CAA News Today
Career Services Guide for the 2016 Annual Conference
posted by CAA — January 14, 2016
CAA has designed the Career Services Guide to inform job seekers and employers about placement activities at the 2016 Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The publication, available as a PDF, will help you navigate Career Services events and provides answers to frequently asked questions. Study this guide carefully so that you will know what to expect from conference interviewing and how best to prepare for a successful experience.
Job candidates can review the basics of the conference employment search. Read about the Candidate Center, your home base at the conference, as well as Orientation, an introduction to Career Services where you can ask questions. In addition, learn more about the Online Career Center, where you can search for position listings, post application materials, and arrange interviews. The publication includes tips for improving your CV, portfolio, and supplemental application materials.
Employers will find details in the guide for renting interview booths and tables as well as recommendations for posting jobs and conducting interviews at the conference. You can begin preparations now for Career Services through the Online Career Center or onsite at the Interviewer Center.
Printed copies of the Career Services Guide will be distributed onsite at Orientation and in the Candidate Center. All conference Career Services will take place at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. For more information about job searching, professional-development workshops, and more, visit the Career Services section of the conference website.
Career Services Guide for the 2016 Annual Conference
posted by Katie Apsey — January 14, 2016
CAA has designed the Career Services Guide to inform job seekers and employers about placement activities at the 2016 Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The publication, available as a PDF, will help you navigate Career Services events and provides answers to frequently asked questions. Study this guide carefully so that you will know what to expect from conference interviewing and how best to prepare for a successful experience.
Job candidates can review the basics of the conference employment search. Read about the Candidate Center, your home base at the conference, as well as Orientation, an introduction to Career Services where you can ask questions. In addition, learn more about the Online Career Center, where you can search for position listings, post application materials, and arrange interviews. The publication includes tips for improving your CV, portfolio, and supplemental application materials.
Employers will find details in the guide for renting interview booths and tables as well as recommendations for posting jobs and conducting interviews at the conference. You can begin preparations now for Career Services through the Online Career Center or onsite at the Interviewer Center.
Printed copies of the Career Services Guide will be distributed onsite at Orientation and in the Candidate Center. All conference Career Services will take place at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. For more information about job searching, professional-development workshops, and more, visit the Career Services section of the conference website.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — January 13, 2016
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.
Should Art Grants Be Awarded to Artists Who Don’t Need the Money?
When talking to the founders of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award in Seattle, I was trying to raise a general discussion around the fact that many arts funders don’t take financial need into account when deciding who gets their money. I’m not talking about making need the decisive factor. I’m talking about making it one factor among several. (Read more from the Stranger.)
The Most Relevant Art Today Is Taking Place outside the Art World
When artists operate outside the gallery space, whether because their work functions best there or because they are forced to, they are both creating valuable art and making the limitations of traditional art institutions visible—physically, historically, and conceptually. Perhaps such work can even change those institutions, those structures of looking. (Read more from Artsy.)
The Robots Are Coming
Artists as diverse as Rachel Whiteread, Oscar Murillo, and Yayoi Kusama are beginning to use the high-tech fabrication methods once available to only the most commercially successful artists. Lower-cost robots that mimic an artist’s arm movements and joints are starting to replace the pricey computer-numerical-control machines that Jeff Koons uses to produce his sleek, industrial aesthetic. (Read more from the Art Newspaper.)
The Secret to All Great Art Forgeries
In A Forger’s Tale, the convicted forger Shaun Greenhalgh reveals that he drew Leonardo da Vinci’s La Bella Principessa, which has been valued upwards of $100 million. Greenhalgh even admits that he modeled the subject after a supermarket checkout girl. If his claims are true, how did this forgery go unnoticed for so long? How did it pass the sniff tests of so many art historians and purported experts? (Read more from the New Republic.)
College Degree Gap Grows Wider for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos
The racial gap in who’s graduating from college has widened since 2007, a new report shows. While more blacks and Latinos are graduating from college now, the percentage of whites graduating has grown even faster. About 33 percent of African American adults had at least a two-year college degree in 2015, up from about 28 percent in 2007. For Latinos, that figure grew to about 23 percent from 19 percent, while whites grew to 47 percent from 41 percent. (Read more from the Hechinger Report.)
Translating Research into Practice
During the past twenty years, college and university faculty have begun to utilize several areas of the learning sciences, including cognitive psychology, to inform pedagogy. Much of this work has happened in ways that have helped our profession to more effectively teach and our students to more effectively learn. However, we still have much work to do if we claim that we have a well-developed set of tools that can be applied across disciplines. (Read more from Faculty Focus.)
