CAA News Today

CAA Wraps Its 98th Annual Conference in Chicago

posted by Nia Page — February 24, 2010

The College Art Association (CAA) hosted its 98th Annual Conference in Chicago, February 10–13, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. The program included three days of presentations and panel discussions on art history and visual culture; career-development workshops, mentoring programs, and job interviews with colleges and universities; a Book and Trade Fair of academic and trade art publishers and artist-materials distributors; and a host of special events throughout the Chicago area.

Here are some conference highlights.

Attendance

More than 4,000 art professionals from throughout the United States and abroad—including art historians, visual artists, students, educators, curators, critics, collectors, and museum staff—were in attendance.

Sessions

Conference sessions featured presentations from art-history scholars, graduate students, artists, and curators from institutions across the country and internationally. Conference sessions address a range of topics in art history and the visual arts. In total, over 150 sessions, developed by CAA members, affiliated societies, and committees, were offered.

Career Services

Career Services included three days of mentoring and portfolio-review sessions, career-development workshops, and job interviews. Approximately 185 (mentoring only) interviewees and 26 (mentoring only) interviewers were on hand to participate in Career Services.

Book and Trade Fair

This year’s Book and Trade Fair presented 135 exhibitors, including participants from the United States, Mexico, Turkey, England, Belgium, Scotland, and the Netherlands, displaying new publications, artists’ materials, digital resources, and innovative products of interest to artists and scholars. The Book and Trade Fair also featured book signings, lectures, and art-materials demonstrations, as well as three exhibitor-sponsored program sessions on art materials and publishing.

ARTspace and ARTexchange

ARTspace, a “conference within the conference” tailored to the needs and interests of practicing artists, presented this year’s Annual Artists’ Interviews: Tony Tasset was interviewed by John Neff, and Phyllis Bramson was interviewed by Lynn Warren. Over 150 people attended this extraordinary event. Programmed by CAA’s Services to Artists Committee, ARTspace was made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

ARTexchange, an open-portfolio event where CAA artist members displayed drawings, prints, photographs, small paintings, and works on laptop computers. Fifty-two artists participated in ARTexchange this year.

Convocation and Awards for Distinction

More than 600 people attended CAA’s Convocation and Presentation of the 2010 Awards for Distinction. The keynote address was delivered by the renowned photographer Dawoud Bey.

Recipients of CAA’s awards are as follows:

Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement: Suzanne Lacy
Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work: Emory Douglas and Barkley L. Hendricks
Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art: Holland Cotter
Frank Jewett Mather Award: Terry Smith
Distinguished Feminist Award: Griselda Pollock
Distinguished Teaching of Art Award: Dean Nimmer
Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award: Richard Shiff
Charles Rufus Morey Book Award: Cammy Brothers, Michelangelo, Drawing, and the Invention of Architecture
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award: Debra Diamond, Catherine Glynn, and Karni Singh Jasol, Gardens and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur
Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize: Michael Schreffler, “‘Their Cortés and Our Cortés’: Spanish Colonialism and Aztec Representation”
Art Journal Award: Joanna Grabski, “Urban Claims and Visual Sources in the Making of Dakar’s Art World City”
CAA/Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation: David Bomford

CAA’s well-attended Gala Reception was held at the Art Institute of Chicago’s newly inaugurated Modern Wing. Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, this stunning space served as the kick-off venue for the conference.

Special Events

CAA’s Annual Exhibition, Picturing the Studio, was presented at the new Sullivan Galleries of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sold-out tours explored the riches of Chicago’s arts and architecture, from Frank Lloyd Wright to the city’s historic skyscrapers.

Save the Date

CAA’s Centennial Celebration and 99th Annual Conference will be held in New York City from February 9 to 12, 2011.

