CAA News Today
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — April 30, 2014
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.
77,000 Images of Tapestries and Italian Monuments Join the Open Content Program
The Getty Research Institute has just added more than 77,000 high-resolution images to the Open Content Program from two of its most often-used collections. The largest part of the new open-content release—more than 72,000 photographs—comes from the collection Foto Arte Minore: Max Hutzel photographs of art and architecture in Italy. (Read more from the Getty Iris.)
NGA Online Editions
Available for the first time on the National Gallery of Art’s website, NGA Online Editions presents the most current, in-depth information on the museum’s collections by the world’s leading art historians along with rich capabilities for exploring that information. A customized reading environment and toolkit for managing text and images are intended both to provide scholars with a useful workspace for research and to encourage the study and appreciation of art. (Read more from the National Gallery of Art.)
As Researchers Turn to Google, Libraries Navigate the Messy World of Discovery Tools
Many professors and students gravitate to Google as a gateway to research. Libraries want to offer them a comparably simple and broad experience for searching academic content. As a result, a major change is under way in how libraries organize information. Instead of bewildering users with a bevy of specialized databases—books here, articles there—many libraries are bulldozing their digital silos. They now offer one-stop search boxes that comb entire collections, Google style. (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Previously Unknown Warhol Works Discovered on Floppy Disks from 1985
A multi-institutional team of new-media artists, computer experts, and museum professionals has discovered a dozen previously unknown experiments by Andy Warhol on aging floppy disks from 1985. The purely digital images, “trapped” for nearly thirty years on Amiga floppy disks stored in the archives collection of the Andy Warhol Museum, were discovered and extracted by members of the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Club, with assistance from the museum’s staff, the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, the Hillman Photography Initiative at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the artist Cory Arcangel. (Read more from the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.)
The Happy Hour Test
Getting a job, as we all know, can prove mysterious. Just what determines if one gets the job or not? And what, for departments and committees, proves the deciding factor? If things are relatively equal by the finalist stage, and they usually are, then what? I’d contend that many, maybe most searches come down to the intangibles. And the biggest and most indefinable of them all is simply fitting in. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
Why This Movie Perfectly Re-Created a Picasso, Destroyed It, and Mailed the Evidence to Picasso’s Estate
Imagine this: You’ve just spent three weeks painstakingly replicating a Picasso painting from scratch—you’ve scrutinized documentation about the artist’s creative process; you’ve practiced his brushstrokes, so your work will look convincing; you’ve even painted in noted preliminary images, then covered them up, because that’s what he did. You’ve toiled over this, all for mere seconds of screen time in a film. And then you have to destroy it. (Read more from Vanity Fair.)
Ten Steps to Becoming an Adjunct Ally
There have been plenty of word battles recently between tenure-track faculty and adjuncts as the crisis within higher education has become more publicized, and it is more important than ever that tenured and full-time allies take action in support their colleagues and students as we struggle to take back our colleges from corporate mismanagement. Here are some direct steps tenure-track and other full-time faculty can take to support adjunct faculty. (Read more from Fugitive Faculty.)
Warming Up to the Culture of Wikipedia
If ever there was the antithesis of the crowd-sourced Wikipedia, it would be a museum, where an expert picks what is seen and not seen, then carefully prepares captions explaining what each piece of art means. But while there used to be innate suspicion toward Wikipedia among museum staffs, even hostility, in recent years there has increasingly been cooperation. Wikipedia’s volunteer editors are frequently invited to spend the day at museums and archives to create and improve articles related to the works housed there. (Read more from the New York Times.)
New Study on the Changing Research Practices of Art Historians
posted by Christopher Howard — April 30, 2014
The following announcement was originally published by Ithaka S+R on April 30, 2014.
Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Art Historians
A study funded by the Getty Foundation and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, called Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Art Historians, looks at how art historians’ research practices are evolving in the digital age. Intended primarily for the museums, libraries, academic departments, and visual-resources centers that support research in art history within the United States, this project focused on five key areas:
1. The emergence of “digital art history,” and how it is diverging from the broader understanding of the digital humanities.
2. The interconnected scholarly communities that support art history, including museums, libraries, and visual-resources centers, both within and beyond an art historian’s home institution.
3. The changes that digitization and online search portals have brought to the process of searching for primary sources and the limitations of the current discovery environment.
