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CAA News Today

Americans for the Arts sent the following email on February 10, 2011. CAA urges you to join the fight to save funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Americans for the Arts Email

Next week, the U.S. House of Representatives will bring to the House floor, a Continuing Resolution (CR) appropriations package that proposes to cut dozens of federal agencies and programs for the balance of the current 2011 fiscal year (March 5 through September 30). Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee revealed details of what some of the cuts will be in this CR package and they include cutting the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) budget to $155 million this year. That’s a substantial cut from its currently funded level of $167.5 million.

The battle begins next week when the House CR appropriations package comes to the floor. Each and every one of your Representatives will be voting on possible amendments attempting to make even deeper cuts to the NEA’s budget, beyond the $155 million level. It is quite possible members of the Republican Study Committee will offer amendments to fully eliminate the NEA during floor consideration. We need you to send a message to your Members to vote against any amendments to further cut the NEA.

Because of these threats in the House, we are simultaneously working on the Senate strategy; where there may be a better chance to approve a higher funding level for the NEA and counter the cuts in the House version of this bill. By taking two minutes today to send a customizable message via our E-Advocacy Center, we will automatically send letters on your behalf to both your Senators and your House Representative. This will ensure that your voice will be heard by Members of Congress (especially freshmen members), who are now assessing their constituents’ viewpoints on these budget cuts.

Also be on the lookout for our alert on President Obama’s official FY 2012 budget submission to Congress on Monday, February 14. While that budget is for a different fiscal year than the CR that we’ll be dealing with next week, it will signal to the House and Senate the President’s funding intentions for the very same agencies that Congress is considering cutting.

Help us continue this important work by becoming an official member of the Arts Action Fund. If you are not already a member play your part by joining the Arts Action Fund today—it’s free and simple.

Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts selects the best in feminist art and scholarship. The following panels and exhibitions should not be missed. 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.

February 2011

Lorna Simpson: Gathered
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238
January 28–August 14, 2011

Lorna Simpson first received critical recognition in the mid-1980s for a series of large-scale works using photography and text to confront and challenge conventional interpretations of gender, identity, culture, history, and memory. Her most recent museum show, Lorna Simpson: Gathered, continues this approach with a series of photographs and a photographic installation created since her retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2007.

Feminist Art Project

TFAP@CAA Day of Panels
Feminist Art Project
Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019
February 12, 2011

For the sixth year in a row, the Feminist Art Project has organized a series of special events in conjunction with CAA’s Annual Conference. Free and open to the public, the TFAP@CAA Day of Panels will bring together artists, art historians, curators, and critics for dialogues on four topics: “The Problem of Feminist Form,” “Institutions and their Feminist Discontents,” “The Erotics of Feminism,” and “Feminism, Art, and War.” Also on the agenda are two conversations: the artist Zoe Leonard talks to Huey Copeland of Northwestern University; and Ayreen Anastas of Pratt Institute will converse with Jaleh Mansoor of Ohio University.

“Sonic Art and Activism: Exploring the Ties between Feminist Art and Popular Music”
Feminist Art Project
Soho20 Chelsea Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 301, New York, NY 10001
February 13, 2011

Taking place on Sunday afternoon, 1:00–3:00 PM, this Feminist Art Project–sponsored panel comprises artists and musicians who will discuss the myriad connections between contemporary feminist art and popular music. Organized and moderated by Kat Griefen and Maria Elena Buszek, member of CAA’ Committee on Women in the Arts, the panel features Damali Abrams, Kathleen Hanna, Lorraine O’Grady, and Shizu Saldamando.

