for the 2013 Annual Conference in New York
posted by Lauren Stark — June 07, 2011
CAA invites individual members to propose a session for the 101st Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013, in New York. Proposals should cover the breadth of current thought and research in visual art, art and architectural history, theory and criticism, pedagogical issues, museum and curatorial practice, conservation, and developments in technology.
The submission process will open on Monday, June 27, 2011. For full details on the submission process for the conference, please review the information published on the Chair a 2013 Annual Conference Session webpage.
The Annual Conference Committee welcomes session proposals from established artists and scholars, along with those from younger scholars, emerging and midcareer artists, and graduate students. Particularly welcome are proposals that highlight interdisciplinary work. Artists are especially encouraged to propose sessions appropriate to dialogue and information exchange relevant to artists.
You will complete and submit your session proposal online; paper forms and postal mailings are not required. To set up an account in CAA’s content-management system, please email Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs, who will register your email address and provide you with a password. Deadline: September 1, 2011; no late applications are accepted.
Documenta Website Posts Audio of CAA Centennial Session on “Feminism”
posted by Christopher Howard — June 02, 2011
Audio of the 2011 CAA Centennial Session on “Feminism,” chaired by Norma Broude of American University and Griselda Pollock of the University of Leeds, has been uploaded to the website of Documenta, the major international art exhibition that takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The next one, Documenta 13, is scheduled for June 9–September 16, 2012, and its website has become a repository for news on preliminary events and happenings as well as a forum for discussing timely issues in the art world. Its artistic director, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, a panelist in the “Feminism” session, arranged to have the 2½-hour audio recording posted to the Documenta website, where it will be permanently archived and available to promote discussion among a worldwide array of visitors to that site.
The CAA session was organized as two panels: the first on “Attaining Full Equality: Women, Artists, Museums, and Markets,” moderated by Broude, and the second on “New Directions and International Perspectives in Feminist Art History,” led by Pollock. After four decades of feminist scholarship and political activism in the art world, and on the occasion of CAA’s centenary, the session brought together a cross-generational and international group of museum-affiliated curators, international art-fair and exhibition organizers, art-market experts, and art historians to share their perspectives on present accomplishments, institutional impediments, productive strategies, and future frontiers for feminism’s creative enterprise.
NEA Awards $25,000 Grant to CAA for ARTspace
posted by Nia Page — May 23, 2011
CAA has received a $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the next ARTspace, taking place during the 100th Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration in Los Angeles, February 22–25, 2012.
Designed to engage CAA’s artist members and the general public, ARTspace offers program sessions free of charge and includes diverse activities such the Annual Artists’ Interviews, screenings of film, video, and multimedia, performances, and presentations that facilitate a conversational yet professional exchange of ideas and practices. Held at each conference since 2001, ARTspace is intended to reflect the current state of the visual arts and arts education.
The grant, which is the NEA’s third consecutive award to CAA for ARTspace programming, will help fund, among other things, ARTexchange, a popular open-portfolio event for artists, as well as [Meta] Mentors programming, which has covered topics such as do-it-yourself curatorial and exhibition practices, international networks for artists, and assistance with grants, taxes, and promotion.
Image: ARTexchange participants at the 2011 Annual Conference in New York (photograph by Bradley Marks)
CAA Receives Getty Grant to Fund International Conference Travel
posted by Emmanuel Lemakis — May 16, 2011
The Getty Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to CAA in support of international travel for twenty applicants to attend the 100th Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration, taking place February 22–25, 2012, in Los Angeles. Through the new CAA International Travel Grant Program, CAA will provide funds for travel expenses, hotel accommodations, per diems, and conference registrations. Recipients will also receive one-year CAA memberships. Applicants may be art historians, artists who teach art history, and art historians who are museum curators; those from developing countries or from nations not well represented in CAA’s membership are especially encouraged to apply.
The goal of the project is to increase international participation in CAA and to diversify the organization’s membership (presently sixty-five countries are represented). CAA also wishes to familiarize international participants with the submission process for conference sessions and to expand their professional network in the visual arts. Members of CAA’s International Committee have agreed to host the participants, and the National Committee for the History of Art will also lend support to the program.