About CAA

The College Art Association is dedicated to providing professional services and resources for artists, art historians, and students in the visual arts. CAA serves as an advocate and a resource for individuals and institutions nationally and internationally by offering forums to discuss the latest developments in the visual arts and art history through its Annual Conference, publications, exhibitions, website, and other events. CAA focuses on a wide range of issues including education in the arts, freedom of expression, intellectual-property rights, cultural heritage, preservation, workforce topics in universities and museums, and access to networked information technologies. Representing its members’ professional needs since 1911, CAA is committed to the highest professional and ethical standards of scholarship, creativity, criticism, and teaching.

Filed under: Annual Conference, Awards, Book and Trade Fair, Career Services, Exhibitions, Government and Politics —

The Frick Art Reference Library Opens Two New Online Databases

posted by Christopher Howard — February 23, 2010

The Frick Art Reference Library in New York has launched two new online resources that are available to scholars free of charge. The first, called the Archives Directory, is a directory that helps those researching the history of collecting art in the United States. The second, the Montias Database, is a collection of inventories from the Dutch Golden Age.

Inge Reist, director for the Frick’s Center for the History of Collecting in America, says, “Such a consolidated and easily searched online source as the new Archives Directory will prove invaluable to this deepening field of study and will ensure that researchers can locate primary documents such as letters, bills of sale, and other transaction records that are so essential to reliable scholarship. Indeed, users will more readily find their way to all manner of repositories, from those that are well-known to utterly unexpected caches, which in turn may lead to new discoveries and inspire fresh perspectives.”

Archives Directory

The center’s Archives Directory, the first online database of its kind, consolidates a wealth of information about the location and nature of documents and archives available on American collectors. Until now, scholars have had to comb through multiple websites and, if permitted, sift through analogue data held at library, museum, and university archives to construct their own plans for research—a time-consuming and imprecise process. The new directory is, by contrast, accessible around the clock via the institution’s website. Its use will help scholars worldwide as they approach research projects, guiding them beyond existing publications and standard paths to overlooked repositories, including primary source materials.

The Archives Directory guides researchers to more than 5,000 collections held in more than 300 repositories worldwide, which together have bearing on the lives and activities of more than 1,500 American collectors. Information in the Archives Directory was culled from various online and printed materials ranging from federated and individual online library catalogues to Google Books to published literature in the field.

Contributions of additional information for the directory are welcomed by scholars and researchers, so that it will continue to grow and become an increasingly valued resource.

Montias Database of 17th Century Dutch Art Inventories

The complete Montias Database, cosponsored by the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, offers an unprecedented look at ownership of art in Holland during the seventeenth century. It is a trove of searchable information about buyers, sellers, and prices, including comprehensive information on over 50,000 objects (paintings, prints, sculpture, furniture, and so forth) listed in nearly 1,300 Amsterdam city inventories. Approximately half was created in preparation for auctions, almost an equal portion was notarial death inventories for estate purposes, and the remaining documents relate to bankruptcy cases. Although the database, which specifically addresses records from 1597 through 1681, is not a complete record of all inventories made in Amsterdam, it contains a vast amount of information that can elucidate patterns of buying, selling, inventorying, and collecting art.

An eminent economist at Yale University, John Michael Montias began recording details of ownership of works of art from inventories held in the Amsterdam municipal archive, or Geementearchief (now known as the Stadsarchief), in the early 1980s as part of his own work on the prices of Dutch paintings at seventeenth-century auctions.

Filed under: Cultural Heritage, Libraries, Research — Tags: Digital Issues —

Update Your Profile Information for the CAA Online Member Directory

posted by Nia Page — February 23, 2010

Available soon to current individual CAA members, the online Member Directory will allow you to search for other individual members based on name and address; organization; and city, state, and country.

Before the directory is launched in early March, CAA encourages you to log into your CAA account to review and update all of your contact information, including information that will appear in the Member Directory. This is a good time to remove duplicate or outdated information.

If you have more than one valid address on your record, you may choose which address to include in the directory. Organization and title will only be included with a business address. In addition, only your primary phone, email, and/or website address will be used regardless of which address you choose.

