CAA News Today
CAA Receives Major Mellon Grant
posted by Christopher Howard — January 14, 2013
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the College Art Association (CAA) a major grant of $630,000 to develop, publish, and disseminate a code of best practices for fair use in the creation and curation of artworks and scholarly publishing in the visual arts. The initiative will examine the intersection of copyright understandings and creative practices of the visual arts community in art production, art scholarship, museum curation, and editing of work on art. The project will be completed over four years, from January 2013 through December 2016. During this period, CAA will produce an issues report documenting the effects of copyright understandings on creative choices and write a code of best practices in fair use for the communities of practice represented by its members.
In noting the importance of this work, Anne Collins Goodyear, CAA board president, observed: “The challenges and uncertainties faced by artists and art historians today in securing rights to reproduce works of art in hardcopy and electronically—and the difficulties in knowing when the law might require securing such rights—have serious adverse consequences for creative practice. Both scholarly and artistic projects are often compromised or even abandoned because of the arduous and expensive process of clearing permissions. An improved understanding of the scope of fair use and a field-wide agreement on its application will be invaluable to all practitioners in the visual arts.”
By undertaking this critical and timely project, CAA aims to provide much-needed clarification of best practices in the use of third-party copyrighted material, and establish a practicable code of conduct for members of the visual-arts community. In order to create a code that functions across all areas of the visual arts, CAA’s fair use project will involve participants from the fields of art history, studio art, print and online publishing, art museums, and related areas.
Linda Downs, executive director and CEO of the College Art Association emphasized the association’s capacity to lead this effort: “As the premier association in the visual arts, CAA is uniquely positioned to address these challenges. CAA’s membership represents a broad range of stakeholders—including artists, art historians, photographers, curators, writers, and educators, as well as museums, editors, and colleges and universities—who will benefit from the issues report and code of best practices. The organization has a strong record of advocacy on a variety of issues involving intellectual property. Moreover, as a scholarly publisher in the visual arts, CAA is familiar with the challenges associated with the uncertainty surrounding the application of fair use.”
The efforts funded by the Mellon grant will be overseen by a Task Force on Fair Use established by the CAA board in May of last year. The cochairs of the task force are: Jeffrey P. Cunard, long-standing CAA counsel and a managing partner in the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; and Gretchen Wagner, a member of CAA’s Committee on Intellectual Property and general counsel of ARTstor. In addition to the cochairs, task force members include: Anne Collins Goodyear, CAA board president and associate curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Linda Downs, CAA executive director and chief executive officer; Randall C. Griffin, CAA vice president for publications and a professor in the department of art history at Southern Methodist University; and other CAA members with professional experience in studio art, art history, curatorial work, and copyright law.
CAA has engaged two principal investigators to lead the four-year project: Patricia Aufderheide, university professor in the School of Communication and co-director of its Center for Social Media; and Peter Jaszi, professor of law and faculty director of the Washington College of Law’s Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic. Aufderheide and Jaszi, who have significant expertise in successfully developing fair use codes for documentary filmmakers, dance archivists, research librarians, and journalists, will be responsible for conducting the investigatory work that will inform the report and code. Aufderheide and Jaszi will also work with a Community Practices Advisory Committee to review the report and a Legal Advisory Committee to review the code. Two project advisors—Virginia Rutledge, an art advisor, art historian, and lawyer who practices in the areas of both copyright and art law, and Maureen Whalen, associate general counsel for the J. Paul Getty Trust—will contribute expertise during all phases of the project. The task force cochairs, Cunard and Wagner, together with Goodyear, Downs, Aufderheide, and Jaszi will also serve as principal investigators.
CAA approaches this project with an established history of engagement on the issues of copyright and fair use, and gratefully acknowledges the work done in this area by allied scholarly societies including the Visual Resources Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the New York City Bar Association Art Law Committee (ALC). With the assistance of a start-up grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, awarded in September 2012, CAA recently completed a preparatory phase of the fair use project that will inform the activities now funded by the Mellon Foundation. During this preparatory phase, the task force met with Aufderheide, Jaszi, and CAA’s board of directors to discuss the research methodology and select thought leaders to be interviewed about copyright and fair use practices. Additionally, Aufderheide and Jaszi conducted twenty-five exploratory interviews with some of these thought leaders to help identify the key topics that the issues report and code should address. With this work completed, the task force and principal investigators are in a strong position to move forward with the formal investigative phase of the project.
For more information about the fair use project, please contact Janet Landay, project manager, at jlanday@collegeart.org (212-392-4420) or Virginia Reinhart, CAA marketing and communications associate, at vreinhart@collegeart.org (212-392-4426).