Helen Molesworth’s Permanent-Collection Show at MOCA Is Upending the Story of Art
Enter the permanent collection galleries of any museum of modern and contemporary art in the United States and it’s likely you’ll lay eyes on a familiar story: the muscular narrative of the Abstract Expressionists attacking their canvases, continuing through the pathways of 1960s Pop and 1970s Minimalism before landing at the Neoexpressionism of the 1980s. Pay a visit to Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, however, and you will see that story turned on its head. (Read more from the Los Angeles Times.)
What Money Can Buy
The urge to change the world is normally thwarted by a near-insurmountable barricade of obstacles: failure of imagination, failure of courage, bad governments, bad planning, incompetence, corruption, fecklessness, the laws of nations, the laws of physics, the weight of history, inertia of all sorts, psychological unsuitability on the part of the would-be changer, the resistance of people who would lose from the change, the resistance of people who would benefit from it, the seduction of activities other than world-changing, lack of practical knowledge, lack of political skill, and lack of money. (Read more from the New Yorker.)
Workers Still Needed for the 2016 Annual Conference!
posted by Katie Apsey — January 12, 2016
Interested in attending the 2016 Annual Conference but find the registration fees prohibitory? Working as a projectionist, room monitor, or registration attendant at this year’s event is a great way to save on conference expenses. All temporary workers who agree to twelve hours of work and a paid training meeting are given complimentary full-conference registration; they will also receive $12 per hour upon the completion of their shifts.
CAA is still accepting applicants for the following positions and shifts.
Registration Attendants
CAA seeks registration attendants to work in the registration area between Tuesday afternoon, February 2 and Saturday afternoon, February 6. Registration attendants are required to work a minimum of twelve hours, registering conference participants, checking membership statuses, and monitoring registration compliance in various session rooms. Registration attendant shifts are full-day shifts (8:00 AM–7:00 PM) and best for people who would like to complete their work commitment in a single day.
**Registration attendants must attend a training meeting on Tuesday afternoon, February 2, between 3:30 and 5:00 PM.
**Workers are still needed for shifts on Wednesday, February 3, 8:00 AM–7:00 PM, and Thursday February 4, 8:00 AM–7:00 PM.
Projectionists
CAA seeks projectionists to work in the various conference session rooms between Wednesday, February 3, and Saturday February 6. Projectionists are required to work a minimum of eleven hours and must be familiar with digital projectors and laptops.
**Projectionists must attend a training meeting on Wednesday morning, February 3, 7:30–8:30 AM.
**Many shifts still available between 9:30 AM and 5:00 PM on Thursday, February 4, and Friday, February 5.
Room Monitors
CAA seeks room monitors to work in the various conference session rooms between Wednesday, February 3, and Saturday February 6. Room monitors are required to work a minimum of eleven hours checking in session participants, monitoring membership compliance in various rooms, and taking attendance in the session rooms.
**Room monitors must attend a training meeting on Wednesday morning, February 3, 7:30–8:30 AM.
**Many shifts are still available between 9:30 AM and 5:00 PM on Thursday, February 4, and Friday, February 5.
To Apply
Send a two-page CV and a brief letter of interest to Katie Apsey, CAA manager of programs. In your letter of interest, please include the following details: (1) the maximum number of hours you can work (minimum twelve, maximum forty); (2) what days you will be in attendance and available to work (Tuesday afternoon, February 2, through Saturday night, February 6); (3) any days or session times you absolutely cannot work (when you plan on attending an important event or presenting a paper); (4) an order of preference for positions, if applying for multiple availabilities; (5) your CAA user/member ID#.
All candidates must be US citizens or permanent US residents.
Image: Working the registration booths at the 2015 Annual Conference in New York (photograph by Bradley Marks)
Conference Message from the CAA President
posted by DeWitt Godfrey — January 12, 2016
I want to share my excitement about the offerings at the upcoming 2016 annual conference, taken together we think they represent the diversity of areas on which CAA is focused. We are thrilled to be in Washington DC, home to so many excellent museums and cultural institutions. The conference kicks off with a keynote by Tania Bruguera, an artist whose work, specially relevant in this election year, explores the relationship between art, activism, and social change. Our Distinguished Artists’ Interviews feature MacArthur Fellows Rick Lowe (2014) with LaToya Ruby Frazier (2015) and Joyce Scott with George Ciscle from the Maryland Institute College of Art. We have Jane Chu, Chair of the NEA, and William “Bro” Adams, Chairman of the NEH, to discuss their organizations half a century of supporting the arts and humanities. Jarl Mohn, National Public Radio CEO and President, will speak on the visual arts and the public. We will honor scholars Richard Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History and Dean of Humanities, Duke University and Linda Nochlin, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Modern Art at New York University, in two special panel sessions. With sessions ranging from Latin American artists, design, artists working with data, public art, workshops on job hunting, portfolio and résumé preparation, there is something for everyone. I hope you can join us.
Collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation
posted by CAA — January 12, 2016
One of CAA’s annual Distinguished Artists’ Interviews at the 2016 Annual Conference in Washington, DC—the artist Rick Lowe in conversation with the photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier—is among the first events of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s year-long series of performances, discussions, and other events to celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of its iconic fellowship program. The MacArthur Foundation will collaborate with a diverse set of partners for 2016 programming, including Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and New York’s 92nd Street Y. Most events will be open to the public for free or at low cost. Video of many events will be published online.
Lowe received a MacArthur fellowship in 2014, and Frazier won the prize in 2015. The Distinguished Artists’ Interviews will take place on Friday, February 5, 2:30–5:00 PM, in the Thurgood Marshall Ballroom East/South, Mezzanine Level, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. Preceding their conversation will be another interview: the artist Joyce Scott interviewed by George Ciscle of the Maryland Institute College of Art. Both talks will be live streamed on CAA’s YouTube page.
“Working across every field imaginable, MacArthur fellows capture the public imagination and inspire people to nurture creativity in their own lives and communities,” said Cecilia Conrad, managing director of the MacArthur Fellows Program, during a luncheon at the City Club of Chicago that also featured the labor organizer Ai-Jen Poo and the artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, both MacArthur fellows. “This year-long celebration will showcase fellows’ work, foster new collaborations, and enable these highly creative people to further inspire us all.”
Programming is under development and subject to change; but it is expected to include the following events:
- Lowe will deliver a lecture on “Art in the Social Context” at Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service in California, as part of the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor program(February 4)
- In conjunction with an exhibition of her work, the Whitney Museum of American Art will host a discussion with the documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (New York, February).
- Sixth & I, a historic synagogue and cultural event space in Washington, DC, will present a panel discussion featuring MacArthur fellows (March)
- The 92nd Street Y in New York will present a panel discussion featuring MacArthur fellows (March)
- The Economics Club of Chicago will feature two conversation pairings with the arts entrepreneur Claire Chase and the music educator Aaron Dworkin, as well as the computational biologist John Novembre and the historian Tara Zahra (May 25)
- MacArthur fellows will be featured in a plenary session at the annual convention of Americans for the Arts in Boston (June)
- The Chicago Humanities Festival will incorporate MacArthur fellows into its regular annual programming (September)
- The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, will host two free public performances by MacArthur fellows through its Millennium Stage series (October)
The anniversary celebration will also include an online component, featuring one MacArthur fellow each month responding to public questions on Reddit as well as interviews with fellows on popular YouTube channels.
The MacArthur fellowship—called “genius grants” by the media—recognizes exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for significant contributions in the future. Fellows each receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000, which comes with no stipulations or reporting requirements and allows recipients maximum freedom to follow their own creative visions. Since 1981, 942 people have been named MacArthur fellows. Fellows are selected through a rigorous process that has involved thousands of expert and anonymous nominators, evaluators, and selectors over the years.
CAA in Review
posted by CAA — January 11, 2016
The College Art Association advances the highest standards of instruction, knowledge and practice in the visual arts to stimulate intellectual curiosity and advance skills that enrich the individual and society. Below is a sampling of CAA’s recent work on Fair Use, Standards and Guidelines in the Visual Arts, international scholarship programs, publishing grants, and professional development fellowships for artists and scholars. For more information and updates, visit www.collegeart.org.
CAA Project on Fair Use in the Visual Arts
- Conceived with guidance of over 60 members of the CAA governing community
- Directly reached nearly 2,000 people through talks and webinars
- Publication of groundbreaking Code of Best Practices in the Visual Arts
- Endorsed and supported by the American Library Association, Art Libraries Society of North America, Association of Art Museum Curators, Association of College and Research Libraries Association of Research Libraries, Society of Architectural Historians, Visual Resources Association, American Alliance of Museums, and Association of Art Museum Directors
Standards and Guidelines for the Visual Arts
- Development of workplace practices, pedagogical guidelines, official statements, and establishment of professional ethics in the visual arts
- From 2014-2015, CAA issued the following Standards and Guidelines:
- Statement On Terminal Degree Programs in The Visual Arts and Design (2015)
- Guidelines for CAA Interviews (2015)
- Guidelines for Part-Time Professional Employment (2015)
- Standards for Professional Placement (2015)
- Standards for the Practice of Art History (2014)
- Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, CAA (2015)
- Fine Art Print Publication Guidelines for Artists (2015)
- Standards for the Practice of Art History (2014)
- General Principles for Academic Arts Administrators (2015)
Publishing Toward the Future
- Sharp increase in readership after co-publishing contract with Taylor & Francis
- 2014-15 Art Bulletin full text downloads: 37,631
- 2014-15 Art Journal full text downloads: 29,891
- CAA Reviews website visits: 88,131
- Joint Task Force between CAA and the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) to developing guidelines for evaluating digital scholarship in art and architectural history.
