CAA News Today

Bio

Sharon Hecker (BA Yale University cum laude, MA and PhD UC Berkeley) is an art historian and curator specializing in modern and contemporary Italian art. A member of CAA since 1993, she is a leading authority on Italian sculptor Medardo Rosso and has a special interest in material history. She has published extensively on key twentieth-century Italian artists, including essays and articles on Lucio Fontana, Luciano Fabro, Marisa Merz, Giuseppe Penone and Francesco Lo Savio. She was Project Coordinator for Jenny Holzer, the first woman to represent the US at the Venice Biennale, winner of Golden Lion Award for Best Pavilion (1990) and was the liaison between Luciano Fabro and SFMoMA for his US retrospective at SFMoMA, for which she translated his theoretical writings into English. 

Hecker’s books include A Moment’s Monument: Medardo Rosso and the International Origins of Modern Sculpture (UC Press, 2017, awarded CAA’s Millard Meiss Publication Fund and translated into Italian); with Marin R. Sullivan, Postwar Italian Art History: Untying the Knot (Bloomsbury, 2018); with Silvia Bottinelli, Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art (Bloomsbury, 2020); Finding Lost Wax: The Disappearance and Recovery of an Ancient Casting Technique and the Experiments of Medardo Rosso (Brill, 2020); with Peter J. Karol, Posthumous Art, Law and the Art Market: The Afterlife of Art (Routledge, 2022); with Raffaele Bedarida, Curating Fascism: Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today (Bloomsbury, 2022); with Catherine Ramsey-Portolano, Female Cultural Production in Modern Italy: Literature, Art and Intellectual History (Palgrave, 2023); and with Arianna Arisi Rota, Disguising Disease: Italian Political And Visual Culture From Post-Unification To Covid-19 (2023, Routledge, awarded the Columbia University Seminars in Modern Italy Prize). 

Hecker has received fellowships from the Getty, Fulbright, and Mellon Foundations. Her exhibitions include Medardo Rosso: Second Impressions, with Harry Cooper (Harvard University Art Museums, catalogue Yale University Press, 2004); Medardo Rosso: Experiments in Light and Form, with Tamara H. Schenkenberg (Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2017–18); Medardo Rosso: Sight Unseen, with Julia Peyton-Jones (Galerie Ropac, 2018). She is currently organizing an exhibition on Lucio Fontana’s ceramics at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2025).  

Hecker is Series Editor of Bloomsbury Visual Arts’ Visual Cultures and Italian Contexts Series; Deputy Chair of the International Catalogue Raisonné Association (ICRA); member of ICOM; TEFAF Vetting Committee for Sculpture (19th-century to the present), Maastricht/New York (Chair); and Coordinator of the Expert Witness Pool for the Court of Arbitration for Art. She trademarked The Hecker Standard®, a best practices approach for conducting due diligence on artworks. She lives in Milan, Italy. 

View CV

Statement

CAA has been a constant in my professional journey from the time I was an art history graduate student at the University of Minnesota. Since then, I have served on CAA’s International Committee (2012-2015) followed by the Committee on Diversity Practices (2016-2020). As part of the former, I helped host members of one of the earliest cohorts of the CAA-Getty International Program. For the latter, I co-chaired the IDEA Exchange Roundtable “From Diversity to Decolonization: International Art History and its Pedagogy” (2020). I am now deeply honored to be selected by the Nominating Committee as one of the candidates in the upcoming Board of Directors election. It would be a privilege to collaborate with colleagues on the Board, and the membership at large, to support ongoing efforts and to activate new initiatives in advancing CAA’s vision and mission. 

As a historian of Islamic art, my career brought me to Qatar where I now serve as the Director of the Art History Program at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Art’s international campus. Leading an art history department within an art and design institution has made me keenly aware of the challenges the visual arts and humanities collectively face today. In this regard, structures and systems in higher education that provide equitable teaching, learning, and research environments, that foster diversity and inclusion in the truest sense, and that focus holistically on the needs of emerging and established professionals are of great interest to me. As we encounter pressures from pandemics to wars, the demands on educators and the burdens on students, especially in the visual arts, have become all the more acute. Since a good percentage of CAA’s membership falls under those categories, I believe CAA can play a much larger role in facilitating dialogue and actionable outcomes toward more robust and resilient educational and professional models.  

