CAA News Today
House Approves NEA and NEH Budgets
posted by Christopher Howard — June 30, 2009
On June 26, 2009, the US House of Representatives voted to approve HR 2996, a Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill that included significant increases for the budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Both federal agencies should receive $170 million each for fiscal year 2010, a 9.7 percent increase from their current $155 million allotment. The vote was 254 to 173 in favor of the bill, with six not voting. Included in the bill is an additional $3.7 million for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, raising its FY10 total to $25 million. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution will benefit from $40.8 million more than last year, raising its annual budget to $634.2 million.
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s budget proposal earmarks $161.3 million each for the NEA and NEH—which matches President Obama’s initial budget request of $161.3 million for the arts endowment but is slightly lower than the $171.3 million he asked for the humanities.
CAA encourages you to write to your senators to advocate for NEA and NEH funding. You can do so at the Americans for the Arts E-Advocacy Center—it takes only a couple minutes to draft a letter, based on a template, to mail or email.
House Approves NEA and NEH Budgets
posted by Christopher Howard — June 30, 2009
On June 26, 2009, the US House of Representatives voted to approve HR 2996, a Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill that included significant increases for the budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Both federal agencies should receive $170 million each for fiscal year 2010, a 9.7 percent increase from their current $155 million allotment. The vote was 254 to 173 in favor of the bill, with six not voting. Included in the bill is an additional $3.7 million for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, raising its FY10 total to $25 million. In addition, the Smithsonian Institution will benefit from $40.8 million more than last year, raising its annual budget to $634.2 million.
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s budget proposal earmarks $161.3 million each for the NEA and NEH—which matches President Obama’s initial budget request of $161.3 million for the arts endowment but is slightly lower than the $171.3 million he asked for the humanities.
CAA encourages you to write to your senators to advocate for NEA and NEH funding. You can do so at the Americans for the Arts E-Advocacy Center—it takes only a couple minutes to draft a letter, based on a template, to mail or email.
CAA Receives Terra Grant for Distinguished Scholar Sessions
posted by Christopher Howard — June 29, 2009
CAA has been awarded a $42,800 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art to support the Distinguished Scholar Sessions at the 2010 and 2014 Annual Conferences, both of which will take place in Chicago, Illinois. The purpose of the sessions is to celebrate the contributions of distinguished scholars and curators of art through panels that will bring together an honoree and five participants.
The first Distinguished Scholar Session, which took place at the 2001 conference—also held in Chicago—honored James S. Ackerman. Other illustrious past honorees include Svetlana Alpers (2009) Robert L. Herbert (2008), Linda Nochlin (2007), John Szarkowski (2006), Richard Brilliant (2005), James Cahill (2004), Phyllis Pray Bober (2003), and Leo Steinberg (2002).
The Terra Foundation for American Art, based in Chicago, Illinois, is dedicated to promoting the exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States. With financial resources of more than $200 million and an exceptional collection of American art from the Colonial era to 1945, it is one of the world’s leading foundations focused on American art and devotes approximately $9 million annually in support of American-art exhibitions, projects, and research.
Timothy Rub to Direct the Philadelphia Museum of Art
posted by Christopher Howard — June 29, 2009
Timothy Rub has been named George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Rub, who has been director and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio since 2006, begins work at the Pennsylvania museum in September. The fifty-seven-year-old succeeds Anne d’Harnoncourt, who died on June 1, 2008.
In Cleveland, Rub guided the museum’s comprehensive capital project and fundraising campaign, oversaw the reinstallation of its extensive holdings of European and American art in its renovated 1916 building and new East Wing, and brought to completion the first phase of its seven-year renovation and expansion project designed by the renowned architect Rafael Viñoly. He also initiated a strategic-planning process, managed the development of a touring exhibitions program that sent shows generated from the museum’s collection to Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Munich, and a number of venues in Canada and the United States.
A specialist in architecture and modern art, Rub also directed the Cincinnati Art Museum from 2000 to 2006, led the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1991 to 1999, and was a Ford Foundation Fellow and then curator at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York from 1983 to 1987.