Joan Snyder

Invitation card for Joan Snyder/Intimate Works showing Study for Ancient Night Sounds (1984–85) and Lovers (1989)

Joan Snyder/Intimate Works
Mabel Smith Douglass Library Galleries
Rutgers University, 8 Chapel Drive, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
January 17, 2011–June 5, 2011

As the 2010–11 Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist in Residence, Joan Snyder has spent the last few months at Rutgers University giving classes and public lectures. The forty-five small paintings in this exhibition, mounted in the Rutgers University Library, show how her work has developed over the past four decades. The New Jersey State Council on the Arts has selected Joan Snyder/Intimate Works as part of the American Masterpieces Series in New Jersey. The exhibition also runs concurrently with Dancing with the Dark: Joan Snyder Prints 1963–2010 (January 29–May 29, 2011) at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers.

Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women, and Art
Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington Street, Chicago, IL 60602
January 22–April 13, 2011

Organized by Art Works for Change and curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg, Off the Beaten Path contains works by thirty-two artists—including Marina Abramović, Laylah Ali, and Yoko Ono—that address violence against women and the right of girls and women to have safe and secure lives. The exhibition was first shown in 2009 in Oslo, Norway, and will travel internationally through 2014

Filed under: CWA Picks, Uncategorized — Tags:

Art Journal Unveils Website

posted Feb 09, 2011

CAA has introduced a new website for Art Journal, its quarterly publication of modern and contemporary art. The launch coincides with the start of CAA’s Centennial year.

Katy Siegel, editor-in-chief of Art Journal, writes that the website “both acknowledges current material conditions of art and publishing, and honors the journal’s unique nature…. Rather than attempting to be another rapidly changing aggregator of information, the site will make visible and maintain the dense artistic and scholarly content of Art Journal in print, hopefully serving a need in the international arts community.”

The debut site features free selections from the print journal as well as content created specifically for the site. An essay by the painter David Reed, “Soul-Beating,” relates his first encounters with his mentor and friend Philip Guston and explores their shared fascination with the work of Piero della Francesca. Also from the print edition, a review by the writer and critic Lauren O’Neill-Butler examines the recently published notebooks of the artist Lee Lozano.

The initial web-only offerings are an essay by Howard Singerman, the journal’s reviews editor, on the history and shifting identity of Art Journal, and selected features from its extensive archive, each with a short introduction by a member of the journal’s editorial board. In coming months, the Art Journal site will grow to include time-based art discussed in articles, online artists’ projects, and more conversational modes of scholarship and discourse.

The Art Journal site was generously funded by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Katherine Behar, an artist and assistant professor of new media at Baruch College, will oversee the site. Lauren Cornell of Rhizome advised the organizers, and Brendan Dugan of Supervision Art Service designed the site.

Filed under: Art Journal, Centennial, Publications

With its Centennial in mind, CAA invites members to discuss the future of the organization in three conference forums. The Board of Directors is hosting two Strategic Plan Focus Group Discussions on Thursday and Friday mornings on topics in communication and career enhancement. A third opportunity, the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, takes place on late Friday afternoon.

Strategic Plan Focus Group Discussion Part I: Communication

This first Strategic Plan Focus Group Discussion, led by Sue Gollifer, CAA vice president for Annual Conference, will explore new forms of communication using innovative and improved technology. The session will take place on Thursday, February 10, 7:30 AM–9:00 AM in the Madison Suite, 2nd Floor, Hilton New York.

After presentations by invited participants, who will talk about new forms of CAA communication. The informal panel will be straightforward, quick moving, and guided in the spirit of conversation and sharing. Next, the floor will open to discussion, enabling CAA members to give their input and to raise concerns of their own. The ideas from this session will then feed the Annual Members’ Business Meeting (see below).

CAA’s Nia Page and Christopher Howard will talk about the organization’s traditional and digital communications, and Randall Griffin of Southern Methodist University and Paul Jaskot of DePaul University will discuss e-publishing. Two speakers on social media, Bonnie Mitchell of Bowling Green State University and Cora Lynn Deibler of the University of Connecticut, will close the introductory presentations. Andrea Kirsh, CAA vice president for external affairs, and Judith Thorpe of the University of Connecticut will also be present.