In the last two decades, my own field of Islamic art history has grown tremendously. New methodologies and approaches take into account the complex history of the discipline, its innovative engagement with collections and museums, the strengthening of relationships with creative fields, and the increasing efforts to decolonize curricula and to embrace a path informed by social justice concerns and the climate crisis. Such issues are mirrored across disciplines represented by CAA’s membership, placing the organization at the nexus of pivotal changes and exchanges throughout the visual arts. 

As a board member, I would advocate for expanding and reinforcing CAA’s international engagement, developing more support for emerging professionals and adjunct faculty, and nurturing a space for transdisciplinary scholarship and creative practice. The most important duty of a board member is to serve the membership with care and integrity. I look forward to discussions on how CAA might meaningfully engage upcoming generations of visual artists, designers, curators, art historians, and others. I recognize that CAA cannot be involved in everything for it will lose its ability to function properly, but we can more closely align with the needs of today’s membership and those who will join in the near future. With your support, I hope to work toward that goal. 

View CV

Statement

I believe the future direction of College Art Association should have more diversity. We should look into new and ever-changing field of art by exploring every available technology. I hope to bring new ways of teaching and educating students to think more globally in this industrial and complex world of ours. We must not only think outside of the box, but we can “be” the box. We should find new pathways for our young artists to follow and to explore limitless ways on how all art is made or produced. We need to look into the profession as well as the business of art and how we can connect how art is made and sold and marketed. I think we should bring the business side of creativity to our students. This must be a part of our agenda, namely, to look at many ways to educate our students on how to get work. 

View CV

Statement

I am honored to be nominated to serve on CAA’s Board of Directors. I believe strongly in CAA’s fundamental purposes and want to participate as actively as possible to assure its continued relevance and strength—for the good of its membership, its potential membership, and the broader needs of art and design. 

By training and academic discipline, I am a historian of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art, primarily French and British, with a focus on material culture, in particular the history of dress. I have been active in the professional organizations associated with my research, particularly the Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture and the Costume Society of America, and with CAA as a member of the Education Committee and a member, then chair, of the Professional Practices Committee. In my career at the University of North Texas I have served as department chair, Associate Dean in the College of Visual Arts and Design, and currently as Associate Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School, where my charge is the professional development of the nearly 12,000 graduate and professional students of a tier-one research university that is minority-serving and recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution. 

My goal if elected to serve on the board is simple: to be of service. The mission of CAA as an organization is compelling, the moment is challenging, my expertise and skills are relevant, and I want to be of use. 

View CV

CAA Annual Business Meeting Minutes
Friday, February 18, 2022

1. Welcome + Call to Order – N. Elizabeth Schlatter, CAA President
   1. N. Elizabeth Schlatter called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. CT.
   2. Land acknowledgements.
   3. Thanks paid to staff for their hard work bringing the 2022 Annual Conference to fruition.

    