At the Hood Museum of Art, his exhibitions and catalogues include The Age of the Marvelous; Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens, and Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1928–1934; in Cincinnati, he produced Petra: Lost City of Stone.
Rub received a bachelor’s degree in art history, cum laude with highest honors, from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont; a master’s degree in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; and a master’s degree in public and private management from Yale University.
Photo: Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (photograph by Kelly & Massa and provided by the Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Baruch College Creates Interactive Guide for Teachers Using Copyrighted Materials
posted by Christopher Howard — June 25, 2009
Baruch College of the City University of New York (CUNY), together with Kognito Solutions, has recently released the Interactive Guide to Using Copyrighted Media in Your Courses. This online tutorial helps college and university faculty determine the appropriate guidelines to follow when using different types of copyrighted media in their courses.
While US copyright law has traditionally allowed for “fair use” for teachers who display and perform copyrighted media during face-to-face teaching, copyright compliancy has become an increasingly complex legal issue as media are increasingly delivered to students online.
Structured as a subway map, the interactive guide asks teachers a series of questions about the nature of the copyrighted works they want to use and how they plan to use them. As each question is answered, users progress through the virtual subway system, learning important copyright rules that apply to their specific situations. At the “final stop,” a list of guidelines for using the copyrighted media is provided.
John Dugan, legal counsel for Baruch College, said, “This guide is a valuable tool that enables faculty to obtain useful, practical advice on copyright issues they may face without confronting the daunting complexities of the copyright law itself.” Baruch’s assistant vice president for technology, Arthur Downing, who initiated the project, said, “We are responding to the needs of academic institutions for a tool that will help and encourage faculty to use media in their courses. This is especially crucial since higher education is increasingly utilizing technology and online delivery components to augment classroom interaction.”
Downing also noted that, while the new learning resource is based on Baruch College and CUNY copyright guidelines, these guidelines are common to many academic institutions and thus applicable for universities across the nation. He further emphasized the need to “continuously enhance this resource with the help of the educational community.”
Other Copyright Resources
Last summer, CAA launched Intellectual Property and the Arts, its own resource for copyright, digital, and intellectual-property issues related to the visual arts. In addition, Information and Library Services at the University of Maryland University College hosts a webpage with a broad range of information on legally using copyrighted materials in classes and on the internet; this information is especially useful for beginners. Reed College also maintains a simpler webpage on using copyrighted materials in academia, with helpful links to information gathered by other schools and organizations.
June Obituaries in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — June 22, 2009
CAA recognizes the personal and professional achievements of the following artists, art historians, critics, curators, and collectors in the visual arts:
- Gilbert Alfred Bouchard, a Canadian art critic who wrote for the Edmonton Journal for nearly twenty-five years, has died. He was 47
- Robert Colescott, an American painter who represented the United States at the Venice Biennial in 1997, died on June 4, 2009, in Tucson, Arizona. He was 83
- Louise Deutschman, a curator and director of Waddell Gallery, Alex Rosenberg Gallery, and Sidney Janis Gallery, died on May 10, 2009, at the age of 92
- Ellen D’Oench, a curator for the Davison Art Center and adjunct professor of art at Wesleyan University, died on May 22, 2009, at age 78
- Johnny Donnels, a New Orleans–based photographer, died on March 19, 2009. He was 84
- Arthur Erickson, a modernist Canadian architect who designed many buildings in Vancouver, died on May 20, 2009, at age 84
- Patrick Farrow, a sculptor and gallery owner who was Mia Farrow’s brother, died on June 15, 2009, in Castleton, NH. He was 66
- Ib Geertsen, a Danish abstract painter who was associated with the Konkrete movement, died on June 3, 2009, at age 90
- Frederick Hammersley, a painter who was one of the four Los Angeles–based Abstract Classicists, died on May 31, 2009. He was 90
- William Hemmerling, a Southern folk artist based in Louisiana, died on June 15, 2009, at the age of 66
- Mary Henry, a geometric abstract painter based in the Pacific Northwest, died on May 20, 2009. She was 96
- David Ireland, a sculptor and conceptual artist based in San Francisco, died on May 17, 2009. He was 78
- Pirkle Jones, a California photographer who focused on social activism, died on March 15, 2009, at the age of 95
- Mildred Schiff Lee, an art collector and philanthropist who lived in Palm Beach, FL, died on May 7, 2009. She was 89
- Sam Maloof, a modernist furniture designer and woodworker based in southern California, died on May 21, 2009, at age 93
- Frank Herbert Mason, a painter and longtime instructor at the Art Students League in New York, died on June 16, 2009. He was 87 or 88
- Margaret Mellis, an influential figure in modern British art, died on March 17, 2009, at age 95
- John Michelini, a landscape painter from New Hampshire, died in mid-May 2009, at the age of 43
- Philip Stein, a muralist whose work appears at the Village Vanguard in New York, died on April 27, 2009. He was 90
Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.
