CAA News Today
Recipients Selected for 2014 CAA International Travel Grants
posted Oct 07, 2013
In an effort to promote greater interaction and exchange between American and international art historians and artists, CAA offers twenty International Travel Grants to bring colleagues from around the world to its Annual Conference, to be held next year in Chicago from February 12 to 15, 2014. This is the third year of the program, which has been generously funded by the Getty Foundation since its inception. CAA is pleased to announce this year’s recipients—professors of art history, curators, and artists who teach art history—who were selected by a jury of CAA members from a highly competitive group of applicants. Their names and affiliations are listed below.
In addition to covering travel expenses, hotel accommodations, and per diems, the CAA International Travel Grants include 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. Members of CAA’s International Committee have agreed to serve as hosts, along with representatives from the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA) and CAA’s Board of Directors. CAA is grateful to NCHA for renewing its generous underwriting of the hosts’ expenses. The program will begin on February 11 with an introductory preconference for grant recipients and their hosts.
CAA hopes that this travel-grant program will not only increase international participation in the organization’s activities, but also expand international networking and the exchange of ideas both during and after the conference. The Getty-funded International Travel Grant Program supplements CAA’s regular program of Annual Conference Travel Grants for graduate students and international artists and scholars. We look forward to welcoming the grant recipients in Chicago at the next Annual Conference.
2014 Recipients of CAA International Travel Grants
- Rael Artel, Director, Tartu Art Museum, Estonia
- Eric Appau Asante, Lecturer, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
- Cezar Tadeu Bartholomeu, Professor of Art History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Laris Borić, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of Zadar, Croatia
- Eddie M. P. Butindo-Mbaalya, Lecturer, Kyambogo University, Uganda
- Josephina de la Maza Chevesich, Assistant Professor, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile
- Katerina Zdravkova Gadjeva, Assistant Professor, Institute of Art Studieso, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Bulgaria
- Heba Nayal Barakat Hassanein, Head, Curatorial Affairs Department, Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia
- Lilianne Lugo Herrera, Professor and Vice Dean, Research and Postgraduate Studies, University of Arts, Cuba
- Heuman Tchana Hugues, Junior Lecturer, University of Maroua/Higher Institute of the Sahel, Camaroon
- Kanwal Khalid, Assistant Professor, Lahore College for Women University, Pakistan
- Mahmuda Khnam, Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic History & Culture, Jagannath University, Bangladesh
- Daria Kostina, Lecturer in Art History, Ural Federal University, and curator of B. U. Kashkin Museum, Yekaterinburg, Russia
- Portia Malatjie, Lecturer, Art History and Visual Culture Rhodes University, South Africa
- Susana S. Martins, Lecturer and Research Fellow, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
- Fernando Luis Martinez Nespral, Head Professor and Researcher, University of Buenos Aires, School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism, Argentina
- Magdalena Anna Nowak, Assistant Curator, National Museum in Warsaw, Poland
- Freeborn O. Odiboh, Associate Professor of Art History and Criticism, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
- Adriana Oprea, Archivist and Researcher, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Romania
- Ahmed E. Wahby, Lecturer and Vice Dean for Student Affairs, German University in Cairo, Egypt
2014 Annual Conference Website Goes Live
posted Oct 02, 2013
The website for the 102nd Annual Conference in Chicago, to be held from Wednesday, February 12 to Saturday, February 15, 2014 at the Hilton Chicago, goes live today. Get a taste of conference highlights and discover all that comes with registration, including access to all program sessions and admission to the Book and Trade Fair.
The CAA Annual Conference is the world’s largest international forum for professionals in the visual arts, offering more than two hundred stimulating sessions, panel discussions, roundtables, and meetings. CAA anticipates more than five thousand artists, art historians, students, curators, critics, educators, art administrators, and museum professionals will be in attendance.
Online registration is now open, and hotel reservations and travel accommodations can be booked (don’t forget to use the exclusive CAA discount codes to save money!). Register before the early deadline, December 13, to get the lowest rate and ensure your place in the Directory of Attendees. You may also purchase tickets for special events such as the Opening Reception at the Art Institute of Chicago following the presentation of the annual Awards for Distinction, as well as professional-development workshops on a variety of topics for artists and scholars.
