CAA News Today

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.

The No-Fail Secret to Writing a Dissertation

As a former journalist, assistant professor, and seasoned dissertation-writing-workshop coach at New York University, I can promise you there is only one fail-safe method, one secret, one guaranteed trick that you need in order to finish your dissertation: write. (Read more from Vitae.)

Who Knew? Arts Education Fuels the Economy

In public-policy battles, you might hear that arts education is closely linked to greater academic achievement, social and civic engagement, and even job success later in life. But what about the economic value of an arts education? Here even the field’s most eloquent champions have been at a loss for words, or rather numbers. Until now. (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)

Study Finds Gender Inequality in Art Museum Director’s Salaries

Fewer than 43 percent of art-museum directors are women, yet female directors, on average, are paid less than their male counterparts, according to a joint study from Southern Methodist University’s National Center for Arts Research and the Association of Art Museum Directors. The study also found that female directors at museums with budgets of more than $15 million earn 71 cents for every $1 that male directors earn. (Read more from Art and Seek.)

Arts Are Failing to Widen Access to Jobs

The cultural sector in the United Kingdom is failing to provide equal access to jobs, which is “stifling” the industry’s ability to grow and diversify, according to a new report written by leading skills-development body Creative and Cultural Skills. The report claims that employers are recruiting from too small a pool of applicants, which has resulted in unfair routes into work. (Read more from the Stage.)

Making History: Wikipedia Editing as Pedagogical and Public Intervention

On the first Saturday in February, the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art hosted an Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon in partnership with Project Continua and in tandem with a nationwide initiative organized by Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York. We were thrilled by the turnout and enthusiasm of the participants—who ranged from professors of art history and women’s literature to long-time editors of Wikipedia to novices in both categories—and wrote about several personal interactions and specific changes that made the day memorable and impactful on the museum’s blog. (Read more from Art History Teaching Resources.)

When Is an Artwork Finished?

In nineteenth-century England, Varnishing Day was traditionally the time when artists arrived at an exhibition to put the finishing touches on their works and seal them with a coat of varnish. J. M. W. Turner famously arrived at one such event in 1835, where he proceeded to squeeze lumps of color onto a half-finished canvas and, according to various accounts, work without a break, using his fingers and a palette knife to coax the surface to life. In the end, the painting Turner produced was one of two versions depicting the burning of the Houses of Parliament a few months earlier. (Read more from ARTnews.)

Help Desk: Selling Unconventional Work

I work for a gallery that has become known as a place for artists to take risks. While this is exciting and great, it is also frustrating—especially for the owner of the gallery, who has been in business for around twenty years and whose patience and enthusiasm, and subsequent income, is waning as a result of these artists’ unconventional and less-popular work. How do we use this reputation to our advantage and pitch new work to potential collectors. (Read more from Daily Serving.)

The Price of “Free”

You’ve probably seen the news. Getty Images—not to be confused with the Getty Museum or Getty Research Center—has made millions of its photos free. Well, not exactly. You have to use their embedded code, which includes branding, a bit of surveillance, and other moneymaking potential. When you embed these images, you’re giving Getty access to information about who sees the image on your page and you provide them ad space on your site, a little virtual real estate where they might someday put up billboards. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)