Summer 2009 Art Journal Published
posted by Christopher Howard — June 17, 2009
The Summer 2009 issue of Art Journal has just been published. It will be mailed to those individual CAA members who elect to receive it, and to all institutional members.
“The marginalization of time-based projects in histories of twentieth-century art is overdetermined,” writes the editor-in-chief Judith F. Rodenbeck in her introduction, “as has long been recognized, by the movement of the human body and, in the case of dance, by gender.” The five essays in the current issue reconsider those margins and offer more inclusive points of view.
Featured in the order of their appearance are: Juliet Bellow, “Fashioning Cléopâtre: Sonia Delaunay’s New Woman”; Nell Andrew, “Living Art: Akarova and the Belgian Avant-Garde”; Kate Elswit, “Accessing Unison in the Age of Its Mechanical Reproducibility”; Janice Ross, “Atomizing Cause and Effect: Ann Halprin’s 1960s Summer Dance Workshops”; and Philip Glahn, “Brechtian Journeys: Yvonne Rainer’s Film as Counterpublic Art.”
Summer Job-Search Advice for Doctoral Students
posted by Christopher Howard — June 17, 2009
“My original source of income for the summer (teaching) has fallen through, so I am a bit desperate to find a job,” asks a graduate student of two career specialists at the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the form of a conversation, Julie Miller Vick of the University of Pennsylvania and Jennifer S. Furlong of Columbia University give excellent advice in the Career Talk section of the newspaper’s website.
Among the suggestions provided by Vick and Furlong:
- “If you have experience working with archives, approach museum and university archives in your geographic area to see if they need part-time help with any projects that align with your background”
- “Besides writing, editing and research, think about other areas in which you might build your expertise, such as Web design, graphics applications, computer programming that relates to your discipline, presentation skills, and foreign-language skills”
- “Be sure that you put together a timeline of things you’d like to accomplish this summer and into the fall”
Read the full article—and the entire column archives—at the Chronicle’s Career Talk section.
NEA Survey Shows a Decline in Art Participation
posted by Christopher Howard — June 16, 2009
American audiences for the arts are getting older and their numbers are declining, according to new research released yesterday by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Arts Participation 2008: Highlights from a National Survey, which can be ordered or downloaded from the NEA website, features top findings from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, the nation’s largest and most representative periodic study of adult participation in arts events and activities, conducted by the NEA in partnership with the US Census Bureau.
Five times since 1982, the survey has asked US adults eighteen and older about their patterns of arts participation over a twelve-month period. The 2008 survey reveals dwindling audiences for many art forms, but it also captures new data on internet use and other forms of arts participation. Although the 2008 recession likely affected survey responses, long-term trend analysis indicates that other factors also may have contributed to lower arts participation rates.
There are persistent patterns of decline in participation for most art forms. Although nearly 35 percent of US adults—an estimated 78 million—attended an art museum or an arts performance in the 2008 survey period, the figure is a decline from 40 percent reported in 1982, 1992, and 2002.
Attendance at the most popular types of arts events—such as art museums and craft or visual-arts festivals—saw notable declines. The US rate of attendance for art museums fell slightly from a high of 26 percent in 1992–2002 to 23 percent in 2008, comparable to the 1982 level.