- Art Journal Open launches new features including Bookshelves of art historians, artists, curators, and designers and discussions between curators and artists
- Graduate Programs in the Visual Arts published in two volumes for the fifth consecutive year
CAA International Reach
- In its first four years the CAA-Getty International Program has had 75 Participants from 37 Countries hosted by 46 CAA members
- Launch of the International News Desk on CAA website
- Organized CAA Member International Tour to Cuba for the Havana Biennial
- Expansion of membership to art critics, art historians, and artists based abroad
Increasing Digital Footprint
- 2014-15 visitors to CAA website over 6.5 million
- Continued growth in social media reach: Facebook (6,462 likes) and Twitter (13.7K)
- Launch of Instagram account and Flickr image archive
- Launch of Social Media Wall for 2016 Annual Conference
Grants Awarded to CAA
- CAA projects and initiatives funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Getty Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Milton and Sally Avery Foundation, and Elizabeth A. Sackler Museum Educational Trust
Fellowships, Grants, and Support Offered by CAA
- CAA offered to artists, authors, and art historians grants and fellowships including the Meiss/Mellon Author’s Book Award, CAA Getty International Program, the Millard Meiss Publications Fund, the Terra Foundation for American Art International Publication Grant, Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant, CAA Professional Development Fellowships, and travel grants supporting graduate students and international members of CAA.
Committee on Women in the Arts Picks for January 2016
posted by CAA — January 10, 2016
Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts selects the best in feminist art and scholarship. The following exhibitions and events 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.
January 2016
Carolee Schneemann, Eye Body: 36 Transformative Actions for Camera, 1963, action in the artist’s studio, 122 West 29th Street, New York, NY, US, 18 gelatin silver prints, 24 x 20 in. each (61 x 50.8 cm), Edition (2008): 8 of 8 + 2 AP Courtesy of C. Schneemann and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York, Photo: Erró © Carolee Schneemann, © Bildrecht, Wien, 2015, © Erró (*1932)Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting
Museum der Moderne
Mönchsberg 32, 5020 Salzburg. Austria
November 21, 2015–February 28, 2016
Work by the groundbreaking artist Carolee Schneemann takes over two floors of the Museum der Moderne in the retrospective, Kinetic Painting. More than 350 works spanning six decades, some unseen before now, present Schneemann’s oeuvre from her early career in the 1950s through the present.
“Schneemann, as a pioneer of performance art, and her seminal engagement with gender, sexuality, and the use of the body, has been a major influence on generations of younger artists,” the museum explains. The works included in Kinetic Painting explore Schneemann’s Painting Constructions, her early use of movement, and her artistic contributions through experimental film, performance, and choreography. The exhibition also offers works on loan from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate in London, and the artist’s archives in the special collections of the Stanford University Libraries.
Through experimental work such as Fuses (1965) and Interior Scroll (1975/77) and her pioneering “kinetic theater” piece Meat Joy (1964), Scheenmann focuses on the female body in context, while exploring sexual pleasure. In Interior Scroll, she pulls a paper scroll from her vagina “inch by inch” and reads a monologue decrying the sexism and disparagement that women confront in the worlds of art and experimental film.
The exhibition catalogue, Carolee Schneemann. Kinetic Painting I Carolee Schneemann. Kinetische Malerei, is available in English and German. Edited by Sabine Breitwieser for the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, the book includes essays by Breitwieser, Branden W. Joseph, Mignon Nixon, Ara Osterweil, and Judith Rodenbeck, as well as selected writings by the artist.
Islamic Art Now: Contemporary Art of the Middle East (Parts One and Two)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Part One: February 1, 2015–January 3, 2016
Part Two: January 24, 2016–ongoing
The two-part exhibition Islamic Art Now: Contemporary Art of the Middle East features LACMA’s growing collection of Islamic art. Part one focuses on twenty-five works from artists from Iran and the Arab world, including Shirin Neshat, Susan Huefana, Lalla Essaydi, Mitra Tabrizian, Mona Hautoum, Hassan Hajjaj, Wafaa Bilal, Barbad Golshiri, and Youssef Nabil, among others.