Applications for Spring Grants from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund
posted by CAA — January 14, 2013
CAA is accepting applications for spring 2013 grants through the Millard Meiss Publication Fund. Thanks to a generous bequest by the late art historian Millard Meiss, the twice-yearly program supports book-length scholarly manuscripts in any period of the history of art and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher but require further subsidy to be published in the fullest form.
The publisher, rather than the author, must submit the application to CAA. Awards are made at the discretion of the jury and vary according to merit, need, and number of applications. Awardees are announced six to eight weeks after the deadline. For the complete guidelines, application forms, and a fuller grant description, please visit the Meiss section of the CAA website or write to nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: March 15, 2013.
Image: The University of Oklahoma Press received a Meiss grant in fall 2010 to help publish Megan E. O’Neil’s book, Engaging Ancient Maya Sculpture at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (2012).
Recipients of CAA’s Meiss and Wyeth Publishing Grants
posted by Christopher Howard — December 11, 2012
CAA has awarded grants to the publishers of eighteen books in art history and visual culture through two programs: the Millard Meiss Publication Fund and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant.
Wyeth Grant Recipients
CAA is pleased to announce seven recipients of the annual Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant, established in 2005. Thanks to a generous grant from the Wyeth Foundation, these awards are given annually to publishers to support the publication of one or more book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art, visual studies, and related subjects. For this grant program, “American art” is defined as art created in the United States, Canada, and Mexico through 1970.
Receiving 2012 grants are:
- Katherine A. Bussard, Unfamiliar Streets: Photographs by Richard Avedon, Charles Moore, Martha Rosler, and Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, Yale University Press
- Melissa Dabakis, The American Corinnes: Women Sculptors and the Eternal City, 1850–1876, Pennsylvania State University Press
- Michael Lobel, Becoming an Artist: John Sloan, the Ashcan School, and Popular Illustration, Yale University Press
- Amy F. Ogata, Designing the Creative Child: Playthings and Places in Midcentury America, University of Minnesota Press
- John Ott, Manufacturing the Modern Patron in Victorian California: Cultural Philanthropy, Industrial Capital, and Social Authority, Ashgate
- Rachel Sailor, Meaningful Places: Local Landscape Photography in the Nineteenth-Century American West and Its Legacy, University of New Mexico Press
- George E. Thomas, Frank Furness and the Poetry of the Present: Architecture in the Age of the Great Machines, University of Pennsylvania Press
Eligible for the grant are book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art, visual studies, and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher on their merits but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy. Authors must be current CAA members. Please review the application guidelines for more information.
Meiss Grant Winners
This fall, CAA awarded grants to the publishers of eleven books in art history and visual culture through the Millard Meiss Publication Fund. Thanks to the generous bequest of the late Prof. Millard Meiss, CAA gives these grants to support the publication of scholarly books in art history and related fields.
The grantees for fall 2012 are:
- Paroma Chatterjee, The Living Icon in Medieval Art, Cambridge University Press
- Anthony Colantuono and Steven F. Ostrow, eds., Critical Perspectives on Early Modern Roman Sculpture, Pennsylvania State University Press
- T. J. Demos, Migrations: The Politics of Documentary during Global Crisis, Duke University Press
- Jennifer Doyle, Hold It against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art, Duke University Press
- Dorita Hannah, Event Space: Theatre Architecture and the Historical Avant-Garde, Routledge
- Cara Krmpotich and Laura Peers, This Is Our Life: Haida People, Collections, and International Museums, University of British Columbia Press
- Asa Simon Mittman and Susan M. Kim, Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
- Bibiana Obler, Intimate Collaborations: Gender, Craft, and the Emergence of Abstraction, Yale University Press
- Dorothy C. Rowe, After Dada: Marta Hegemann and the Cologne Avant-Garde, Manchester University Press
- Linda Safran, Art and Identity in the Medieval Salento, University of Pennsylvania Press
- Robert Slifkin, Out of Time: Philip Guston and the Refiguration of Postwar American Art, University of California Press
Books eligible for Meiss grants must already be under contract with a publisher and on a subject in the visual arts or art history. Authors must be current CAA members. Please review the application guidelines for more information.
Image: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts building, built by the American architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt, opened in 1876 (photograph by the Detroit Publishing Company, 1900)
Recipients of the 2013 CAA International Travel Grants
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — November 21, 2012
CAA is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of its International Travel Grant Program, generously funded by the Getty Foundation. Twenty art historians, including professors, curators, and artists who teach art history, will attend the upcoming Annual Conference in New York, taking place February 13–16, 2013. This is the second consecutive year that CAA has received a Getty grant to support the program.