4. The practices art historians employ for managing their large personal collections of digital images.
5. The state of graduate students’ professional training.
Within these five areas, the report makes clear that the needs of art historians can be successfully met only through the collaborative work of many support organizations. Our findings suggest several opportunities for these organizations to develop new funding, services, tools, and initiatives that will have far-reaching impact on the discipline.
This is the third project to be completed as part of Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services Program. A report for the project in history was released in December 2012, and a report for the project in chemistry was released in February 2013.
NEA Awards Sixth Consecutive Grant for ARTspace
posted by Nia Page — April 29, 2014
CAA has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the next installment of ARTspace at the 2015 Annual Conference in New York. Spearheaded by CAA’s Services to Artists Committee, ARTspace is a forum for programming designed by artists for artists that is free and open to the public. Held at each Annual Conference since 2001, ARTspace is intended to reflect the current state of the visual arts and arts education and is among the most vital and exciting aspects of the conference.
Designed to engage CAA’s artist members as well as the general public, ARTspace offers free program sessions and includes diverse activities such as the Annual Distinguished Artists’ Interviews (most recently with Kay Rosen); screenings of film, video, and multimedia works; live performances; and papers and presentations that facilitate a conversational yet professional exchange of ideas and practices.
The grant, which is the NEA’s sixth consecutive award to CAA for ARTspace, will help fund programs such as ARTexchange, the popular open-portfolio exhibition for artists, as well as [Meta] Mentors, a professional-development forum that has addressed such topics as making a living as an artist with and without a dealer, self publishing, social media, and alternative funding. ARTspace programming at the 2014 conference in Chicago included panels that explored the shifting landscape of the field, from the growing role of audience participation and collaboration to new models for artists’ workspaces. You can explore all of the 2014 ARTspace programming at conference.collegeart.org/artspace.
Image Caption
The artist Kay Rosen was interviewed in ARTspace at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago (photograph by Bradley Marks).
NEH and NEA Nominees Await Confirmation
posted by CAA — April 29, 2014
The American Alliance of Museums sent the following email on April 28, 2014.
Urge Congress to Confirm Nominees to Lead NEH and NEA
On April 10, President Obama announced Dr. William “Bro” Adams, president of Colby College, as his choice to serve as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Two months earlier, on February 12, Obama announced Dr. Jane Chu, president and CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, as his choice to serve as the next Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
These two nominees must now be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Take two minutes to ask the U.S. Senate to confirm Dr. Adams and Dr. Chu today!
“Dr. Adams will bring a vast array of experiences to the National Endowment for the Humanities, including as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and as president of Colby College, home of the AAM-accredited Colby College Museum of Art,” said Alliance President Ford W. Bell.
“Dr. Chu has dedicated her life to the arts, from her early days as a pianist and music educator to her leadership at one of the nation’s finest performing arts centers,” said Bell. “It will be a great asset to have an NEA Chairman who instinctively understands the economic impact of the arts in our communities, recognizes the value of arts education and aspires to bring great art to all Americans.”
Please urge the U.S. Senate to confirm these nominees swiftly so these talented leaders can get right to work supporting our nation’s cultural and educational treasures.
“These two accomplished leaders will be terrific additions to the cultural landscape in Washington, DC and I urge the U.S. Senate to confirm them without delay,” said Bell.
Read Ford Bell’s complete statement on President Obama’s nominees to lead NEA and NEH.
Since the December 2012 departure of Chairman Rocco Landesman, NEA has been led by Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa. Since the May 2013 departure of Chairman Jim Leach, NEH has been led by Acting Chairman Carole Watson. Read the American Alliance of Museums’ issues briefs on NEH and NEA.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — April 23, 2014
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.
Summer Survival Strategies for Adjuncts
I’ve lived through enough adjunct summers to know that things get pretty difficult financially around late July. What little money you managed to scrape together during the school year is long gone, and you’re at least two rent cycles away from the next paycheck. For adjuncts who aren’t lucky enough to score classes, the end of the summer can become a deeply stressful period of doing whatever it takes—borrowing, penny-pinching, and scouring Craigslist for odd jobs. (Read more from Vitae.)