CAA will publish an official call for grant applications on its website on Friday, July 8, 2011; the program will also be publicized in CAA News. A jury will select the twenty grant recipients.
CAA Seeks Nominations for the 2012 Awards for Distinction
posted by Lauren Stark — March 31, 2011
To close the Centennial year, CAA encourages you to nominate colleagues for the twelve Awards for Distinction for 2012, to be awarded next February at the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, California. The different perspectives and anecdotes from multiple personal letters of recommendation provide award juries with a clearer picture of the qualities and attributes of the nominees.
In the letter, state who you are; how you know (of) the nominee; how the nominee and/or his or her work or publication has affected your practice or studies and the pursuit of your career; and why you think this person (or, in a collaboration, these people) deserves to be recognized. You should also contact up to five colleagues, students, peers, collaborators, and/or coworkers of the nominee to write letters.
All submissions must include a completed nomination form and one copy of the nominee’s CV (limit: two pages); book awards do not require a CV. Nominations for book and exhibition awards should be for the authors of books published or works exhibited or staged between September 1, 2010, and August 31, 2011. No more than five letters per candidate are considered.
Please read the descriptions of the twelve awards, the names of all past recipients, and the full instructions for nominations. You may also write to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs, for more information. Deadline: July 31, 2011, for the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award and the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award; August 31, 2011, for all others.
Propose a Poster Session for the 2012 Annual Conference
posted by Lauren Stark — March 23, 2011
CAA invites individual members to submit abstracts for Poster Sessions at the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, taking place February 22–25, 2012. Poster Sessions—presentations displayed on bulletin boards by an individual for small groups—usually include a brief narrative paper mixed with illustrations, tables, graphs, and similar presentation formats. The poster display can intelligently and concisely communicate the essence of the presenter’s research, synthesizing its main ideas and directions. Colorado State University has published useful general information on Poster Sessions.
Poster Sessions offer excellent opportunities for extended informal discussion and conversation focused on topics of scholarly or pedagogical research. Posters are displayed for three days during the conference, so that attendees can view the work even when the authors are not physically present. Poster Sessions take place in a high-traffic area, in close proximity to the Book and Trade Fair and conference rooms.
Proposals for Poster Sessions must include the following:
- Title of Poster Session
- Summary of project, not to exceed 250 words
- Name of presenter(s), affiliation(s), and CAA member number(s)
- A two-page CV
- Complete mailing address and telephone number
- Email address
Proposals are due May 2, 2011—the same deadline as the regular call for papers for the 2012 conference. Send all materials to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. A working group of the Annual Conference Committee selects Poster Sessions based on individual merit and space availability. Accepted presenters must maintain their memberships through the conference.
Displays must be assembled by 10:00 AM on Thursday, February 23, and cleared by 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 25. Live presentations last ninety minutes and are scheduled during the lunch breaks on Thursday and Friday, 12:30–2:00 PM. During this time, presenters stand by their poster displays while others view the presentation and interact with the presenters.
CAA assigns presenters one freestanding bulletin board (about 4 x 8 feet of display space) onto which they can affix their poster display and other materials, as well as a table to place materials such as handouts or a sign-up sheet to record the names and addresses of attendees who want to receive more information. CAA also provides pushpins or thumbtacks to attach components to the bulletin board on the day of installation.
Printed materials must be easily read at a distance of four feet. Each display should include the title of the presentation (104-point size) and the name of the presenter(s) and his or her affiliation(s) (72-point size). CAA recommends a point size of 16–18 or larger for body text. No electrical support is available in the Poster Session area; you must have your own source of power (e.g., a battery).
Take the 2011 Annual Conference Survey
posted by Christopher Howard — March 16, 2011
Last week, CAA sent an email blast to 2011 Annual Conference attendees, asking for feedback on all aspects of last month’s event. Please complete the survey, which has several fields for open-ended answers, by Friday, March 25, 2011.
The survey asks you to identify yourself (e.g., artist, art historian, or student) and your type of affiliation and then to rate your experiences with various conference events and services—from online registration and the conference hotels to session content and Career Services activities. If you attended the Book and Trade Fair or used your conference badge for free museum admission, let CAA know. The survey also asks your thoughts about the conference website and how CAA can better deliver conference information.