The exhibition explores the creative connections between the past, present, and future in Islamic art as artists draw inspiration from their own cultural traditions played out through each artist’s techniques and mediums. Among the works on display is Neshat’s photograph Speechless (1996) from her Women of Allah series. The photograph depicts a woman dressed in a black chador with a gun poking out from the folds and directionally toward the camera. Neshat then uses ink to inscribe Persian texts across the image.
“The Western view is that Iranian women or Muslim women are very repressed, but the reality is that in my country, women are far more radical and rebellious than men are,” Neshat says in an interview with the Washington Post on May 21, 2015. “My work is an allegorical sort of remark on the reality as I see it, as I feel it.”
The exhibition’s second part begins in late January and will feature artists from Turkey and Azerbaijan, such as Shoja Azari, Lulwah Al Homoud, Burhan Doǧançay, Fereydoun Ave, Shirin Guirguis, Newsha Tavakolian, Shadi Ghadirian, Hassan Hajjaj, Ahmed Mater, and Faig Ahmed, among others.
Us is Them
Pizzuti Gallery
632 North Park Street, Columbus, OH 43215
September 18, 2015–April 2, 2016
Us is Them at the Pizzuti Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, presents seventy-five paintings, sculpture, photographs, and video by forty-two international artists, including Carrie Mae Weems, Shirin Neshat, Michalene Thomas, and Kara Walker, among others. All works belong to the private collection of Ron and Ann Pizzuti.
According to the gallery, “the exhibition is organized to reflect timely and potent issues of social justice and current affairs across the world,” where artists create “enlightening and thoughtful works that challenge and rearrange stale notions of identity and obsolete notions of difference.”
Through presenting aspects of the common human condition through the distinct styles and mediums of each artist, the gallery creates a connection to the title, “us” is “them,” and “our shared human condition and our hope for social justice no matter who or where we are.”
Presented among the work is the Iraqi-born artist Hayv Kahraman’s Kawliya.2 (2014), depicting a woman in a boldly patterned dress, arms uncovered and hair flying. In Slow Fade to Black, Set II (2009–10) by Weems, seventeen photographs of African American women—female performers who remain underrecognized despite their achievements—present moments of glamour, entertainment, and civic engagement. The images, however, are out of focus, with many details lost. “Slow Fade to Black is a celebration but also a warning—that we must stop the established historical pattern of diminishing the significant contributions of women and particularly African American women.”
Affiliated Society News for January 2016
posted by CAA — January 09, 2016
Art Council of the African Studies Association
The current board members of the Art Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) are: President – Silvia Forni, Curator, Anthropology, Department of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; President Elect/Vice President – Shannen Hill, Associate Curator for African Art and Head of the AAAPI Department, Baltimore Museum of Art, and Senior Fellow, National Museum of African Art; Past President – Dominique Malaquais, Senior Researcher, Centre d’Etudes des Mondes Africains, CNRS; Secretary – Liese Van der Watt, Independent Writer and Researcher, London; Treasurer – Jordan Fenton, Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art, Miami University, Ohio; Website Editor – Cory Gundlach, PhD student (ABD) in African Art History, and Associate Curator of African and Non-Western Art at the University of Iowa Museum of Art; Newsletter Editor – Deborah Stokes, Curator for Education, National Museum of African Art; Assistant Newsletter Editor – Leslie Rabine, Professor Emerita at the University of California, Davis; ASA Liaison – Cécile Fromont, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History at the University of Chicago; CAA Liaison – Yaëlle Biro, Associate Curator for African Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Eric Appau Asante, Lecturer of African Art and Culture; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology; Boureima Diamitani, Executive Director of the West African Museums Programme; and Sidney Kasfir, Professor Emerita, Art History Department, Emory University.
Art Libraries Society of North America and the Visual Resources Association Foundation
A Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management (SEI 2016) will be held at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill from June 7 to 10, 2016. Founded over ten years ago, SEI is a joint project of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and the Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF). It is designed to serve a wide range of professionals eager to learn about new technologies and update job skills: museum staff, visual-resources curators, librarians, archivists, art educators, and all those managing digital image media. This intensive workshop offers a mix of hands-on and lecture sessions presented by expert instructors. Registration for SEI 2016 opened in January. Please feel free to contact the SEI cochairs with any questions: Greta Bahnemann, University of Minnesota; and Jesse Henderson, University of Wisconsin.