CAA will regularly update the conference website in the months leading up to the four-day event, so please be sure to check back often. Averaging more than 40,000 unique visitors per month, the Annual Conference website is the essential source for up-to-the-minute updates regarding registration, session listings, and hotel and travel discounts. Download the Website Advertising Reservation and Contract for rates and terms.
We look forward to seeing you in Chicago!
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted Oct 02, 2013
Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.
Show and Tell: The Dos and Don’ts of Studio Visits
The reasons for a studio visit are many and varied: a curator is trolling for an exhibition, an artist wants to show new work to a collector or a critic, a dealer is interested in representing the art, or a group of art lovers simply wants to see how an artist puts it all together. Whatever the pretext, certain elemental rules of care and courtesy can make the visit a success for both parties. (Read more in ARTnews.)
Should Artists Show Their Work in Vanity Galleries?
In a recent interview, I was asked where I saw the art-gallery business going in the next ten years. This is a very interesting question and could have resulted in an hour-long conversation on its own. Because I only had a few minutes to reply, I pointed to three crucial trends for the future of the business. For the third trend I predicted that we would see a rise in the number of art galleries charging a fee to show and sell artwork. (Read more in Red Dot Blog.)
NEA Report Says Arts Attendance in the US Continues to Slide
The number of people who attended an art show or a performing-arts event in the United States continues to slide, according to a report released by the National Endowment for the Arts. Theater took the biggest hit among the cultural categories, with attendance for musicals and plays off significantly. In 2012, approximately 33 percent of American adults, or 78 million individuals, visited an art museum or gallery or attended at least one performing-arts event. That’s down from the last time the NEA conducted its survey in 2008, when 34.6 percent adults attended arts events. (Read more in the Los Angeles Times.)
US Arts Funding Hit a Record Low in 2011
Government arts funding in the United States reached a record low in 2011, according to most recent edition of the National Arts Index, published by the nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts. Nevertheless, increased public engagement and positive economic forecasts suggest that the industry is slowly rebounding from the 2008 recession. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
When Tenure-Track Faculty Take On the Problem of Adjunctification
I am part of an unofficial group of tenured faculty at a state institution that relies on many non-tenure-track faculty, but we are not the tenured faculty Ivan Evans refers to in his piece “When the Adjunct Faculty Are the Tenure-Track’s Untouchables.” When we went on the market, getting a tenure-track job already meant you were the one person standing in the rubble-strewn city of your profession. There was no denying the corpses. (Read more in Social Science Space.)
Don’t Be That Dude: Handy Tips for the Male Academic
There is a plethora of research on the causes of hostile environments for women in academia, and on why we have an underrepresentation of women in many fields. There are support groups for women, societies entirely devoted to women academics (broadly and field specific), workshops for women in academia, and countless articles and blogs devoted to the topic. These initiatives are important, but here’s the thing: gender equality has to be a collaborative venture. (Read more in Tenure, She Wrote.)
Three Teaching Styles
The most effective teachers vary their styles depending on the nature of the subject matter, the phase of the course, and other factors. By so doing, they encourage and inspire students to do their best at all times throughout the semester. It is helpful to think of teaching styles according to the three Ds: directing, discussing, and delegating. (Read more in Faculty Focus.)
Constant Conservators: Wear-and-Tear Experts Protect Works at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
In her training as a fine-arts conservator, Ingrid Seyb learned to recognize the enemies of paintings, sculptures, and other priceless works of art: temperatures, humidity, neglect, time’s passage, clumsy repairs, high-heeled shoes—the list seemed endless. As one of sixteen conservators at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, dealing with such menaces was all in a day’s work. (Read more in the Republic.)
BREAKING: Govt Shuts Down the Arts
posted Oct 01, 2013
Americans for the Arts sent the following email on October 1, 2013.
BREAKING: Govt Shuts Down the Arts
October is National Arts and Humanities Month and how does the federal government celebrate? By closing the doors of federally funded museums, parks, zoos and delaying the distribution of NEA grants that enrich our communities.
Today is only a snapshot of what the 49% cut to the NEA could mean for our communities. As arts advocates, we cannot stand by and let this happen! In response, the Arts Action Fund is extending our petition to deliver even more names to Congress. This means we need YOU to take a stand and tell Congress that these drastic cuts are unacceptable.
Will you add your name to our petition?
You have until October 31st to sign this petition and tell your friends to sign as well. The Arts Action Fund has a goal of adding 10,000 new signers by the end of this month to keep the pressure mounting on Congress to not only oppose the 49% cut, but make sure it gets the funding it deserves for 2014.