Personal Finance in Grad School
Living on a grad student stipend is tough, but we often make it harder on ourselves if we don’t know where the money is going. By tracking our spending habits, we can get a better sense of what we value, our motivations for spending, and areas where we can save a few dollars or even a few hundred dollars. (Read more from GradHacker.)
Can an Economist’s Theory Apply to Art?
Thomas Piketty is a name on a lot of people’s lips at the moment. The French economist’s new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, is a historic survey of wealth concentration that has quickly become a go-to text for the gathering debate on income inequality. In his book, published in English last month, Piketty argues that the rich are only going to get richer as a result of free-market capitalism. The reason, he says, is simple: returns on invested capital are greater than rates of economic growth, and this has become a “fundamental force for divergence” in society. (Read more from the New York Times.)
Detroit Pension Deals Make Sale of DIA Art Less Likely—but Still Possible
Some bankruptcy experts said that it now appears increasingly unlikely that creditors will be able to get their hands on the city-owned art collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts. But experts also said that even in the wake of tentative agreements between the city and Detroit retirees and pensioners, the bondholders, and others pushing hard for a sale of art still have viable legal arguments. (Read more from the Detroit Free Press.)
The Importance of Being a Director-Curator
For those occupying the highest positions in art institutions, spending time with the works that fill their galleries is inevitably more limited than in their earlier curatorial roles. The chance to do the job that made their name—organizing groundbreaking exhibitions or displaying exemplary scholarship—become fewer as bureaucratic demands become greater. Two directors have arguably the most demanding administrative roles in European museums—Udo Kittelmann and Nicholas Serota—both of who continue to take on lead curator roles in major shows. (Read more from the Art Newspaper.)
The Lost, Surprisingly Soulful Art of Corporate Identity
Before corporations, entertainment companies, sports franchises, and political parties acquired “brand narratives,” the notion of branding was a subset of a practice called “corporate identity.” CI, as it was known, required companies and design firms to develop, refine, and maintain an integrated identity system defined by laws set down in a bible known as the graphic standards manual. (Read more from the Atlantic.)
How to Earn Tenure II
So now your clock is running out. In some cases, you’ll be asked to write up a personal statement to be included in your dossier. This can be a tricky thing to write. On the one hand, it will be read by experts in your field. On the other hand, it will also be read by some people who don’t know the first thing about your field. How can you possibly write one document to serve such disparate audiences? (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
Confronting the Myth of the “Digital Native”
When Kaitlin Jennrich first walked into her communications seminar last fall, she had no idea that the professor already knew of her affinity for pink cars and Olive Garden breadsticks—and that she planned to share that knowledge with the class. It hadn’t taken much sleuthing on the professor’s part to uncover those inane nuggets. The eighteen-year-old freshman at Northwestern University had herself lobbed them into the public sphere, via Twitter. Her reaction, she recalls, was, “Oh, no.” (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Frederick Horowitz: In Memoriam
posted by CAA — April 23, 2014
Elaine Wilson is an artist and a former colleague of the deceased at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Frederick Horowitz, an artist, art educator, writer, and passionate champion of the work and teaching philosophy of Josef Albers, died on September 12, 2013, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was 75 years old.
Horowitz was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, and attended Yale University, earning a BA in English in 1960 and a BFA in painting in 1962. His life was forever changed when he enrolled in Albers’s drawing class. Although Horowitz later received an MFA in painting at the University of Michigan in 1964, his contact with Albers at Yale was defining. In the book Josef Albers: To Open Eyes (New York: Phaidon, 2006), coauthored with Brenda Danilowitz, Horowitz recounts the comment Albers made about one of his drawings of the textural quality of a log of wood:
In his crit of one day’s results, Albers singled out a drawing in which repeated black strokes of a soft pencil had jabbed a hole in the newsprint. “Yah,” he exclaimed with delight, and only half ironically, “this boy is getting into it!”
The 12 x 18 inch newsprint pad in which Horowitz did many of the exercises for this class is preserved today, signaling the importance he placed on his experience in this course.
Horowitz spent thirty-five years teaching drawing, design, color, and art appreciation at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. He was widely respected in southeast Michigan as a teacher with authority and integrity. He mentored countless students who went on to become artists, transferring to four-year art programs around the country. Many of his students were older individuals whose lives were deeply enriched by his courses.