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries
The Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) Leadership Seminar will take place June 19–24, 2016, at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The application deadline is January 15, 2016. Join colleagues from throughout the United States and beyond for AAMG’s flagship professional development program at Northwestern’s prestigious Kellogg School Center for Nonprofit Management. Dynamic, engaging, highly interactive by design, and interspersed with team and individual problem-solving exercises in leadership and management, this intensive five-day certificate program will allow you to learn from one another and be guided and inspired by nationally recognized scholars drawn principally from Kellogg’s renowned faculty. To learn more about the program and to download an application, please visit the AAMG website.
Association of Art Editors
The Association of Art Editors (AAE) website underwent a major remodeling in the summer of 2015. The New York–based graphic designer Matt See created the fresh and attractive template, which was refined, detailed, and implemented by DataCom Ota of Duluth, Minnesota. The site’s format is now simpler, easier on the eyes (more legible type and appealing colors), and more flexibly viewable (including via smartphone). Among other improvements, the member entries and services index have greater clarity, and job opportunities are linked via the homepage rather than incorporated in the Services section, as before. Over all, navigation has been much enhanced. The AAE website is accessible—free to all.
International Center of Medieval Art
The International Center of Medieval Art (IMCA) is pleased to announce and solicit applications for two recently created awards. First, the Graduate Student Travel Award. Three grants will be awarded this year, at $3,000 each, for PhD students in the early stages of dissertation research. Applications are due on March 1, and applicants must be ICMA members. The second award, the new ICMA book prize, will be awarded in 2017 to the best single-authored, printed book on any topic in medieval art published in 2016. Books published in English, French, Spanish, Italian, or German are eligible for consideration. For more information, please contact Ryan Frisinger.
Italian Art Society
The annual members’ business meeting of the Italian Art Society (IAS) will take place at the 2016 CAA Annual Conference on Friday, February 5, 2016, 7:30–9:00 AM in the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington 4, Exhibition Level. In addition to reports on IAS activities and election results, three IAS founders will be honored, the 2016 IAS/Kress lecturer will be announced, and recipients of various grants and awards will be recognized. The IAS long session, “Beyond Texts and Academies: Rethinking the Education of the Early Modern Italian Artists,” organized by Jesse Locker of Portland State University, will follow at 9:30 AM in Washington 1, Exhibition Level. The IAS-sponsored short session, “Rethinking the Rhetoric and Force of Images,” organized by Robert Williams of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Anna Marazuela Kim of the Courtauld Institute of Art, will take place the same day, 12:30–2:00 PM, in the Maryland Suite, Lobby Level.
The deadline for the new IAS Conference Grant for Modern Topics is February 15, 2016. Up to $1,000 will be provided to subsidize transoceanic travel to present in an IAS-sponsored session on the art, architecture, or visual culture of Italy from the early nineteenth century to the present.
Public Art Dialogue
Public Art Dialogue (PAD) is excited to announce two events at the 2016 CAA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. On Thursday, February 4, 6:00–8:00 PM, PAD will host a Public Art Salon and Award Reception in conjunction with Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) at the WPA gallery at 2124 8th Street NW. Local artists will show slides and talk about their public art projects in and around DC. At the event, Kirk Savage, professor of history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, will receive the 2016 PAD Award for Achievement in the Field of Public Art. On Friday, February 5, 5:30–7:00 PM, Savage will chair a roundtable, “Public Art: Process and Practice,” with Thomas Luebke of the US Commission of the Fine Arts and Lucy Kempf of the National Capital Planning Commission.
The Fall 2015 Public Art Dialogue (PAD) Newsletter has an interview by Marisa Lerer and Jennifer K. Favorite with Sarah Beetham on “Confederate Monuments and the Black Lives Matter Movement.” As Lerer and Favorite note: “Countries around the world, from Syria to Spain to Argentina, have grappled with the bronze and stone sculptural legacy of leaders who represent a dark chapter in their nation’s past.” This issue has a strong link PAD’s forthcoming journal issue, “The Dilemma of Public Art’s Permanence,” edited by Erika Doss. Also in the newsletter, Marisa Lerer has an essay “Public Art’s Role in International Biennials.” She considers the role of public-art practices in contemporary biennials and includes responses from curators, artists, and academics from Cuba, the United States, Ireland, and Canada. The guest editors of two special issues of PAD’s journal are seeking papers and artists’ projects for the topics “Borders and Boundaries” (coeditors: Cher Krause Knight and Harriet F. Senie; submission deadline: March 1, 2016); and “Higher Ed: College Campuses and Public Art” (editor: Monika Burczyk; submission deadline: September 1, 2016). For more information, go to the PAD website.
