CAA News Today
Troubling Study on US Higher Education
posted by Christopher Howard — December 03, 2008
States are making little or no progress in providing affordable college opportunities or improving college completion rates for their residents, says a report released today by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The findings come as states face massive budget shortfalls that threaten higher-education funding, and the United States continues to lag behind other advanced nations on measures of higher-education performance.
Drawing on nearly two decades of data, the report, Measuring Up 2008, finds that while states have made modest gains in preparing students for college, more students are failing to graduate from high school. While college-enrollment rates for young adults are improving, enrollment rates are declining for older adults. The report also notes that the burden of paying for college is now higher for students in every state, and low college-completion rates have barely improved. Additionally, disparities persist in college access and success by income, race and ethnicity, and state.
According to the study, major gaps include:
- Affordability. The burden of paying for college has increased for all families but has increased substantially more for low- and middle-income families. Nationally, families in the lowest-income group (bottom 20 percent of the population) pay 55 percent of their income to attend public four-year colleges and universities (after accounting for all student financial aid)—a jump from 39 percent in 2000. Families in the middle-income group (middle 20 percent of the population) pay 25 percent of their income (up from 18 percent in 2000), and those in the top income group (top 20 percent of the population) pay 9 percent of their income (up from 7 percent in 2000). (See page 8 of Measuring Up 2008.)
- Additionally, college is more affordable in some states than others. At community colleges, the proportion of family income needed to pay for college expenses, after financial aid, has increased from 18 percent to 25 percent in Florida, and from 20 percent to 25 percent in Washington State. At public four-year institutions, the percentage of income needed to pay costs, after aid, has increased from 17 percent to 20 percent in Minnesota, from 19 percent to 34 percent in New Jersey, and from 29 percent to 41 percent in Pennsylvania. (See page 15.)
- High school completion. In Illinois, 95 percent of white young adults have a high school credential, compared with 82 percent of blacks. In Texas, 93 percent of white young adults have a high school credential, compared with 74 percent of Hispanics. (See page 14.)
- College attendance. In Connecticut and New York, 50 percent of white young adults are enrolled in college, compared with 34 percent of blacks. In California, 45 percent of whites are enrolled, compared with 27 percent of Hispanics. In Arizona, 40 percent of whites are enrolled, compared with 18 percent of Native Americans. (See page 14.)
- College graduation. In Delaware, 73 percent of white students complete a bachelor’s degree within six years of enrolling in college, compared with 41 percent of black students. In New York, 63 percent of whites do so, compared with 43 percent of Hispanics. In New Mexico, 47 percent of whites graduate within six years, compared with 25 percent of Native Americans. (See page 16.)
As a result of these inequities, US higher-education performance has been declining compared to other nations in recent years.
- In college completion, which has never been a strength of American higher education, the US falls in the middle of the pack: fifteenth among twenty-nine countries compared
- The US adult population ages thirty-five and older still ranks among the world leaders (second only to their peers in Canada) in the percentage who have college degrees, reflecting the educational progress of earlier times
- Among twenty-five- to thirty-four-year-olds, however, the US has slipped to tenth in the percentage having college degrees. This relative erosion of our national “educational capital” reflects the lack of significant improvement in the rates of college participation and completion in the US in recent years, compared with other countries
Measuring Up 2008 is the fifth in a series of biennial report cards issued by the National Center, based in San Jose, California. Like the earlier reports, this edition measures the performance of the nation and of each state in providing education and training beyond high school. Each state receives an A-to-F grade in each of five performance areas.
In addition to the national report card, detailed individual report cards are available for each of the fifty states. Upon release of Measuring Up 2008, the national and state report cards will be posted on the National Center’s website.
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education promotes public policies that enhance Americans’ opportunities to pursue and achieve a quality higher education. Established in 1998 by a consortium of national foundations, the center is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. It is not associated with any institution of higher education, with any political party, or with any government agency. The National Center is solely responsible for Measuring Up 2008.
Fall Publication Grants Announced
posted by Christopher Howard — December 03, 2008
CAA has announced the recipients of its two book-grant programs, the Millard Meiss Publication Fund and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant.
Fall Meiss Grant Winners
CAA has awarded six Millard Meiss Publication Grants for fall 2008. Thanks to the generous bequest of the late Prof. Millard Meiss, these grants are given twice annually to publishers to support the publication of scholarly books in art history and related fields.