At Washtenaw Horowitz taught the art-appreciation course and wrote More Than You See: A Guide to Art (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985) for use in it, while also widening the book’s scope for a broader audience. More Than You See departs from many textbooks for art appreciation and art history: instead of presenting artworks in a chronological order or grouping them by “ism,” it presents a series of questions about looking at a wide range of paintings and objects without necessarily providing the answers. These questions continually challenge readers to think for themselves.
One chapter, titled “Looking over the Artist’s Shoulder,” compares and contrasts an Italian Renaissance painting, Guercino’s Esther before Ahasuerus (1639) and the preparatory drawings for it, with a miniature painting from India and its preparatory drawing. Another chapter, “Reading Paintings,” examines the formal characteristics of several works of art. Horowitz was especially interested in process and in the artist’s choices. By including works from the museums and galleries close to his school, such as the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts, he tied the book to the experience of his students whom he regularly took to these institutions to see the real thing.
In 1992 Horowitz began thinking about writing a book on Albers’s teaching. Brenda Danilowitz, chief curator at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany, Connecticut, worked with him and coauthored the book. Horowitz interviewed numerous artists who had studied with Albers, asking them about the teacher’s presence in the classroom and studio and about the impact and import of the particular projects he assigned. Research at the archives of the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, Yale University, and the Albers Foundation yielded a rich trove of material, which Horowitz and Danilowitz eventually worked into Josef Albers: To Open Eyes. This groundbreaking book has already changed the teaching of numerous younger artists and art professors, reinvigorating their work in the studio classroom.
While writing To Open Eyes, Horowitz began two courses—on design and on color—at Washtenaw Community College, putting into practice the ideas he was acquiring from his research. His own experience taking the color class at Yale with Albers’s own student, Sewell “Si” Sillman, meant that he was well prepared.
As a teacher Horowitz was disciplined and demanding, a tough but kind critic and grader. He required a great deal from his students, but when he saw a need to mentor and foster the talent of particular individuals he went above and beyond his regular duties to help them. This approach led to developing personal relationships that would last well beyond their time at Washtenaw.
Horowitz’s mentoring did not stop with students. He routinely worked with the part-time faculty that he recruited to teach many sections of the studio-art and art-appreciation classes, discussing with them course assignments and curricula, student behavior, grading policy, and even their students’ artwork. He created an atmosphere of cooperation and collegiality within the college’s art area that made it a laboratory for good teaching, a unique place for the overworked and underpaid instructors to work in. He was honest and generous with everyone, while holding all to his own high standards.
After retiring from Washtenaw Community College in 2003, Horowitz continued to lecture around the country and give workshops on Albers and on color and design (including presentations at the Foundations in Art: Theory and Education conference in 1997 and 2003 and at Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center in Asheville, North Carolina.) Abroad he taught workshops at art schools in Mexico City and Jerusalem.
Horowitz’s recent research at the Albers Foundation included close examinations of several Homage to the Square paintings. He developed his thoughts into a manuscript, now awaiting publication. This text—unlike any other of which I know about this body of work—looks closely at how Albers’s color choices interact with each other in specific ways; it also describes poetically their effect after extended looking. Most people don’t spend the amount of time in front of these works to have the experience Horowitz recounts, but hopefully more of them will. In addition, Horowitz speaks about Albers’s color course in the new digital format of the artist’s influential book Interaction of Color (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013. He was also part of a new online art-appreciation course being developed at Washtenaw Community College.
At a memorial celebration of Horowitz’s life at Washtenaw in late October 2013, family, friends, and colleagues remembered him as deeply humane, curious, warm, devoted to his family, funny, and generous with his time, intellect, and heart. He leaves behind a trail of people who loved him and a host of younger artists who, thanks to his inspiration, are devoted to teaching well.
Recent Deaths in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — April 23, 2014
In its periodic list of obituaries, CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, historians, teachers, curators, dealers, philanthropists, and others whose work has significantly influenced the visual arts.