CAA Gives Four Centennial Awards at the 2011 Annual Conference
posted by Christopher Howard — March 09, 2011
The CAA Board of Directors has selected five extraordinary individuals as the distinguished recipients of CAA’s four Centennial Awards in recognition of the extraordinary time and expertise they have contributed to the visual arts in New York and across the nation. The honorees are:
- Philippe de Montebello, Centennial Award for Leadership
- Agnes Gund, Centennial Award for Service to the Field
- Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, Centennial Award for Patronage
- Stuart E. Eizenstat, Centennial Award for Protecting Art as a Cultural Product
Special guests presenters gave the Centennial Awards during Convocation at the 99th Annual Conference and Centennial Kickoff at the Hilton New York on Wednesday evening, February 9, 2011.
2011 Annual Conference Summary
posted by Nia Page — March 02, 2011
The College Art Association recently held its 99th Annual Conference and Centennial Kickoff at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan. Taking place February 9–12, 2011, the conference began the organization’s yearlong celebration of its one hundredth anniversary. The program comprised four days of presentations and discussions on art, art history, and visual culture; career-development workshops, mentoring programs, and job interviews with colleges and universities; a Book and Trade Fair featuring publishers of art books and journals, manufacturers of artists’ materials, and providers of various services for artists and academics; and a host of special events throughout the New York area.
Attendance
The New York conference was not only the largest CAA has produced, it was also the best attended. More than seven thousand art professionals from across the United States and around the world—including artists, art historians, students, educators, curators, critics, collectors, and museum staff—came the event.
Sessions
The conference offered more than two hundred sessions, panels, and talks—all developed by CAA’s members, affiliated societies, and committees. These sessions, which featured presentations from participants and institutions across the country and internationally, addressed a wide range of topics. With papers and presentations as manifold as “The Aesthetics of Sonic Spaces,” “Gender and Sexuality in the Art Museum,” and “Civic Performance and the Genesis of the Roman Social Cityscape,” the 2011 conference was highly diverse.
CAA also organized seven special Centennial Sessions in which invited panelists from different corners of the visual arts—among them Mark Tribe, Griselda Pollock, and James Elkins—came together to debate core concepts, such as diversity, experience, feminism, globalization, medium, technology, and tradition.
Career Services
Career Services included three days of mentoring and portfolio-review sessions, workshops and roundtables on professional-development issues, and job interviews. Approximately one hundred schools, academic departments, and institutions conducted interviews at the conference. Workshops addressed such topics as planning for retirement, advice for new instructors, securing a job in the arts, and self-marketing for artists.
Book and Trade Fair
The Book and Trade Fair presented 149 exhibitors, including participants from the United States, Turkey, Spain, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium, displaying new publications, artists’ materials, digital resources, and innovative products of interest to artists and scholars. The Book and Trade Fair also featured book signings, lectures, and demonstrations, as well as three exhibitor sessions on artists’ materials and publishing.
ARTspace and ARTexchange
ARTspace, a “conference within the conference” tailored to the needs and interests of practicing artists, presented the Annual Artists’ Interviews with Krzysztof Wodiczko and Mel Chin, as well as wealth of presentations and programming by and for artists. ARTexchange, an open-portfolio event in which artist members displayed their small paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and work on laptops, hosted over fifty artists this year.
Convocation and Centennial Awards
More than six hundred people attended Convocation and the Centennial Awards Presentation, held at the Hilton New York on Wednesday, February 9. Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, spoke about the importance of the humanities, and eco-art pioneers Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison delivered a lively keynote address.
On the occasion of CAA’s centennial year, the Board of Directors presented four awards to living individuals who have contributed significantly to the advancement of the visual arts in the United States. The recipients of CAA’s four Centennial Awards are:
- Stuart E. Eizenstat, attorney and former US ambassador, Centennial Award for Protecting Art as a Cultural Product, presented by Paul Jaskot of DePaul University
- Agnes Gund, arts advocate and philanthropist, Centennial Award for Service to the Field, presented by Ann Temkin of the Museum of Modern Art
- Philippe de Montebello, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Centennial Award for Leadership, presented by Linda Downs, CAA executive director
- Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, collectors of contemporary art, Centennial Award for Patronage, presented by Anne Goodyear of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Awards for Distinction
Each year CAA recognizes the 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. More than four hundred people attended the presentation of the 2011 Awards for Distinction in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Thursday, February 10.