The grantees are:
- Mehmet-Ali Atac, The Mythology of Kingship in Neo-Assyrian Art (Cambridge University Press)
- Daniel Connolly, The Maps of Matthew Paris: Medieval Journeys through Space, Time, and Liturgy (Boydell and Brewer)
- Joyce de Vries, Caterina Sforza and the Art of Appearances: Gender, Art, and Culture in Early Modern Italy (Ashgate)
- Finbarr Barry Flood, Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Hindu-Muslim Encounter (Permanent Black)
- Victoria George, Whitewash (Pindar Press)
- Roslyn Hammers, Art, Technology, and Labor in Early Modern China (Hong Kong University Press)
Books eligible for a Meiss grant must already be under contract with a publisher and be on a subject in the arts or art history. Authors must be current CAA members. Application criteria and guidelines are available from the CAA Publications Department. Deadlines: March 15 and October 1 of every year.
Wyeth Publication Grant Winners
CAA is pleased to announce five recipients of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant for 2008. Thanks to a second generous three-year 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.
The books receiving a grant are:
- Carol Clark, Charles Deas and 1840s America (University of Oklahoma Press)
- William Innes Homer, The Paris Letters by Thomas Eakins (Princeton University Press)
- Anna Indych-López, Muralism without Walls: Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros in the United States, 1927–1940 (University of Pittsburgh Press)
- Kirk Savage, Monument Wars: Washington, the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape (University of California Press)
- Kristina Wilson, The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925–1935 (Yale University Press)
Books eligible for the Wyeth Grant have been accepted by a publisher on their merits but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy. The topic must be in American art; authors must be current CAA members. Application criteria and guidelines are available from the CAA Publications Department. Deadline: October 1, 2009.
December 2008 Issue of The Art Bulletin Published
posted by Christopher Howard — December 02, 2008
The December 2008 issue of The Art Bulletin, the leading publication of art history in English, has just been published. Your copy will arrive in the mail in the coming days.
In his essay for the journal’s Interventions series, Partha Mitter interrogates the nexus of power and authority that has effectively marginalized non-Western modernism and proposes a revisionist methodology. Alastair Wright, Rebecca M. Brown, Saloni Mathur, and Ajay Sinha write brief responses to Mitter’s text.
For “The Body of Eve in Andrea Pisano’s Creation Relief,” Jack M. Greenstein examines the artist’s treatment of the figures in the fourteenth-century Creation of Eve panel on the campanile of Florence Cathedral, which set a new standard for naturalism in relief sculpture.
With “In Form We Trust: Neoplatonism, the Gold Standard, and the Machine Art Show,” Jennifer Jane Marshall considers the Museum of Modern Art’s 1934 exhibition as a case study for investigating interwar American modernism’s negotiation between meaning, materiality, and value. Also in twentieth-century art, Claude Cernuschi and Andrzej Herczynski clarify the mechanics of Jackson Pollock’s handling of liquid paint under gravity and the broader implications for the meaning and ethos of his work.
The reviews section includes Ellen T. Baird’s assessment of Elizabeth Hill Boone’s recent book Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate, and Kymberly N. Pinder’s evaluation of the exhibition Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love at the Walker Art Center, among other reviews. Please read the full table of contents for more details.
Morey and Barr Award Finalists
posted by Lauren Stark — November 11, 2008
CAA is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2009 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award and the Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award. The winners of both prizes, along with the recipients of other Awards for Distinction, will be announced in mid-December and presented in February during Convocation at the 2009 Annual Conference in Los Angeles.
The Charles Rufus Morey Book Award honors an especially distinguished book in the history of art, published in any language between September 1, 2007, and August 31, 2008. The finalists are:
- Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, Artisans in Early Imperial China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007)
- Jennifer A. González, Subject to Display: Reframing Race in Contemporary Installation Art (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008)
- D. Fairchild Ruggles, Islamic Gardens and Landscapes (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008)
- Harvey Stahl, Picturing Kingship: History and Painting in the Psalter of Saint Louis (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008)
The Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award for museum scholarship is presented to the author(s) of an especially distinguished catalogue in the history of art, published between September 1, 2007, and August 31, 2008, under the auspices of a museum, library, or collection. The finalists are:
- Tim Barringer, Gillian Forrester, and Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz, eds., Art and Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario and His Worlds (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, in association with Yale University Press, 2007)
- Wolfram Koeppe and Annamaria Giusti, Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, in association with Yale University Press, 2008)
- Terese Tse Bartholomew and John Johnston, eds., The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan (Chicago: Serindia Publications, in association with the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2008)
- Shelley Bennett and Carolyn Sargentson, eds., French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, in association with Yale University Press, 2008)
A second Barr award will be awarded, intended for but not restricted to smaller museums, libraries, or collections. It takes into consideration the size of the collection or exhibition. The two finalists are:
- Phillip Earenfight, ed., A Kiowa’s Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion (Seattle: University of Washington Press, in association with the Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, 2007)
- Ella Reitsma, assisted by Sandrine Ulenberg, Maria Sibylla Merian and Daughters: Women of Art and Science (Zwolle, the Netherlands: Waanders, in collaboration with the Rembrandt House Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008)
Convocation at the 2009 Annual Conference takes place on Wednesday evening, February 25, 5:30–7:00 PM, in West Hall Meeting Room 502AB at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event is free and open to the public.