Strategic Plan Focus Group Discussion Part II: Career Enhancement

Jean Miller of the University of North Texas and a CAA board member will lead a conversation about how CAA can improve its advocacy efforts, career-development activities, and workforce issues in order to assist professional growth. The focus group takes place on Friday morning, February 11, 7:30–9:00 AM in Beekman Parlor, 2nd Floor, Hilton New York.

Participants include these leaders from leading nonprofits and arts organizations: Steve Bliss, a former board member of the Society for Photographic Education; Sally Block, executive director of the Association of Art Museum Curators; Michael Fahlund, CAA deputy director; Jim Hopfensperger, 2011 president of the National Council of Art Administrators; and Richard Grefé, AIGA executive director. Randall Griffin of CAA’s board will also be present.

Annual Members’ Business Meeting

CAA invites all members to attend the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, taking place on Friday, February 11, 2011, 5:30–7:00 PM in the Rendezvous Trianon Ballroom, Third Floor, Hilton New York. Barbara Nesin, CAA board president will lead the meeting and welcome discussion on new organizational business and projects in progress.

In addition, the meeting’s agenda will include summaries of ideas presented in the two Strategic Plan Focus Groups, a financial report from Teresa Lopez, CAA’s chief financial officer, and an update on the 2012 Annual Conference in Los Angeles from Ruth Weisberg. At the end of the meeting, Nesin will announce the results of the current board election. To celebrate CAA’s Centennial, a reception will follow the business meeting.

The CAA three journals have launched special projects to coincide with the yearlong celebration of CAA’s Centennial. Each publication—The Art Bulletin, Art Journal, and caa.reviews—has created an online anthology of articles from its back archive. The editorial boards of the journals determined the shape, structure, and content of the anthologies, and the three projects are fascinating in their distinct approaches. All are available to the wider web-browsing public.

The Art Bulletin

The Art Bulletin Editorial Board chose to feature thirty-eight essays and reviews from the journal, which has been in print since 1913, for its Centennial anthology. As Natalie Kampen notes in her introduction to the project, the articles are “the ones that made a difference to us as art historians and as people.” The articles are listed chronologically, with author, title, and a link to a PDF of the full text. Among the authors are Meyer Schapiro, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Linda Nochlin, James S. Ackerman, and Griselda Pollock.

Art Journal

Art Journal’s project is in two parts. The first is an extended essay by Howard Singerman that traces the history and shifting identities of the journal and its predecessor titles, Parnassus and College Art Journal. The author of Art Subjects: Making Artists in the American University, Singerman is current reviews editor of Art Journal. To complement the essay, members of the editorial board selected texts and artists’ projects from past issues and wrote brief introductory texts to them. As editor-in-chief Katy Siegel writes, “Some feature familiar names attached to much-cited touchstones, while others, we hope, will come as a surprise.” Both projects can be seen at the journal’s new website.

caa.reviews

The editorial board of caa.reviews took a different tack, one that reflects the journal’s born-digital nature. Current and past editors of the journal penned texts to introduce statistically relevant reviews. For each of the dozen years of publication, the Centennial anthology includes the one review that was read the most over a three-year period. Though statistics were not available for the journal’s infancy, some early reviews had the largest overall readership. The topics of the reviews in the anthology vary from installation art to Islamic architecture and reflect the diverse range of expertise of the journal’s numerous commissioning editors.

Hosted by the New York Center for Art and Media Studies (NYCAMS) in Manhattan, the College Art Association Regional BFA Exhibition celebrates current perspectives from seventeen undergraduate student artists enrolled in seven area BFA programs. Curated by John Silvis and Brent Everett Dickinson, both professors of art at NYCAMS, the exhibition demonstrates the distinctiveness of each artist’s work and cultivates an engaging conversation among the participating programs. It will be on view for three weeks: February 7–25, 2011.