The recipients of CAA’s 2011 Awards for Distinction are:
- Lynda Benglis, Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement
- John Baldessari, Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work
- Mieke Bal, Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art
- Luis Camnitzer, Frank Jewett Mather Award
- Faith Ringgold, Distinguished Feminist Award
- William Itter, Distinguished Teaching of Art Award
- Patricia Hills, Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award
- Molly Emma Aitken, Charles Rufus Morey Book Award for The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting
- Darielle Mason, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award for Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal
- Yasufumi Nakamori, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award for Smaller Museums, Libraries, Collections, and Exhibitions for Katsura: Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture
- Ross Barrett, Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize for “Rioting Refigured: George Henry Hall and the Picturing of American Political Violence”
- Kirsten Swenson, Janet Kraynak, Paul Monty Paret, and Emily Eliza Scott, Art Journal Award for “Land Use in Contemporary Art”
- Joyce Hill Stoner, CAA/Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation
Centennial Book
CAA introduced The Eye, the Hand, the Mind: 100 Years of the College Art Association, a new book that surveys the impressive history of the organization from 1911 to the present. Susan Ball, executive director emerita, edited the 330-page hardcover book, which was published jointly by CAA and Rutgers University Press.
Special Events
The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted CAA’s Centennial Reception in the Great Hall and the Temple of Dendur. Hunter College offered its expansive galleries for the CAA Regional MFA Exhibition, which surveyed work by artists from twenty institutions within one hundred miles of New York. The New York Center for Art and Media Studies (NYCAMS) hosted the CAA Regional BFA Exhibition, which featured seventeen undergraduate student artists from seven area BFA programs. Sold-out tours explored the riches of New York’s cultural attractions, from a Chelsea Gallery District excursion to a preview tour of the Museum for African Art.
Save the Date
CAA will conclude its Centennial Celebration at the 100th Annual Conference, to be held February 22–25, 2012, in Los Angeles, California.
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, offering forums to discuss the developments in art and art history through its Annual Conference, publications, exhibitions, website, and other avenues. CAA focuses on a wide range of issues, including education in the arts, freedom of expression, intellectual-property rights, cultural heritage and preservation, and workforce topics in universities and museums. Representing its members’ professional needs since 1911, CAA is committed to the highest professional and ethical standards of scholarship, creativity, criticism, and teaching.
Audio Downloads from the 2011 Annual Conference
posted by Christopher Howard — March 01, 2011
The 2011 Annual Conference in New York boasted an incredibly diverse array of sessions. Audio recordings for sixty-three of the panels—including “Performative Tendencies,” “Color and Nineteenth-Century American Painting,” and “The Erasure of Contemporary Memory”—are now available for sale.
A set of MP3 audio recordings from the New York conference is available for only $149.95, either as a download or on CD-ROMs. Individual sessions, available only as downloads, are $24.95 each. Please visit Conference Media to view the list of sessions and to order.
The full range of art history is represented in sessions such as “The Afterlife of Cubism,” “The Global Eighteenth Century,” and “(Re)Contextualizing Precolumbian Art in the Twenty-First Century.” CAA also recorded many other popular 2011 sessions, such as “Parallel Practices: When the Mind Isn’t Focused on Art,” which featured the artists Robert Gober, Vija Celmins, Petah Coyne, Janine Antoni, and Philip Taafe, as well as the two-part “Dark Matter of the Art World.” Other topics about contemporary art include “Contemporary Drawing: Purpose, Practice, Performance,” “Textiles and Social Sculpture,” and “The Art of Pranks.” Curators will be especially interested in “Recurating: New Practices in Exhibition Making” and “Artist as Curator.”
Whether you took part in, attended, or missed a particular conference session, these recordings are a must-have for your library, research, or teaching. Listen to them while walking across campus, while driving in your car or using public transportation, or while relaxing in your home.
In addition to the New York sessions, you can also purchase recordings from the past five conferences: Boston (2006), New York (2007), Dallas–Fort Worth (2008), Los Angeles (2009), and Chicago (2010). See CAA’s Conference Audio section for details.