CAA News Today

Each week CAA News summarizes eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.

“All art is political”: A Conversation with Hank Willis Thomas

Cofounded in January by Hank Willis Thomas as the first artist-run super PAC, For Freedoms has been working tirelessly to engage the public in critical discourse about our political system. For those unfamiliar, a super PAC is an independent political action committee that can raise unlimited funds from corporations, unions, associations, and individuals. (Read more from Arts ATL.)

Make No Mistake, Art History Is a Hard Subject. What’s Soft Is the Decision to Scrap It

In the UK, art history A-level is to be scrapped in 2018. The decision taken by the exam board AQA seems related to the Conservative government’s policy of ranking subjects by perceived relative difficulty, using an analogy of “soft” and “hard” that may be designed to belittle students and teachers who have apparently taken the easy way out. (Read more from Apollo.)

Where Social-Media Sensation Kimberly Drew Sees the Art World in Ten Years

Kimberly Drew stands as one of black contemporary art’s most visible champions. With north of 100,000 followers subscribed to her Instagram handle alone—joined by thousands more across Twitter and Facebook—Drew’s presence is fortified by the type of institutional sheen that comes with running the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s social-media channels. (Read more from Artnet News.)

How Many Hours a Week Should Academics Work?

How many hours do you work in a week? Many academics feel overworked and exhausted by their jobs. But there is little evidence that long hours lead to better results, while some research suggests that they may even be counterproductive. (Read more from Times Higher Education.)

Tasked with Creating a Catalogue Raisonné, These Art Historians Become Detectives

“Something like provenance is the most time-consuming aspect of a catalogue raisonné because, basically, it is detective work,” said Katy Rogers, who coauthored the Robert Motherwell catalogue raisonné and currently serves as the project’s director. “You’re tracking down people, and you’re finding out their stories.” (Read more from Artsy.)

Data Ethics Is a Challenge That Major Foundations Can’t Afford to Ignore

If I ask you to picture “big data,” what do you think of? You probably didn’t think first of a grant-making foundation, social-justice group, or humanitarian-assistance organization. Compared to government agencies and large companies, key players in the social sector lag far behind in realizing the potential of data-intensive methods. (Read more from Equals Change Blog.)

Should We Kill the Conference Panel?

The reality is that the room dynamics of panels just don’t work all that well. It is difficult for panelists to build a narrative that will capture the audience’s attention. Panel discussions become performative rather than enlightening or challenging, and none of us is as good at speaking extemporaneously as we think we are. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)

The Middle Market Squeeze, Part II: A Reality Check for Art Galleries

If a flush but lopsided art economy invites confusion, it also demands takeaways. The against-all-economic-odds gallery once begun with boundless ambition and maxed-out credit cards is no more. Here’s the same idea put differently: the era of undercapitalized, illiquid, labor-of-love galleries that rely mostly or exclusively on the primary market for sales is over. (Read more from Artnet News.)