Please read the full article to learn more about the twenty recipients, who come from the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
In addition to covering travel expenses, hotel accommodations, and per diems, the CAA International Travel Grant Program includes conference registration and a one-year CAA membership. At the conference, the twenty recipients will be paired with hosts, who will introduce them to CAA and to specific colleagues who share their interests. CAA is grateful to the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA) for its generous support in underwriting the hosts’ expenses. Members of CAA’s International Committee have agreed to serve as hosts, along with representatives from NCHA and CAA’s Board of Directors. This year, the program will begin with a one-day preconference for grant recipients and their hosts in New York on February 12.
CAA is delighted by the range of interests and accomplishments of this year’s grant recipients and looks forward to welcoming them in New York.
Image: Ding Ning, a professor and vice dean of the School of Arts at Peking University in China, is a 2013 travel-grant recipient.
Help Spread the Word about CAA Travel Grants
posted by Christopher Howard — October 02, 2012
Many of you began your CAA membership as students, so you know how important the Annual Conference is for young artists and scholars breaking into the field. From networking to interviewing to attending panels, the conference enables them to get more involved in the visual-arts community and fosters their professional aspirations. Every year, students apply for CAA’s travel grant to help them cover the costs of getting to the conference. In the past three years, though, CAA has only assisted about 30 percent of those who apply. Please help CAA’s student members to reap the benefits of the Annual Conference by increasing our travel-grant fund through Indiegogo, a crowd-funding website! Make a contribution yourself or share our campaign via Facebook, Twitter, or other social media by reposting this link: http://igg.me/p/230278?a=1266837. Every share increases the chance that we’ll meet our goal of raising $4,000!
We at CAA greatly appreciate your membership and commitment.
Travel Grants to Attend the 2013 Annual Conference in New York
posted by Lauren Stark — August 02, 2012
CAA offers Annual Conference Travel Grants to graduate students in art history and studio art and to international artists and scholars. In addition, the Getty Foundation has funded the second year of a program that enables twenty applicants from outside the United States to attend the 2013 Annual Conference in New York. Applicants may apply for more than one grant but can only receive a single award.
CAA Graduate Student Conference Travel Grant
CAA will award a limited number of $250 Graduate Student Conference Travel Grants to advanced PhD and MFA graduate students as partial reimbursement of travel expenses to attend the 101st Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013, in New York. To qualify for the grant, students must be current CAA members. Successful applicants will also receive a complimentary conference registration. Deadline: September 14, 2012.
CAA International Member Conference Travel Grant
CAA will award a limited number of $500 International Member Conference Travel Grants to artists and scholars from outside the United States as partial reimbursement of travel expenses to attend the 101st Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013, in New York. To qualify for the grant, applicants must be current CAA members. Successful applicants will also receive a complimentary conference registration. Deadline: September 14, 2012.
CAA International Travel Grant Program
The CAA International Travel Grant Program, generously supported by the Getty Foundation, provides funding to twenty art historians, museum curators, and artists who teach art history to attend the 101st Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013, in New York. The grant covers travel expenses, hotel accommodations, per diems, conference registrations, and one-year CAA memberships. For 2013, CAA will offer preconference meetings on February 11 and 12 for grant recipients to present and discuss their common professional interests and issues. Applicants do not need to be CAA members. Deadline extended: August 24, 2012.
Donate to the Annual Conference Travel Grants
CAA’s Annual Conference Travel Grants are funded solely by donations from CAA members—please contribute today. Charitable contributions are 100 percent tax deductible. CAA extends a warm thanks to those members who made voluntary contributions to this fund during the past twelve months.
Image: Joseph Mallord William Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed—The Great Western Railway, 1844, oil on canvas, 35⅞ x 49 in. National Gallery, London (artwork in the public domain)
Join the Millard Meiss Publication Fund Jury
posted by CAA — June 11, 2012
CAA seeks nominations and self-nominations from one member/individual with a specialization in a historic period in Asian, Southeast Asian, American, or Pre-Columbian art to serve on the jury for the Millard Meiss Publication Fund for a four-year term, ending on June 30, 2016. Candidates must be actively publishing scholars with demonstrated seniority and achievement; institutional affiliation is not required.