The seven schools in the College Art Association Regional BFA Exhibition are: Brooklyn College, City University of New York; the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York; Long Island University, C. W. Post Campus; Pratt Institute, School of Art and Design; Purchase College, State University of New York; the School of Visual Arts; and St. John’s University.

The seventeen exhibiting artists are: Marcel Bornstein (FIT), Christina Carlsson (Brooklyn), Matthew Chavez (FIT), Theresa Daddezio (Purchase), Alexander Derwick (Purchase), Alex Gavryushenko (Pratt), Su Yeon Ihm (SVA), Saskia Kahn (Brooklyn), Elizabeth Maroney (LIU), Katherine Mias (St. John’s), Anna Niedermeyer (Pratt), Zoey B. Scheler (Pratt), Olivia Taylor (FIT), Matthew Uebbing (Pratt), Allison M. Walters (St. John’s), Samantha Wolf (SVA), and Phillip Wong (Purchase).

The opening reception for the artists, their professors, and CAA conference attendees is Friday, February 11, 6:00–9:00 PM. NYCAMS is located twenty-five blocks south of the Hilton New York, at 44 West 28th Street, 7th Floor, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. (Take the F or M train to the 34th or 23rd Street stops.) The NYCAMS gallery is open Monday–Friday, 10:00 AM–4:00 PM or by appointment. For more information, please call Janna Dyk at 212-213-8052. CAA is also sponsoring the College Art Association New York Area MFA Exhibition, which opens on the same evening at the Hunter College/Times Square Gallery.

RSVP to the exhibition on Facebook.

About NYCAMS

Affiliated with Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, NYCAMS offers a semester-long, sixteen-credit residency in art and writing for its undergraduate students. The program provides a concentrated educational experience to prepare students for an effective career in the arts. The core of its mission is to pursue excellence in all academic and artistic endeavors, and to provide a stimulating and nurturing environment that encourages the creative process. NYCAMS is committed to exploring issues in contemporary culture in a rigorous academic environment, enabling students to become astute contributors to the current cultural discourse.

Image: Alexander Derwick, Temporary Tattoos, 2011, etching, 17½ x 24 in. (artwork © Alexander Derwick)

CAA has invited a diverse group of artists, scholars, teachers, and students to contribute to the 2011 Annual Conference Blog, with the hope of capturing the full and exciting range of experiences, points of view, and opinions that is expected in New York in 2011.

Since the Boston conference in 2006, CAA has sponsored a team blog to accompany the organization’s main event. From longtime members to first-time attendees, past writers for each year have chronicled all aspects of the conference: sessions and panels, exhibitions and parties, Career Services and the Book and Trade Fair, and more.

The seven bloggers this year are: Dwayne Butcher, an artist, teacher, and connoisseur of chicken wings who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee; Patricia Flores, a historian of decorative arts and art history from San Francisco, California; Charlotte Frost, a UK-based academic, broadcaster, and self-described glamour puss focusing on art’s relationship with technology; Joy Garnett, a New York–based artist, writer, and blogger whose paintings explore the “apocalyptic sublime”; William T. Gassaway, who studies Precolumbian art in the doctoral program at Columbia University in Manhattan; Tempestt Hazel, a recent art-history graduate from Columbia College Chicago who cofounded a nonprofit art organization, Sixty Inches From Center; and Alisha McCurdy, an artist pursuing her MFA at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York. Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor, will also post during the week.

Filed under: Annual Conference, Blogs, Centennial

Jessica Jones Irons, executive director of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA), emailed the following Humanities Action Alert on February 7, 2011. Founded in 1981, NHA is a nonprofit organization that works to advance national humanities policy in the areas of research, education, preservation, and public programs.