Please consider adding your name now. We need you!
Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director
October 2013 Picks from CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts
posted Sep 27, 2013
Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts produces a curated list, called CWA Picks, of recommended exhibitions and events related to feminist art and scholarship in North America and around the world.
The CWA Picks for October 2013 consist of several excellent exhibitions of women artists in the United States: Chiharu Shiota at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Eleanor Antin at Columbia University in New York, and Nalini Malani at Galerie Lelong in New York. Also included are two important group shows: She Who Tells a Story, an exhibition of female photographers from the Arab world at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The Beginning Is Always Today, the first major museum survey of Scandinavian feminist art in twenty years.
Check the archive of CWA Picks at the bottom of the page, as several museum and gallery shows listed in previous months may still be on view or touring.
Image Caption
Chiharu Shiota, IN SILENCE at Centre PasquArt, Biel/Bienne, 2008, black wool, burnt grand piano, and burnt chairs (artwork © Chiharu Shiota; photograph by Sunhi Mang and provided by VG Bild Kunst).
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted Sep 25, 2013
Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.
Curators Offer Show of Support for Detroit Institute of Arts in Light of Bankruptcy Case
The Association of Art Museum Curators plans to hold its 2014 Annual Conference in Detroit as a show of support for the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is having some items in its collection assessed following the city’s bankruptcy filing this summer. The May 4–6 conference is expected bring together about three hundred museum curators from around the world, the association said. At least one day of conference programming is to be devoted to the DIA and the importance of its collection. (Read more in Detroit News.)
An Adjunct’s Death Becomes a Rallying Cry for Many in Academe
An op-ed column about the death of a former longtime adjunct faculty member at Duquesne University has drawn new attention to the working conditions of instructors off the tenure track. The column, published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, says that Margaret Mary Vojtko was underpaid and underappreciated during her twenty-five years of teaching French at the Roman Catholic university, and that she was nearly destitute when she died, on September 1, at the age of 83. (Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Open to All?
Does free admission guarantee accessibility to art? It’s now nearly twelve years since it became mandatory for publicly funded museums and galleries in the United Kingdom to offer free admission. While visitor numbers have rocketed, studies have shown that the demographics of visitors have barely shifted. In essence, those from low-income backgrounds are still massively underrepresented. (Read more in Frieze Blog.)
Refuting the Myths about the Armory Show
One hundred years ago, some 87,000 New Yorkers packed into the 69th Regiment Armory over the course of a month to see nearly 1,400 works of modern art by more than three hundred international artists. Research for exhibitions commemorating the centennial of the notorious Armory Show, however, reveals that it included more American, historical, and even female artists than many accounts include. (Read more in ARTnews.)
Using Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Proactive Approach for Online Learning
There are two main forms of assessment often used within the online classroom. Both formative and summative assessments evaluate student learning and assist instructors in guiding instructional planning and delivery. While the purpose of a summative assessment is to check for mastery following the instruction, formative assessment focuses on informing teachers in ways to improve student learning during lesson delivery. Each type of assessment has a specific place and role within education, both traditional and online. (Read more in Faculty Focus.)
Tracking Stolen Art, for Profit, and Blurring a Few Lines
Early in the morning of May 11, 1987, someone smashed through the glass doors of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, removed a Matisse from a wall, and fled. All it took was daring and a sledgehammer. The whereabouts of the painting, Le Jardin, remained a mystery until the work was found last year and made a celebratory trip home in January. But law enforcement played no role. The return was facilitated by the Art Loss Register, a London-based company that over the last two decades has evolved into a little-noticed but increasingly integral part of art investigation around the world. (Read more in the New York Times.)
Getty Lab Cleans Jackson Pollock’s 1943 Mural—What a Difference!
When does a Jackson Pollock painting look more like a Jackson Pollock painting? Simple: When it’s clean. That’s the not-altogether surprising thought that came to mind when I dropped by the J. Paul Getty Museum’s conservation lab the other day to check out progress on Pollock’s monumental 1943 Mural. Star of the collection at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, the epic painting had arrived in Los Angeles a year ago for extensive treatment. (Read more in the Los Angeles Times.)