After logging into your CAA account, click the “Contact Info” link on the left side to review your contact information. Instructions on the page will help you choose an address for the Member Directory.

You may prevent any information from appearing in the directory by unmarking all addresses on your record.

Questions or problems? Please contact Member Services by email or call 212-691-1051, ext. 12, during regular office hours, Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM ET.

Filed under: Membership —

Publications Committee Members Sought

posted by CAA — February 19, 2010

CAA invites nominations and self-nominations for two members at large to serve on the Publications Committee for a three-year term, July 1, 2010–June 30, 2013.

Candidates must possess expertise appropriate to the committee’s work. Museum-based arts professionals with an interest and experience in book, journal, or museum publishing and those with experience in digital publishing are especially encouraged to apply.

The Publications Committee is a consultative body that advises the CAA Publications Department staff and the CAA Board of Directors on publications projects; supervises the editorial boards of The Art Bulletin, Art Journal, and caa.reviews, as well as CAA’s book-grant juries; sponsors a practicum session at the Annual Conference; and, with the CAA vice president for publications, serves as liaison to the board, membership, editorial boards, book-grant juries, and other CAA committees.

The committee meets three times a year, including once at the CAA Annual Conference; members pay travel and lodging expenses to attend the conference. Members of all committees volunteer their services to CAA without compensation.

Candidates must be current CAA members and should not serve concurrently on other CAA committees or editorial boards. Applicants may not be individuals who have served as members of a CAA editorial board within the past five years. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name; self-nominations are also welcome. Appointments are made by the CAA president in consultation with the vice president for publications.

Please send a letter of interest describing your interest in and qualifications for appointment, a CV, and contact information to: Vice President for Publications, c/o Alexandra Gershuny, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Materials may also be submitted to agershuny@collegeart.org. Deadline: April 15, 2010.

Filed under: Committees, Governance, Publications —

Panel Discussion on Art Authentication Held in New York

posted by Michael Fahlund — February 18, 2010

“Authenticating Art: Current Problems and Proposed Solutions” was the topic for a panel presentation and discussion sponsored by CAA and the Appraisers Association of America. Held on January 20, 2010, the event was hosted by and took place in the auditorium of the Levin Institute in Manhattan for its 120 guests.

The panelists were: John Cahill of the New York–based law firm Lynn and Cahill; Jane Jacob from Jacob Fine Art, an art consultancy in Chicago; James Martin of Orion Analytical, a materials analysis and consultancy firm based in Williamstown, Massachusetts; and Jane Levine from the auction house Sotheby’s New York. Michele Marincola, a professor of conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, served as moderator for the discussion.

CAA’s new best practices on Authentications and Attributions, approved in October 2009, played an important referential role among myriad opinions offered by legal experts, conservators, gallery owners, and material analysts—to say nothing of the various aspects of law that may apply to collectors, buyers and sellers, appraisers, and auction houses. Indeed, the guidelines were praised by panelists and audience members for their “reasoned and thoughtful advice” and recommended repeatedly as an essential resource on the subject.

Panel presentations cited specific circumstances surrounding well-known art forgeries by Greek and Roman sculptors from as far back as two millennia, to more recent master forgerers, including Elmyr de Hory, Eric Hebborn, John Myatt, and Leo Nardus. One of the most famous forgeries by Han van Meegeren, of Johannes Vemeer’s Supper at Emmaus, was completed in 1937 and sold for what today would be well over $2.5 million. Some forgerers also borrowed authentic works of art from collectors, copied the work, returned the undetected copy to the owner, and then sold the original to a third party. Historical and modern-day problems with attribution, revelations during conservation procedures, and new analytical techniques and forensic equipment were also presented. Similarly, matters of law such as breach of contract, false certificates of authenticity, and false (but not criminal) representation or court testimony were highlighted.