- Molly Lamb Bobak, an artist, teacher and the first Canadian woman to be sent overseas as a war artist, died on March 2, 2014. She was 95
- Markus Brüderlin, a Swiss curator, art historian, and director of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, died on March 16, 2014, at age 55
- Chu Teh-Chun, a Chinese painter also known as Zhu Dequn who was celebrated for integrating traditional Chinese painting with Western abstraction, died on March 26, 2014. He was 94 years old
- Derek Clarke, a painter inspired by Scottish and Irish landscapes, died on February 10, 2014, at the age of 101. He had taught for many years at the Edinburgh College of Art
- Margaret Crow, a Texan philanthropist and matriarch of a family of real-estate developers, died on April 11, at age 94. The Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas is named for her and her husband
- Alan Davie, a Scottish painter of colorful abstractions, passed away on April 5, 2014. He was 93 years old
- Lucia Eames, a designer, the daughter of Charles Eames, and the owner of the Eames Office for twenty-six years, died on April 1, 2014. She was 83
- Joseph Anthony “Joe” Gatto, a noted jewelry artist and the founding visual-art dean of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, died on November 13, 2013. He was 78 years old. CAA has published a special obituary for Gatto
- John Heskett, a writer, professor, and lecturer on industrial design who greatly expanded the theorization of his subject, died on February 25, 2014. He was 76
- Frederick Horowitz, an artist, educator, author, and advocate of Josef Albers’s teaching, died on September 12, 2013, at age 75. CAA has published a special text on Horowitz
- Alexis Hunter, a feminist and conceptualist photographer who based in London, died on February 24, 2014. She was 65
- Charlotte Jirousek, associate professor of textiles and apparel at Cornell University, passed away on February 12, 2014. She was 75 years old
- Peter Kalkhof, a German artist based in London known for his colorful linear abstractions, died on February 24, 2014, at the age of 80. He also taught art for many years at Reading University
- Monika Kinley, a British curator, collector, and dealer who specialized in outsider art, passed away on March 9, 2014, at age 88
- Donald F. McCallum, an art historian, professor, and scholar of Japanese art, died on October 23, 2013. He was 74 years old. CAA has published a special obituary for McCallum
- Kenneth W. Prescott, an art historian, curator, and ornithologist whose last position was chairman of the Department of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, died on August 20, 2013. He was 93
- Ernest Silva, a painter, sculptor, and professor at the University of California, San Diego, from 1979 to 2013, died on February 24, 2014. He was 65
- Edward Sozanski, an art critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer for three decades, died on April 14, 2014. He was 77 years old
- Martin Sullivan, the former director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery from 2008 to 2012, died on February 25, 2014. He was 70
- Theo Wujcik, an artist, professor, and master printmaker who worked with Jasper Johns and Robert Morris, died on March 29, 2014, at age 78
Read all past obituaries in the arts in CAA News, which include special texts written for CAA. Please send links to published obituaries, or your completed texts, to Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor, for the next list.
Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members
posted by CAA — April 22, 2014
See when and where CAA members are exhibiting their art, and view images of their work.
Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
April 2014
Mid-Atlantic
Ira Eduardovna, Mother, 2013, single-channel HD video (artwork © Ira Eduardovna)Ira Eduardovna. Vox Populi, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 3–26, 2014. Mother. Video.
Midwest
Stacy Leeman. Sharon Weiss Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, March 2–30, 2014. Hidden Presences. Painting.
Northeast
Blane De St. Croix. Fredericks and Freiser, New York, May 1–June 14, 2014. Dead Ice. Sculpture.
Laura Kalman, Hood (5), 2014, inkjet print, 20 x 28 in. (artwork © Laura Kalman)Lauren Kalman. Sienna Patti Contemporary, Lenox, Massachusetts, February 8–April 6, 2014. But if the Crime is Beautiful … Part 1, Composition with Ornament and Object. Fine art and contemporary craft.
South
Linda Stein, Defender 696, 2010, leather, metal, and mixed media, 38 x 22 x 14 in. (artwork © Linda Stein)Linda Stein. Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina, January 15–February 28, 2014. The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein. Sculpture.
West
Kent Hayward. 7 Dudley Cinema, Beyond Baroque Arts Center, Venice, California, April 27, 2014. Retrospective of Filmmaker Kent Hayward’s Work. Experimental and documentary film.
Katie Herzog, painting from Altered State Library (artwork © Katie Herzog) Katie Herzog. Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, California, February 15–March 9, 2014. Altered State Library. Painting.