2. Executive Director’s Report – Meme Omogbai, CAA Executive Director + CEO 
   1. Meme Omogbai welcomed everyone to the 110th Annual Business Meeting and expressed regrets that this could not be an in-person convening as the pandemic necessitated a pivot to virtual meeting.
   2. CAA staff remains focused on meeting commitments to members, based on quantitative and qualitative analysis, surveys and other feedbacks consistent with the fundamentals of our strategic repositioning plan.
   3. CAA’s aim for the 2022 Annual Conference was to create a smaller, more digestible program of 200 vetted and guaranteed sessions in two components, in-person in February and virtual in March, based upon membership feedback.
   4. Throughout the pandemic, the health and safety of members has been CAA’s primary concern. Based on the information and the feedback received from members, specifically concerns about an in-person convening, and close monitoring of the COVID pandemic and omicron strain as well as CDC guidelines, it was decided that the CAA 2022 Annual Conference would pivot to an entirely virtual format while also maintaining the scheduled dates: February 16-19 and March 3-5, with all recordings available through April 14.
   5. It is important to note that during the decision-making process, while the Hilton Chicago remained open, CAA 2022 registration statistics were drastically below what was needed to fulfill the negotiated room block contractual obligations and registration goals.
   6. The pivot to virtual has provided increased access to virtual content, allowing conference attendance to expand and embrace a global audience. In this flexible and accessible format, individuals can hear session content on their own schedule between teaching, family care, and other obligations, including acknowledgement of the climate crisis.
   7. Pricing was also adjusted for virtual access. Everyone registered for all access/in-person was automatically converted to virtual from a rate of $249 to $199 and directed back to portal for self-service options: 1) credit $50 to the next membership renewal; 2) $50 tax deductible donation to CAA; or 3) refund of $50.
   8. This year’s pivot exemplifies our model of constant learning and improvement where we adjust our plans based on feedback and data received. This is just the beginning; as we continue with our repositioning, we will be able to improve our responsiveness and agility in the process of supporting CAA members.

    

3. Approval of Minutes of 109th Annual Business Meeting [ACTION ITEM]
   1. Jennifer Rissler, CAA VP for External Relations, moved to approve the 109th Annual Business Meeting minutes. Niku Kashef, CAA VP for Diversity & Inclusion, seconded the motion.
   2. 81% of attendees (25 people) voted to approve; 19% of attendees (6 people) abstained. The minutes were approved.

    

4. Financial Report – Georgia Harrell, CAA Treasurer + Robert Tofolo, CAA Head of Operations
   1. 1. As of June 30, 2021, the association posted a breakeven operating budget with revenue including investment spinoff matching expenses and meeting our forecasts and budget expectations. The association continues to manage expenses within revenue means. Operating revenue totaled $3,001,778 verses prior year $3,321,000.
      2. Excerpts of the audited financial statements for fiscal year 2021 will be posted on the Association’s website. Complete audited financial statements have been provided and made available via guidestar.org and charitiesnys.com.
      3. In March of 2021, the association received a second payroll protection loan of $352,195 as part of the national CARES Act. This loan was fully forgiven in February 2022.
      4. As of June 30, 2021, there were 6,095 individual members down 9% from 6,699 prior year; this is reflective of continued systemic and pandemic impacts. There were also 367 institutional members versus prior year numbers of 443.
      5. The market value of the association’s investment portfolio as of June 30 was $11,946,566 versus a prior year balance of 9,825,458 million. The portfolio continues to be managed by investment managers at Boston Trust, now named Boston Trust Walden Company, under the supervision of the finance committee of the CAA Board of Directors.Georgia Harrell presented the financial report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021.
   2. Robert Tofolo presented an update on conference attendance and CAA’s strategic plan.
      1. As of today, February 18, 2022, 2038 attendees have registered for the 2022 conference. We will provide a final tally for attendance after March 5, 2022.
      2. In 2020, CAA implemented a five-year strategic plan to create a sustainable business model that can support operations and allow for endowment growth through responsible and streamlined operations. Although we are now operating within our means, we know that membership dues no longer support the operations of the association: combined revenues of dues, Annual Conference, and publications in fiscal 2021 only covered 63% of our operating expenses.
      3. In response to this, we are working to redesign our membership tiers in order to provide an accessible entry point to CAA.
      4. In November 2021 we introduced a new user portal which will function as a central nervous system for the member experience, enabling a unique “myCAA” experience tailored to each individual’s member journey.

    

5. Old/New Business
   1. No old/new business was raised.

    

6. Board Member Election Results – N. Elizabeth Schlatter, CAA President
   1. Gregory Gilbert, Nazar Kozak, Karen Leader, and Adity Saxena were elected to serve a four-year term on the Board of Directors, beginning in May 2022.
   2. Victoria McCraven was elected as an Emerging Professional Board member and will serve a two-year term.

    

7. Adjourn

Respectfully submitted by Maeghan Donohue, CAA Manager of Strategic Planning, Diversity, and Governance.