Further, fewer adults are creating and performing art. Weaving and sewing remain popular as crafts, but the percentage of adults who do those activities has declined by 12 points. Only the number of adults doing photography has increased—from 12 percent in 1992 to 15 percent in 2008.
Historically the most dependable arts participants, forty-five to fifty-four-year-olds, showed the steepest declines in attendance for most art events, compared with other age groups. Educated Americans—the most likely to attend or participate in the arts—are doing so less than before, and less-educated adults have significantly reduced their already low levels of attendance.
In a positive trend, the internet and mass media are reaching substantial audiences for the arts. Consider these findings:
- About 70 percent of US adults went online for any purpose in 2008 survey, and of those adults, nearly 40 percent used the web to view, listen to, download, or post artworks or performances
- Thirty percent of internet-using adults download, watch, or listen to music, theater, or dance performances online at least once a week. More than 20 percent of them view paintings, sculpture, or photography at least once a week
- More Americans view or listen to broadcasts and recordings of arts events than attend them live (live theater being the sole exception). Classical and Latin or salsa music were the most popular music categories (with 40 and 33.5 million viewers/listeners, respectively), and 33.7 million adults reported listening to, or viewing programs or recordings about books and writers. The same number (33.7 million) enjoyed broadcasts or recordings about the visual arts.
The entire survey questionnaire, the raw data, and a user’s guide are available both on the NEA website and from Princeton University’s Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA). More detailed study results will be available later this year.
Getty Research Institute on the Future of the BHA
posted by Christopher Howard — June 16, 2009
The Getty Research Institute just published a statement on its website regarding the future of the Bibliography on the History of Art (BHA, also known as the International Bibliography of Art, or IBA). The statement appears in full below:
In response to current economic conditions, the J. Paul Getty Trust recently announced it will significantly reduce its 2010 fiscal year budget. This will have an impact on all of the Getty’s operations, including the Getty Research Institute (GRI). Since news of the Getty’s budget reduction became public, including information about the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), we have received some inquiries about the BHA’s future. We thought it would be helpful to review the history of the Getty’s involvement with the BHA, the current status of the database, and our expectations for its future.
From 1990, when the International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA) and the Répertoire d’Art et d’Archéologie (RAA) came together to form BHA, it was a joint project between the Getty and the major database producer, the Institut de l’Information Scientifique et Technique-CNRS. At the end of 2007, this collaboration ceased and BHA formally came to an end. Since January 2008, the GRI has continued production of the database on its own, under the name of the International Bibliography of Art (IBA), and over the last sixteen months, the GRI has made an effort to forge collaborative partnerships on the IBA both nationally and internationally.
While there is interest in seeing the database continue, there have been no formal partnership commitments and no guarantees of outside funding for the project. Unfortunately, with the GRI facing severe budget challenges and without strong and committed partners to share the work, it has become impossible for the Getty to maintain the IBA on its own. Nevertheless, the GRI continues to be interested in seeing the IBA continue its service to the art historical field.
In the near term, the IBA will continue its work, and the first of three updates to the database will be on June 30, 2009. This update will include new data (IBA), and all of the past data of BHA and RILA. It will not contain RAA. This June 30 update will also include the updates from December 31, 2008 and March 31, 2009, which were delayed for technical reasons. All subscribers will also receive scheduled updates on September 30, and December 31, 2009.
Beginning January 1, 2010, the Getty will no longer support the ongoing IBA. We are hopeful that by this time the IBA will be transferred to an organization that can provide continuing support for this valuable resource. Our goal is to move the BHA/IBA to an organization that will provide a transfer in service smooth enough that subscribers may not even notice. We are hopeful that the same distributors will be used after January 1, 2010, and that updates will continue in a regular way.
We will keep the art historical community informed as this process develops. At this time, we would like to express our gratitude to the art reference librarians, art historians, and graduate students whose support has sustained RILA/BHA/IBA for over 29 years. We look forward to your continued support during this period of transition.
Last week CAA published a short statement addressing its concerns about this invaluable database for academic research in the visual arts.