The New Economy of Letters
Every day, more scholars are writing more words for less money than ever before: they are self-publishing and tweeting and blogging and MOOC-ing. Much of this is all to the good, especially insofar as it disseminates knowledge. The new economy of letters, however, hasn’t made academic writing better, but it has made it harder for certain kinds of intellectuals to be heard. All the noise has silenced the modest, the untenured, and the politically moderate. (Read more in the Chronicle Review.)
New Faces for CAA Journals
posted Sep 23, 2013
The president of the CAA Board of Directors, Anne Collins Goodyear, has confirmed new appointments to the editorial boards of CAA’s three scholarly journals and to the Publications Committee, in consultation with the vice president for publications, Suzanne Preston Blier. The appointments took effect on July 1 and in late August 2013.
The Art Bulletin
The three new members of the Art Bulletin Editorial Board are: Sarah Betzer, assistant professor of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art and director of the undergraduate program in art history at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; Rita Freed, a historian of Egyptian art and chair of the Department of Art of the Ancient World at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Massachusetts; and Glenn Peers, a professor of medieval art at the University of Texas at Austin. They will serve four-year terms, through June 30, 2017. In addition, Goodyear appointed David Getsy of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois to a two-year term as editorial-board chair.
Art Journal
The new member at large for the Art Journal Editorial Board is Juan Vicente Aliaga, a curator and a professor of modern and contemporary art and theory at Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain.
caa.reviews
The caa.reviews Editorial Board welcomes David Raskin as editor designate through June 30, 2014. Raskin is professor of contemporary art history in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism and chair of the Department of Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. Juliet Bellows, assistant professor of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art in the Department of Art at American University in Washington, DC, joins the editorial board for a three-year term.
New field editors for the journal are: Suzanne Hudson, a historian of modern and contemporary art at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and an active critic, as field editor for reviews of exhibitions of modern and contemporary art on the West Coast; Kevin Murphy, chair of the History of Art Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, as field editor for books on architecture and urbanism from 1800 to the present; Kristoffer Neville, assistant professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of California, Riverside, as field editor for books on architecture and urbanism, pre-1800; Andrei Pop, assistant professor of art history at Universität Basel in Switzerland, as field editor for books on theory and historiography; and Jason Weems, assistant professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of California, Riverside, as field editor for books on American art.
Joining the caa.reviews Council of Field Editors in late August are: Andrea Bayer, curator in the Department of Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, as field editor for reviews of books on arts administration and museum studies; and Tatiana Flores, associate professor in the Department of Art History at Rutgers University, as field editor for exhibitions on modern and contemporary art in New York and internationally.
Publications Committee
Susan Higman Larsen joins CAA’s Publications Committee. Larsen is director of publications at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan and an adjunct professor in the graduate program in museum studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Volunteer for the Mock Interview Sessions in Chicago
posted Sep 19, 2013
For the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago, the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee seeks established professionals to volunteer as practice interviewers for the Mock Interview Sessions. Participating as an interviewer is an excellent way to serve the field and to assist with the professional development of the next generation of artists and scholars.
In these sessions, interviewers pose as a prospective employer, speaking with individuals in a scenario similar to the Interview Hall at the conference. Each session is composed of approximately 10–15 minutes of interview questions and a quick review of the application packet, followed by 5–10 minutes of candid feedback. Whenever possible, the committee matches interviewers and interviewees based on medium or discipline.
Interested candidates must be current CAA members and prepared to give six successive twenty-minute interviews with feedback in a two-hour period on one or both of these days: Thursday, February 13, 1:00–3:00 PM and 4:00–6:00 PM; and Friday, February 14, 9:00–11:00 AM and 2:30–4:30 PM. Conference registration, while encouraged, is not required to be a mock interviewer. Desired for the sessions are art historians, art educators, designers, museum-studies professionals, critics, curators, and studio artists with tenure and/or experience on a search committee. You may volunteer for one, two, three, or all four Mock Interview Sessions.
Please send your name, affiliation, position, contact information, and the days and times that you are available to Megan Koza Young, chair of the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee.
The Mock Interview Sessions are not intended as a screening process by institutions seeking new hires.
Practice Your Interviewing Technique at the Chicago Conference
posted Sep 19, 2013
Students and emerging professionals have the opportunity to sign up for a twenty-minute practice interview at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago. Organized by the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee, Mock Interview Sessions give participants the chance to practice their interview skills one on one with a seasoned professional, improve their effectiveness during interviews, and hone their elevator speech. Interviewers also provide candid feedback on application packets.