Humanities Action Alert

Dear Colleague,

As you know, we face a tough fight this year to defend federal funding for the humanities. President Obama has announced that he will release the FY 2012 budget proposal the week of February 14th, with significant reductions expected for many agencies and programs to meet the Administration’s deficit-reduction goals. In Congress, leaders of the House Republican Study Committee and Senate Steering Committee have introduced legislation calling for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities (among other programs), in order to reduce discretionary spending by more than $2.5 billion over the next ten years. Meanwhile, the House is expected to vote soon on a measure that would roll-back non-security funding in the current year (FY 2011) to 2008 budget levels.

Members of the new Congress need to hear from humanities advocates now. Please take a few minutes to ask your elected representatives to support continued funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Click here to send a brief, customizable electronic message from the Alliance’s online action center.

We need to let Congress know that continued federal investment in the humanities has never been more important. As one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the US, NEH provides critical support for research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities through grants to a wide range of educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and scholars nationwide. NEH grants help support the nation’s education and research infrastructure for a broad range of fields, including history, languages, literature, law, government, philosophy, cultural anthropology, the study of religion, and other subjects. The knowledge and competencies represented by these fields are critical to a broad range of US interests, including: fostering a globally competitive workforce, strengthening civic engagement and understanding, preserving our cultural heritage, and developing expertise to meet local, national, and global challenges.

Thank you for making your voice heard. Working together, the humanities community can make a difference.

Sincerely,
Jessica Jones Irons
Executive Director
National Humanities Alliance

The Executive Committee of the CAA Board of Directors has reviewed and approved the support of the following statement, published on February 2, 2011, under the aegis of the Association of Art Museum Directors. You may download a PDF of the letter.

Statement regarding Egypt

New York, NY—February 2, 2011—Recent news reports about the turmoil in Egypt have varyingly reported that some damage was done to works of ancient art in Egyptian museums—and that those who attempted to do harm were stopped. Just as we worry about the safety of Egypt’s citizens in this time of civil unrest, so, too, do we worry about the safety of the country’s cultural heritage—works of art and material culture crucial to our understanding of world civilization and humanity.

We, the representatives of the leading American museums and university art and art history departments, stand with the people of Egypt in their determination to protect 5,000 years of history, including those objects from history that remain unexcavated. Our members—more than 21,000 institutions and individuals—stand ready to assist in any way possible to secure the art and artifacts of Egypt.

Association of Art Museum Directors, Kaywin Feldman, President
American Association of Museums, Ford Bell, President
Association of Art Museum Curators, John Ravenal, President
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, David Alan Robertson, President
College Art Association, Barbara Nesin, President

Contact

Janet Landay and Christine Anagnos
Association of Art Museum Directors
212-754-8084

Sascha Freudenheim and Elizabeth Chapman
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5172 and 212-671-5159

The Executive Committee of the CAA Board of Directors has reviewed and approved the support of the following statement, published on February 2, 2011, under the aegis of the Association of Art Museum Directors. You may download a PDF of the letter.

Statement regarding Egypt

New York, NY—February 2, 2011—Recent news reports about the turmoil in Egypt have varyingly reported that some damage was done to works of ancient art in Egyptian museums—and that those who attempted to do harm were stopped. Just as we worry about the safety of Egypt’s citizens in this time of civil unrest, so, too, do we worry about the safety of the country’s cultural heritage—works of art and material culture crucial to our understanding of world civilization and humanity.

We, the representatives of the leading American museums and university art and art history departments, stand with the people of Egypt in their determination to protect 5,000 years of history, including those objects from history that remain unexcavated. Our members—more than 21,000 institutions and individuals—stand ready to assist in any way possible to secure the art and artifacts of Egypt.

Association of Art Museum Directors, Kaywin Feldman, President
American Association of Museums, Ford Bell, President
Association of Art Museum Curators, John Ravenal, President
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, David Alan Robertson, President
College Art Association, Barbara Nesin, President

Contact

Janet Landay and Christine Anagnos
Association of Art Museum Directors
212-754-8084

Sascha Freudenheim and Elizabeth Chapman
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5172 and 212-671-5159