Kanwal Khalid: 2014 International Travel Grant Recipient
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — April 21, 2014
Kanwal Khalid was a participant in the 2014 CAA-Getty International Travel Grant Program. A professor of fine arts at University of the Punjab in Pakistan, she specializes in the history of South Asian art and design with a particular focus on miniature painting in nineteenth-century Lahore. Khalid is also a practicing miniature painter and former curator of paintings at the Lahore Museum. Below she describes her experiences at the 102nd Annual Conference in Chicago.
Just when you think you have seen it all, something turns up and surprises you with its novelty and magnitude. The College Art Association did just that when I attended its Annual Conference in Chicago last February. For me, it became more than attending a conference; it was the experience of a lifetime that changed many of my perspectives.
In Pakistan, art history has always been part of the academic study of fine arts, but now it has become an independent discipline in its own right. This is a relatively recent development, of which I have been a part, and art history is enjoying a high status for the first time in the history of Pakistan. But still it is a comparatively new field. When I came to the Chicago conference, it was a complete surprise to realize that thousands of people share the same passion. CAA and the Getty Foundation have caught a tiger by the tail that is growing fast and expanding everywhere.
The chill of Chicago and the layers of snow couldn’t mar the fiery passion of the scholars, students, artists, and art historians participating in the conference. Interactive sessions, exhibitions, bookstalls, art-supply booths—this was a completely magic world for me. To breathe in thoughts and objects that are the passion of my life was a real treat.
Another dimension of knowledge was listening to presentations by the other nineteen recipients of CAA’s International Travel Grant Program and realizing what wonderful work was going on in their countries regardless of all the challenges they face on daily basis, very similar to the situation in my own country.
Outside the grandeur of the Hilton Hotel, it was the world of museums and modern architecture. I really liked the friendly size of museums in Chicago, which were not as overwhelming as other institutions I have visited, where there’s always a sense of missing a lot even after seeing so much. In all the museums that I visited in Chicago, I was able to return to many of my favorite galleries more than once during the week.
And then a bad snowstorm hit just as we were departing Chicago for New York. Our destination was the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and I will not be exaggerating if I call it a researcher’s paradise. The library was a dream-come-true. The best part for me was being surrounded by mountains—the Berkshires were an enchanted land containing everything I could desire. Here, we raised questions, made suggestions, and challenged old concepts in a true scholarly approach.
The time passed too quickly, and we were saying goodbye to each other at Penn Station in New York City, with a hope that someday we will meet again. I traveled south to give a lecture in Delaware and then attend a meeting in Washington, DC. My experience at CAA turned out to be a great asset for these events, where I imparted my knowledge of South Asian art and culture with more confidence and vigor, especially during a briefing to the South Asian desk at the US State Department about the contemporary educational and cultural situation of Pakistan.
CAA’s 2014 Annual Conference was a life-changing event. Now I’m more confident about my research and teaching methodology because a comparison with other approaches helped me improve my own ways of doing things. I’m so very much looking forward to attending the conference next year.
After returning to Pakistan, I have talked with my students about the potential and scope of CAA and to encourage them to become members. This will give them an exposure to a world of dedicated art historians, enthusiastic academicians, and talented artists, with endless opportunities for those who have the judgment and ability to take advantage of them.
Image Caption
Kanwal Khalid in Chicago.
People in the News
posted by CAA — April 17, 2014
People in the News lists new hires, positions, and promotions in three sections: Academe, Museums and Galleries, and Organizations and Publications.
The section is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
April 2014
Academe
Christine Hahn has earned tenure in the Department of Art and Art History at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
David Joselit has left Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, for a new post as Distinguished Professor of Art History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Museums and Galleries
Darby English, director of research and academic programming at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has been appointed consulting curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He will retain his position at the Clark.
Sandra Q. Firmin, curator of the UB Art Galleries at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, has accepted the directorship of the CU Art Museum at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
David Rubin has left his curatorial position at the San Antonio Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas.
Organizations and Publications
Jill Deupi has joined the board of directors of the Association of Art Museums and Galleries as its New England representative.
Jessi DiTillio has been appointed interim administrative director of the Association of Art Museums and Galleries.
Reni Gower of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has been reelected to the Southeastern College Art Conference’s board of directors for a three-year term.
Sandra Reed of the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, has been reelected to the Southeastern College Art Conference’s board of directors for a three-year term.