Mock Interview Sessions are offered free of charge; you must be a CAA member to participate. Sessions are filled by appointment only and scheduled for Thursday, February 13, 1:00–3:00 PM and 4:00–6:00 PM; and Friday, February 14, 9:00–11:00 AM and 2:30–4:30 PM. Conference registration, while encouraged, is not necessary to participate.
To apply, download, complete, and send the Mock Interview Sessions Enrollment form to Megan Koza Young, chair of the Student and Emerging Professionals Committee. You may enroll in one twenty-minute session.
You will be notified of your appointment day and time by email. Please bring your application packet, including cover letter, CV, and other materials related to jobs in your field. The Student and Emerging Professionals Committee will make every effort to accommodate all applicants; however, space is limited.
Onsite enrollment will be limited and first-come, first-served. Sign up in the Student and Emerging Professionals Lounge starting on Wednesday, February 12, at 4:00 PM.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted Sep 18, 2013
Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.
In Detroit, a Case of Selling Art and Selling Out
These days, the message screens above the main ticket desk at the Detroit Institute of Arts regularly flash the phrase “Thank You Voters.” Unusual as it may seem among announcements about exhibitions and events at this world-class museum, it belongs there. On August 7, 2012, the citizens of the three counties that contain and surround Detroit—Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb—voted in favor of a ten-year commitment to a small increase in real-estate taxes that would guarantee the institute $23 million a year, roughly two-thirds of its annual operating budget. (Read more in the New York Times.)
Sunday Dialogue: Sell Masterpieces to Help Save a City
The choice being debated in Detroit—whether to sell works from the Detroit Institute of Arts to help pay the city’s debts—is agonizing. How can we equate a few pieces of canvas with paint on them with the pensions of thousands of firefighters, nurses, police officers, teachers, and other civil servants? (Read more in the New York Times.)
More Humanities PhDs
New doctoral enrollments in the arts and humanities have been going up modestly—an average of 1 percent annually—for a decade. But data being released by the Council of Graduate Schools show that in fall 2012, arts and humanities doctoral programs saw a 7.7 percent increase—a surprising jump given the difficulty many new PhDs in those fields have in finding jobs. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
Insider Tips from the Art World’s Social-Media Pros (Part Three)
To get a better sense of how museums and art organizations are adapting to and embracing the increasing centrality of social media to their missions, Blouin Artinfo spoke to the experts: the people behind some of the art world’s richest and most rewarding social-media accounts. For this third and final installment in a three-part series, we put some questions to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the public-relations firm Fitz & Co, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and Creative Time. (Read more from Blouin Artinfo.)
Help Desk: Padding the Résumé
Artists are routinely asked to donate work toward the benefit of an organization. I have reached the point where I am not sure how my participation ranks along with my overall exhibition history. What is a suitable way (if any) to list auctions, charitable donations, or benefit shows on my CV? Furthermore, when panels or curators view résumés, do they view these things as positive qualities or simply as résumé padding? (Read more in Daily Serving.)
Know the Vital Players in Your Career: The Chair
In a series of essays starting with this one, I will look at the crucial professional players—found in every academic department, no matter the discipline or the institution—who can profoundly affect the progress (or lack thereof) of your career. The most crucial dyad for a new faculty member is usually you and your department head. The chair (a catchall title I will use here for ease of reference) might be the person who has the greatest sway over you from the start: in hiring, through the promotion-and-tenure stage, and beyond. (Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Keeping Students Engaged in the Online Classroom
As an online instructor, I can fulfill the minimum requirements of the university regarding interacting with students, or I can create a learning environment that facilitates student engagement in the classroom. Students enroll in online classes because of scheduling flexibility, work-life-school balance, costs, and convenience. Although online learning holds many advantages, the potential drawbacks revolve around the lack of personal interaction between the instructor and student, as well as the student-to-student contact. Keeping students engaged in the course is a vital function of an effective instructor. (Read more from Faculty Focus.)
“If You Want to Be My Student”
Like any good graduate adviser, Chris Blattman expects a lot from his students. But just how he’s expressing those expectations has generated a fair amount of discussion at Columbia University, where he is an assistant professor of political science and international and public affairs, as well as some talk outside its walls. Blattman, who is known for his frank approach to decoding college and graduate school for students on his blog, outlines protocol for would-be advisees in a new post called “If you want to be my student.” (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)