The evening was informative, provocative, and timely but lacked one critical professional perspective: namely, that of the art historian, art-museum curator, or art connoisseur. Indeed, art-historical documentation, stylistic connoisseurship, and scientific analysis are the three aspects of authentication that create a “consensus of evidence” as recommended in the CAA guidelines. Were it not for this shortcoming, the event would have enlightened even further the practice, if not the controversy, of art authentication.

For interested members who will attend CAA’s centennial Annual Conference in New York in 2011, the Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association (a CAA affiliated society) will present a panel on authentication that addresses issues confronted by art historians and curators who authenticate.

Filed under: Affiliated Societies, Standards and Guidelines —

CAA Thanks Chicago Conference Attendees and Participants

posted by Christopher Howard — February 17, 2010

CAA sincerely thanks all attendees and participants of the 98th Annual Conference in Chicago. Despite weather-related delays, you all helped to make this year’s event one of the most well attended and exciting in recent years.

We look forward to seeing you next year in New York for CAA’s centennial conference, February 9–12, 2011!

Filed under: Annual Conference —

New Members of the CAA Board of Directors

posted by Vanessa Jalet — February 13, 2010

CAA members have elected four new directors to the CAA board for a four-year term, 2010–14:

Peter Barnet, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Roger Crum, University of Dayton
Jean M. K. Miller, Towson University
Sabina Ott, Columbia College Chicago

The winners were announced by Paul B. Jaskot, CAA president, at the conclusion of the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, held on late Friday afternoon, February 12, at the CAA Annual Conference in Chicago. The above four will join the board at its next meeting, in May 2010.

Filed under: Board of Directors, Governance, People in the News —

ONLINE CAREER CENTER JOB STATISTICS

posted by CAA — February 11, 2010

CAA’s Online Career Center, the major database for job classifieds in the academic art world, is also an indicator of professional trends in the visual arts. As anticipated in this economic downturn, job postings decreased for full-time positions from CAA’s fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007–June 30, 2008) to fiscal year 2009 (July 1, 2008–June 30, 2009).

In addition, indicators from the US Department of Education and the American Association of University Professors show an increase in contingent faculty (e.g., part-time or adjunct positions). CAA, however, is not able to keep statistics on contingent faculty since most hires are made locally and not posted nationally on the Online Career Center.

General Jobs Statistics

Overall, the Online Career Center posted 1,263 jobs in FY 2009, down from 1,757 in FY 2008. A total of 643 jobs have appeared in the first six months of the current fiscal year (July 1–December 31, 2009).

In the charts below, please keep in mind that each job can be posted to multiple categories, so there is not a one-to-one relationship between job and category. Also, the category “Any” is for employers that are looking for someone to teach a broad range of classes.

The ten most frequent postings by specialty for studio art and art history in fiscal year 2009 are used as the baseline in the following four charts:

Studio Art	FY09	FY08
Any	629	1,005
Graphic/Industrial/Object	185	246
Digital/Media/Animation	150	220
Drawing/Printmaking/Paper	96	130
Sculpture/Installation/Environmental Art	92	99
Ceramics/Metals/Fiber	89	92
Photography	85	143
Art Education	73	90
Film/Video	70	89
Foundations	59	90

The above statistics represent a 30.7 percent decline in the number of positions posted in studio art.

Art History	FY09	FY08
Any	445	561
Contemporary Art	101	107
Twentieth-Century Art	79	89
General Art History	77	110
Renaissance/Baroque Art	60	64
Japanese/Korean Art	56	39
Nineteenth-Century Art	52	61
Chinese Art	49	39
South/Southeast Asian Art	45	47
Art of the United States	35	49

The above statistics represent a 14.3 percent decline in the number of positions posted in art history.

A comparison of the top-ten specializations posted in last six months (July 1–December 31, 2009) to the same period in 2008 demonstrates an overall decline of 28.9 percent in studio-art job postings.