The Meiss jury awards grants that subsidize the publication of book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects. Members review manuscripts and grant applications twice a year and meet in New York in the spring and fall to select the awardees. CAA reimburses jury members for travel and lodging expenses in accordance with its travel policy.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on another CAA editorial board or committee. Jury members may not themselves apply for a grant in this program during their term of service. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name; self-nominations are also welcome. Please send a letter describing your interest in and qualifications for appointment, a CV, and contact information to: Millard Meiss Publication Fund Jury, College Art Association, 50 Broadway, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10004; or send all materials as email attachments to Alex Gershuny, CAA editorial associate. Deadline: August 8, 2012.
Spring 2012 Recipients of the Millard Meiss Publication Fund
posted by Christopher Howard — June 04, 2012
This spring, CAA awarded grants to the publishers of six books in art history and visual culture through the Millard Meiss Publication Fund. Thanks to the generous bequest of the late professor Millard Meiss, CAA gives these grants to support the publication of scholarly books in art history and related fields.
The six grantees for spring 2012 are:
- Todd Cronan, Matisse, Bergson, and the Philosophical Temper of Modernism, University of Minnesota Press
- John J. Curley, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, and Cold War Visuality: A Conspiracy of Images, Yale University Press
- Laurinda Dixon, The Dark Side of Genius: The Melancholic Persona in Art, ca. 1500–1700, Pennsylvania State University Press
- Dorothy Habel, “When All of Rome Was under Construction”: The Building Process in Baroque Rome, Pennsylvania State University Press
- Mary Ellen Miller and Claudia Lozoff Brittenham, The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Paintings of Bonampak, University of Texas Press
- Diane Radycki, Paula Modersohn-Becker: The First Modern Woman Artist, Yale University Press
Books eligible for Meiss grants must already be under contract with a publisher and on a subject in the visual arts or art history. Authors must be current CAA members. Please review the application guidelines for more information. The deadline for the fall 2012 grant cycle is October 1, 2012.
Apply to the CAA International Travel Grant Program
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — June 01, 2012
The deadline has been extended to Friday, August 24, 2012.
CAA invites individuals to apply to the International Travel Grant Program, generously supported by the Getty Foundation. This program provides funding to twenty art historians, museum curators, and artists who teach art history to attend the 101st Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013, in New York. The grant covers travel expenses, hotel accommodations, per diems, conference registrations, and one-year CAA memberships. For 2013, CAA will offer preconference meetings on February 11 and 12 for grant recipients to present and discuss their common professional interests and issues.
The goal of the program is to increase international participation in CAA and to diversify the organization’s membership (presently seventy-two 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. As they did this year, members of CAA’s International Committee and the National Committee for the History of Art have agreed to host the participants in 2013.
Are You Eligible?
Applicants must be practicing art historians who teach at a university or work as a curator in a museum, or artists who teach art history. They must have a good working knowledge of English and be available to participate in CAA events from February 11 to 17, 2013. Applicants must be able to obtain a travel visa to visit the United States for the duration of the conference. Professionals from developing countries or from nations underrepresented in CAA’s membership are especially encouraged to apply. Applicants do not need to be CAA members. This grant program is not open to graduate students or to those participating in the 2013 conference as chairs, speakers, or discussants.
How to Apply
Please review the application specifications and complete the application form. If you have questions about the process, please email Janet Landay, project director of the CAA International Travel Grant Program.
Applications should include:
- A completed application form
- A two-page version of the applicant’s CV
- A letter of recommendation from the chair, dean, or director of the applicant’s school, department, or museum
Please send all application materials as Word or PDF files to Janet Landay, project director of the CAA International Travel Grant Program.
All application materials must be received by Friday, August 24, 2012. CAA will notify applicants on Monday, October 1, 2012.
Getty Foundation to Fund a Second Year of CAA’s International Travel Grant Program
posted by Christopher Howard — May 23, 2012
For the second year in a row, the Getty Foundation has awarded a major grant to CAA that will enable twenty international professionals to attend the 101st Annual Conference, taking place February 13–16, 2013, in New York. With the Getty grant, CAA will continue its International Travel Grant Program, providing funds to art historians, artists who teach art history, and museum curators for travel expenses, hotel accommodations, per diems, conference registrations, and one-year CAA memberships.
The goal of the project is to increase international participation in CAA and to diversify the organization’s membership (presently seventy-two 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. As they did last year, members of CAA’s International Committee and the National Committee for the History of Art have agreed to host the participants.
For the program’s second year, CAA will offer preconference meetings on February 11 and 12 for grant recipients to present and discuss their common professional interests and issues.
The application process for 2013 grants will open shortly. Professionals from developing countries or from nations underrepresented in CAA’s membership are especially encouraged to apply. A jury assembled by CAA will select the twenty grant recipients. The deadline for applications will be August 15, 2012.