SECAC
The SECAC board and membership voted to change the name of the organization from the Southeastern College Art Conference to SECAC.
Awards presented at SECAC’s annual meeting, which took place October 22–24, 2015, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are:
- Excellence in Teaching: Debra Murphy, University of North Florida
- Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication: Bibiana Obler, George Washington University
- Outstanding Artistic Achievement: Matthew Kolodziej, University of Akron
- Outstanding Exhibition and Catalogue of Contemporary Materials: Hannah Israel and Michele McCrillis, Columbus State University
- Outstanding Professional Achievement in Graphic Design: Jerry Johnson, Troy University; and Scott Fisk, Samford University
The President’s Awards are:
- Award for Exemplary Achievement: Michael Aurbach, Vanderbilt University
- Certificates of Merit: Thomas Brewer, University of Central Florida; Carol Crown, University of Memphis; and Virginia Derryberry, University of North Carolina, Asheville
The Juried Exhibition featured:
- First-place award: Michael Holsombeck, Chattanooga State Community College
- Second-place awards: Efram Burk of Curry College; and Sara Madandar, University of Texas at Austin
- $5,000 Artist’s Fellowship: Duane Paxson, Troy University
- $5,000 William R. Levin Award for Research in the History of Art: John Ott, James Madison University
Society of Architectural Historians
The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) will hold its next annual international conference April 6–10, 2016, at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green Street, in Pasadena, California. Over seven hundred people from around the world will convene to share new research on the history of the built environment from antiquity to the critical present. “New Local/Global Infrastructures” is the theme of the 2016 Pasadena/Los Angeles conference, which includes forty-two sessions with papers, as well as roundtables, exhibits, talks, and public architecture tours. Regional sessions include “Los Angeles Infrastructure: Design, Aesthetics, Publics,” “Styles, Revival Styles, California Styles,” and “Reappraising California Counterculture.” Speakers include Eric Avila, professor of urban cultural history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Dana Cuff, UCLA architecture professor and director of the cityLAB research center. SAH will present “Surveying L.A.: Past, Present, Future,” a public seminar that will take an in-depth look at SurveyLA, the city’s comprehensive study of historic resources funded by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the City of Los Angeles. Panelists will discuss the local and global implications and applications of SurveyLA and its website, HistoricPlacesLA. Early registration ends February 3, 2016. View the complete program and register online.
Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture
Following voting in December 2015, the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA) has elected Ksenia Nouril as its new secretary/treasurer for a two-year term, succeeding Yelena Kalinsky. In addition, Amy Bryzgel will replace Ksenya Gurshtein as the web news editor for a one-year term.
On December 11–12, several SHERA members participated in “The 100 Years of Suprematism Conference” at the Harriman Institute, organized by the Malevich Society. The conference proved to be an important international event, bringing together scholars from the United States, Europe, and the former Soviet Union. The program of the conference is available on the website of the Malevich Society.
At CAA’s Annual Conference in February 2016, SHERA will sponsor the following sessions: “Collecting, Curating, Canonizing, Critiquing: The Institutionalization of Eastern European Art,” chaired by Ksenia Nouril; and a double session led by Alison Hilton called “Exploring Native Traditions in the Arts of Eastern Europe and Russia.”
Committee on Diversity Practices highlights for January/February 2016
posted by CAA — January 09, 2016
The CAA Committee on Diversity Practices highlights exhibitions, events, and activities that support the development of global perspectives on art and visual culture and deepen our appreciation of political and cultural heterogeneity as educational and professional values. Current highlights are listed below; browse past highlights through links at the bottom of this page.
January/February 2016
30 Americans
Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit, Michigan
October 18, 2015–January 18, 2016
“Identity, triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell Family Collection, created by many of the most important African American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley, Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson.”
Walid Raad
Museum of Modern Art
New York, New York
October 12, 2015–January 31, 2016
“MoMA presents the first comprehensive American survey of the leading contemporary artist Walid Raad (b. 1967, Lebanon), featuring his work in photography, video, sculpture, and performance from the last 25 years. Dedicated to exploring the veracity of photographic and video documents in the public realm, the role of memory and narrative within discourses of conflict, and the construction of histories of art in the Arab world, Raad’s work is informed by his upbringing in Lebanon during the civil war (1975–91), and by the socioeconomic and military policies that have shaped the Middle East in the past few decades.