Studio Art	2009	2008
Any	320	524
Graphic/Industrial/Object	109	124
Digital/Media/Animation	80	112
Drawing/Printmaking/Paper	45	74
Sculpture/Installation/Environmental Art	72	32
Ceramics/Metals/Fiber	42	69
Photography	50	63
Art Education	33	56
Film/Video	39	55
Foundations	31	46

Similarly, job postings in art history has seen an overall decline of 36.9.

Art History	2009	2008
Any	234	329
Contemporary Art	34	77
Twentieth-Century Art	26	60
General Art History	38	56
Renaissance/Baroque Art	25	46
Japanese/Korean Art	28	47
Nineteenth-Century Art	21	42
Chinese Art	28	41
South/Southeast Asian Art	24	38
Art of the United States	22	24

Jobs by States and Provinces

All postings indexed by US state and Canadian province include the following top ten in the two previous fiscal years, and the first six months of the current year.

FY 2008 (July 1, 2007–June 30, 2008)

1. New York	196
2. California	139
3. Pennsylvania	107
4. Texas	100
5. Illinois	99
6. Michigan	87
7. Massachusetts	81
8. Georgia	70
9. Florida	62
10. Ohio	55

FY 2009 (July 1, 2008–June 30, 2009)

1. New York	119
2. California	92
3. Pennsylvania	78
4. Illinois	75
5. Georgia	72
6. Texas	64
7. Massachusetts	62
8. Ohio	58
9. Michigan	55
10. Indiana	33

First half of FY 2010 (July 1–December 31, 2009)

1. New York	66
2. Illinois	50
3. Pennsylvania	42
4. Texas	36
5. California	31
6. Florida	28
7. Georgia and Missouri	27
8. Massachusetts	26
9. Michigan	25
10. Ohio	23

2010 CAA Annual Conference in Chicago

As of February 2, 54 employers have indicated they are interviewing at the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago: 16 booths and 31 tables in the Interview Hall have been rented, and 7 employers have told CAA about plans to interview offsite. Additional employers, which do not always inform CAA of their presence, are expected.

These numbers are similar to those for last year’s conference, when 59 institutions came to Los Angeles. CAA rented 9 booths and 37 tables in the Interview Hall; 13 employers interviewed offsite.

In comparison, at the 2008 Annual Conference in Dallas–Fort Worth—held before the recession had emerged—CAA rented 40 booths and 64 tables in the Interview Hall. Thirty institutions made interview arrangements elsewhere, bringing the total for that year to 134.

That’s a 56 percent drop in the number of institutions between the 2008 and 2009 conferences, and nearly the same decrease (60 percent) when comparing 2008 to the early totals for 2010.

Interviews at the Annual Conference, however, are just one part of Career Services offered by CAA in Chicago. Schools and institutions also meet informally with job seekers in the tables section of the Interview Hall. CAA offers professional-development workshops and roundtable discussions on a variety of career-related topics at the conference, and networking is encouraged in the Student and Emerging Professionals Lounge, which is host to special events throughout the 2010 conference.

Contact

You may request statistical information in other specializations for studio art and art history from Eugenia Lewis, CAA controller.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Features —

Two More Days to Vote in the 2010–14 Board of Directors Election

posted by Vanessa Jalet — February 11, 2010

CAA invites all members to cast their vote in the current Board of Directors election. Voting ends on Friday, February 12, at 5:00 PM CST. The following six candidates have been chosen by the 2009 Nominating Committee for the current slate:

Peter Barnet, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Roger Crum, University of Dayton
Conrad Gleber, La Salle University
Arthur F. Jones, University of North Dakota
Jean M. K. Miller, Towson University
Sabina Ott, Columbia College Chicago

Please click on each candidate’s name above to read his or her statement and biography—and to watch their special video introductions—before casting your vote for up to four candidates.