For more information about CAA’s Awards for Distinction, please contact Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs, at 212-691-1051, ext. 248.
November CAA News Published
posted by Christopher Howard — November 03, 2008
The November CAA News has just been posted to the CAA website. Click on the cover at left to download a PDF of the issue. Printed copies for individual and institutional members will be mailed soon, to arrive in mid-November.
Read about Leonardo López Luján, the renowned archaeologist who is giving the keynote address at Convocation at the 2009 Annual Conference in Los Angeles, and about Continental Rifts: Contemporary Time-Based Works of Africa, the CAA Annual Exhibition at UCLA’s Fowler Museum curated by Mary Nooter Roberts. The issue also contains important conference information, including how to apply to, and become a mentor for, the Artists’ Portfolio Review and Career Development Mentoring programs.
The deadline for submissions to the January issue is November 10, 2008. Please see the newsletter submission guidelines for instructions or write to Christopher Howard, CAA News editor.
Free Digital Images for Scholarly Publications
posted by Christopher Howard — October 16, 2008
CAA reminds you that three major museums—the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York—have made digital images of works from their collections available for free for scholarly publications.
National Gallery
As part of its ongoing commitment to support scholarship and encourage research into England’s collection of old-master paintings, the National Gallery waives reproduction charges for digital images for use in academic books and journals that meet specific criteria and where orders are processed and delivered via its Picture Library website. Authors publishing academic work relating to the gallery’s collection are encouraged to use high-quality digital images available only from National Gallery Images, where charges will be waived for nonprofit, short-run publications. Discounts are also available for image use in student theses, academic presentations or lectures, and noncommercial private use.
Images are available at A4 and A5 at 300 dpi/ppi. The picture files themselves are derived from fully color-calibrated digital-image files created by the National Gallery. The color is therefore consistent across all images in the collection, meaning image users are able to make informed comparisons about color, tone, and brightness, and be assured of consistent color reproduction through to print.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Since early 2007, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has ended charging reproduction fees for its images used in scholarly publications. Publishers will be able to download images from the museum’s collection of more than 25,000 works directly from its website.
The museum keeps a broad definition of “scholarly.” The images will be available to students and teachers, as well as to publishers, for use in their research and coursework. The museum will continue to charge commercial publications, but their termination of fees for reproduction may encourage other institutions to follow suit.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
In 2007 the Metropolitan Museum of Art formed a partnership, called Images for Academic Publishing, with the nonprofit digital-image provider ARTstor to offer high-resolution digital images of artworks in its collection for scholarly publication—free of charge. This initiative is intended to make it easier and less expensive for authors and publishers license images for reproduction. Under a special agreement with ARTstor, this service will be available to users—both individual and institutional—who are not ARTstor subscribers.
With this important step in overcoming a longstanding obstacle to scholarly art publication, the museum aims to serve its scholarly mission by disentangling many of its most frequently requested works of art from the burden of permissions paperwork—and from the confusion that often accompanies image rental, artwork copyright, photographic copyright, and licensing. Included are many works whose copyrights have expired (generally, works created before 1923 or whose creators died more than seventy years ago) are in this cluster of images. In some instances, however, third-party copyright permissions may be needed (such as where the underlying work in an image is still under copyright). Other terms and conditions also apply.
More Information
For more information on CAA’s work on digital images, publishing, copyright, and more, please see the Intellectual Property and the Arts section of the website.
CAA Summary of Editorial Workshop
posted by Christopher Howard — September 24, 2008
CAA held an editorial workshop in July to discuss the advantages and legal risks of publishing—journals, websites, conference sessions, publications, and the like—in an international environment, and to explore protective practices and policies that could be considered by CAA in the future. The workshop brought together legal experts, censorship experts, free-speech advocates, and commercial and university-press publishers together with members of the CAA Board of Directors, the editors and reviews editors of Art Journal, The Art Bulletin, and caa.reviews, and CAA staff.
CAA has prepared and is making available this summary of the workshop discussion to inform CAA and its members, as well as other organizations and individuals, when considering these issues. These notes do not represent CAA policy, nor do they constitute legal advice. CAA hopes, however, that they will be of use to authors and editors in developing and implementing appropriate editorial processes in connection with their publishing activities.