The exhibition focuses on two of the artist’s long-term projects: The Atlas Group (1989–2004) and Scratching on things I could disavow (2007–ongoing). Under the rubric of The Atlas Group, a 15-year project exploring the contemporary history of Lebanon, Raad produced fictionalized photographs, videotapes, notebooks, and lectures that related to real events and authentic research in audio, film, and photographic archives in Lebanon and elsewhere. Raad’s recent work has expanded to address the Middle East region at large. His current ongoing project, Scratching on things I could disavow, examines the recent emergence in the Arab world of new infrastructure for the visual arts—art fairs, biennials, museums, and galleries—alongside the geopolitical, economic, and military conflicts that have consumed the region. The exhibition emphasizes the importance of performance, narrative, and storytelling in Raad’s oeuvre.”
Nari Ward: Sun Splashed
Pérez Art Museum Miami
Miami, Florida
November 19, 2015–February 21, 2016
“In the fall of 2015, Pérez Art Museum Miami will present a mid-career retrospective of Nari Ward (b. 1963, Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica; lives in New York). This exhibition, Sun Splashed, will be the largest survey of the artist’s work to date and will offer a close consideration of his diverse production. Sun Splashed will examine Ward’s career through interrelated frameworks that reveal the ongoing investigations, both material and intellectual, that have guided his practice across more than 20 years. Rather than chronologically, this exhibition will be organized around vital points of reference for the artist, including urban space, performance and the body, the dynamics of power and politics, ideas of migration and movement, vernacular traditions, and his native Jamaica.
Ward’s practice is defined by its embrace of varied media and in particular the recurrent use of found objects, which imbue his works with a tactile and visceral relationship to history and the real world. The ambitious scale of his works and his continued experimentation with new materials and media will be brought to the fore in this exhibition, which will feature mixed-media collages, photography, assemblage, sculpture, interactive works, video, and architectural installations.”
Drawn From Courtly India: The Conley Harris and Howard Truelove Collection
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 6, 2015–March 27, 2016
“This exhibition presents masterful drawings from the royal courts of northern India. Lovingly amassed by artist Conley Harris and architectural designer Howard Truelove, the collection features practice sketches, preparatory drawings, subtly modeled scenes, and lightly colored compositions created between the 1500s and 1800s. With images at different stages of completion, the collection allows for a fascinating look at Indian workshop practice. Although the majority of the drawings served as studies for paintings, they are accomplished works of art in their own right. Included are striking portraits, vivid battle scenes, illustrations of popular religious stories, and explorations of love. Gentle yet robust lines convey the creativity of workshop-trained artists with compelling immediacy—from the delicate shading of a ruler’s facial hair to the strong contours of a god’s upstretched arm in battle. Not only do these drawings highlight the artists’ expert handling of medium, they illuminate how workshops labored in artistic collaboration and transmitted skills from one generation to the next. Drawings reveal what paintings conceal, and the works in this exhibition offer new ways of looking and thinking about the art of Indian drawing. By presenting works at distinct moments during the creative process, Drawn from Courtly India showcases how the Indian draftsman transformed a blank sheet of paper into a masterful work of art.”
Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Before Now After (Mama, Mummy and Mamma)
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York, New York
November 23, 2015–
“Over the course of the next five years, a series of public art installations by key American artists will appear across from the Whitney’s new building and the southern entrance to the High Line, on the facade of 95 Horatio Street. Njideka Akunyili Crosby is the third artist to present work as part of the series, which was initiated by the Whitney in partnership with TF Cornerstone and the High Line. This is the artist’s first solo presentation in an institution in New York.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983; Enugu, Nigeria) is a Los-Angeles based artist who makes large-scale, representational work that combines collage, drawing, painting, and printmaking. Her work routinely fuses both Nigerian and American influences and source material, reflecting on contemporary African life (often her family) along with her experience as an expatriate living in the U.S, and the inherent difficulty of navigating these two realms. The works simultaneously become intimate while more broadly exploring the cultural complications of the dual worlds that she inhabits.
Akunyili Crosby’s new work for the billboard, Before Now After (Mama, Mummy and Mamma), continues her ongoing exploration of her relationship to her family, and in this case to her sister, mother, and grandmother specifically. The image is closely based on an existing painting entitled Mama, Mummy and Mamma from 2014, now expanded for this site. Like much of her work, the composition fuses both a portrait (in this case of her sister), photographs of both her mother and grandmother, and an elaborate array of objects arranged carefully on the table, suggesting a still life composition. Additionally, the work’s placement at the foot of the High Line seems to implicate the viewer within Akunyili Crosby’s composition—now able to peer into this carefully composed and invented world reflective of her complex personal history.”