About the Election

CAA members may vote for no more than four candidates or may cast votes for write-in candidates (who must be CAA members). The four candidates receiving the most votes will be elected to the board. CAA members may cast their votes and submit their proxies by mail or electronically.

Election results are announced at the close of the Annual Members’ Business Meeting at the Chicago conference, and new board members take office in the spring.

If you have requested your ballot on paper, a ballot and proxy were mailed to you in mid-December. Return them via post by Friday, February 12, 2010, at 5:00 PM CST.

If you have elected to vote online, you have received email notices since mid-December with instructions for voting online. This emails include a PIN for you to vote and to return your proxy. All online voting must be completed by Friday, February 12, 2010, at 5:00 PM CST. If you wish to vote during the conference, CAA is providing a computer for online voting in the registration area.

If you are still receiving your ballot and proxy by postal mail, kindly change your email communication status to “vote online” in the Account Log In section of the CAA website. Voting online is considerably less expensive, and in these difficult economic times it is critical for CAA to save costs where it can.

About the Board

The CAA Board of Directors is responsible for all financial and policy matters related to the organization. It promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts, and it encourages creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practice of art. CAA’s board is also charged with representing the membership on issues affecting the visual arts and humanities.

2009 Nominating Committee

Members of the 2009 Nominating Committee are: Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker, Mills College, vice president for committees and committee chair (ex officio without vote); Jacki Apple, Art Center College of Design; Linda Downs, CAA executive director (ex officio, without vote); Ken Gonzales-Day, Scripps College and CAA board; James Hopfensperger, Western Michigan University; Suzanne McCullagh, Art Institute of Chicago; Edward M. Noriega, Troy University and CAA board; William Wallace, Washington University in St. Louis and CAA board; and Charles A. Wright, Western Illinois University.

Filed under: Board of Directors, Governance —

New Members of CAA’s Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees

posted by Christopher Howard — February 10, 2010

The following individuals have been appointed to serve on CAA’s nine Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees for 2010–13. New committee members begin their terms this week at the 2010 Annual Conference in Chicago.

Committee on Diversity Practices: Kevin Concannon, University of Akron; and Zoya Kocur, New York University. Renée Ater of the University of Maryland, College Park, was appointed chair, taking over Jacqueline Francis’s term.

Committee on Intellectual Property: Scott Contreras-Koterbay, East Tennessee State University; Karen Kelly, Dia Art Foundation; Doralynn Pines, Metropolitan Museum of Art (retired); Caitlin Shey, lawyer and consultant, New York; and Christine Sundt, University of Oregon. Kenneth Cavalier, a lawyer based in British Columbia, becomes committee chair.

Committee on Women in the Arts: Richard Meyer, University of Southern California; and Maura Reilly, independent curator, New York.

Education Committee: Teresa Lenihan, Loyola Marymount University; Cindy Maguire, Adelphi University; and Brian Seymour, Community College of Philadelphia.

International Committee: Richmond Ackam, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology; and Beth Steffel, California State University, San Bernadino.

Museum Committee: Janet Marstine, Seton Hall University; and Nancy Mowll Mathews, Williams College Museum of Art.

Professional Practices Committee: James Hopfensperger, Western Michigan University; Morgan T. Paine, Florida Gulf Coast University; and Susan Waller, University of Missouri, St. Louis. Charles Wright of Western Illinois University has been appointed committee chair.

Services to Artists Committee: Sharon Louden, artist; Vesna Pavlovic, Vanderbilt University; and Cindy Smith, artist and independent scholar. Brian Bishop of Framingham State College has accepted a one-year extension as committee chair.

Student and Emerging Professionals Committee: Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Vanderbilt University.

A call for nominations to serve on these committees appears annually in the July and September issues of CAA News and on the CAA website. CAA’s president, vice president for committees, and executive director review nominations in December and make appointments that take effect the following February.

For more information about the Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees, please write to Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive assistant.

Filed under: Committees, People in the News —