CAA Offers Publications Grants
posted by CAA — September 10, 2008
CAA awards grants to publishers to support the publications of books in art history, visual studies, and related subjects. Millard Meiss Publications Grants are given twice annually, and Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grants are awarded in the fall.
Millard Meiss Publication Grants
CAA awards Millard Meiss Publication Grants to support book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art 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. For complete guidelines, application forms, and grant description, please visit www.collegeart.org/meiss or write to nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2008.
Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant
Thanks to a second generous three-year grant from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, CAA awards a publication grant to support book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art and related subjects. Books eligible for the Wyeth Grant have been accepted by a publisher on their merits but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy. For complete guidelines, application forms, and grant description, please visit www.collegeart.org/wyeth or write to nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: October 1, 2008.
New Study on PhD Completion
posted by Christopher Howard — September 09, 2008
Inside Higher Ed reports that a new study from the Council of Graduate Schools reveals that significant gaps exist—by demographic groups and academic disciplines—in who finishes PhD programs. Generally, foreign, male, and white students are more likely to earn their doctorates after ten years than are their counterparts who are American, female, or minority. The study is part of the council’s PhD Completion Project, a seven-year, grant-funded initiative that addresses the issues surrounding PhD completion and attrition.
The report, PhD Completion and Attrition: Analysis of Baseline Demographic Data from the PhD Completion Project, is the second in a series of monographs from the council. It focuses on ten-year and seven-year completion rates by demographic characteristics (gender, citizenship, and race/ethnicity) based on data, submitted by twenty-four institutions, on students who entered their PhD programs in academic years 1992–93 through 2003–4. The report presents cumulative and annual completion rates from various perspectives: overall, by field, by institution type, and by time of entry into the PhD program. Completion between years seven and ten is also discussed.
Report on Arts Education and Funding Published
posted by Christopher Howard — September 09, 2008
Policymakers have underestimated the critical role of arts learning in supporting a vibrant nonprofit cultural sector, according to a RAND Corporation report just published. The study, written by Laura Zakaras and Julia F. Lowell and entitled Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy, was commissioned by the Wallace Foundation and conducted by RAND.
Despite decades of effort to make high-quality works of art available to Americans, demand for the arts has failed to keep pace with supply. Audiences for classical music, jazz, opera, theater, and the visual arts have declined as a percentage of the population, and the percentage of these audiences age thirty and younger has fallen even more.
“For decades, public funding of the arts has focused on building supply and expanding access to the arts, but it has neglected the cultivation of audiences capable of appreciating the arts,” said the coauthor Laura Zakaras, an arts researcher at RAND. “If we are not teaching the young how to engage with works of art, they are not likely to become involved in the arts as adults.”
Calling on evidence that experiencing and studying the arts in childhood increase the likelihood of arts participation later in life, the study recommends policymakers in both the arts and education to devote greater attention to cultivating demand for the arts by supporting more and better arts education.
At the public school level, researchers note, arts content standards have been almost universally mandated by the states and are broadening teaching practices, but state, local, and district policies are not providing the resources or time in the school day to implement these standards. In fact, there is evidence that high-stakes standardized testing has led to reduced class time for the arts and humanities in the past five years, according to the study. Arts organizations and colleges have been helpful in complementing school-based arts education, but it is not enough to fill the void.
Analyzing grant-making data, researchers show that state arts agencies, which have historically focused on providing grants to arts organizations, have directed less than 10 percent of their grants over the last twenty years toward activities that target arts learning. In most states, grants are not part of a comprehensive strategy to promote youth or adult arts learning.
However, some state arts agencies are bucking this trend. Rhode Island and New Jersey, for example, have forged relationships with their state departments of education, other state agencies, and members of the arts community to develop comprehensive statewide plans for improving arts education in public schools.
In New Jersey, the state’s arts agency helped develop a survey of arts education that has raised awareness of the inadequacy of its provision in the schools. Concerned residents are now pushing for the adoption of a number of new policies, including inclusion of per-pupil arts spending in New Jersey’s Comparative Spending Guide for public schools. In Rhode Island, the state arts agency was instrumental in successful efforts to adopt a standards-based high school graduation requirement in the arts.
Based on these findings, the authors recommend that state arts agencies and policymakers gauge how well their states are doing by conducting surveys of arts education; developing specific high school graduation requirements in the arts; recognizing and publicizing arts learning programs considered exceptional by experts in the field; and advocating for changes in state policy that increase the amount and breadth of arts learning opportunities. According to the authors, a healthy demand for the arts is critical to a vibrant nonprofit arts sector. Policies that focus on supporting the supply of the arts and broadening access to the arts are not sufficient for building that demand.