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.

Could Blockchain Put Money Back in Artists’ Hands?

By registering artworks with blockchain to establish authenticity and create property rights which can then be split off and traded, argues Amy Whitaker, artists can retain an “equity share” in their works, much like the founder of a startup retains an ownership stake that grows in value as the company expands. (Read more from Artsy.)

Report from the 2016 Craft Think Tank

Last June the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design convened a two-day, special-topic Craft Think Tank, bringing together experts across disciplines to assess the state of craft in academia. The group discussed and made recommendations concerning the content, format, approach, audience, and resources needed to create a relevant and successful program. (Read more from the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design.)

Detroit Exits Bankruptcy, Thanks to Its Art Museum

A federal judge approved Detroit’s bankruptcy plan, allowing the city government to hit the reset button after years of financial mismanagement. The bankruptcy could have been far lengthier, and even more painful for retirees, had it not been for an unusual deal designed to save the Detroit Institute of Arts while minimizing cuts to pensions. (Read more from Slate.)

The Skillful Curator: A Case Study in Curatorial Pedagogy and Collective Exhibition-Making

For a recent CAA panel on pedagogy, feminism, and activism, I presented a graduate curatorial practice course I developed at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, for which I organized an exhibition alongside sixteen students, as a case study. While the curatorial field is considered hospitable to women, the curator’s role often operates within structures that reinforce patriarchy and inequality. How? (Read more from Art History Teaching Resources.)

Midcareer Faculty: Five Great Things about Those Long Years in the Middle

In a recent post on tired teaching I identified the major challenge of the midcareer stretch—keeping your teaching fresh and keeping yourself engaged, enthusiastic, and instructionally moving forward. On the other hand, special opportunities are afforded by that long stretch in the middle. The question is whether we’re taking full advantage of them. (Read more from Faculty Focus.)

The Sculpture of a Fearless Girl on Wall Street Is Fake Corporate Feminism

Fearless Girl features a branded plaque at its base. The companies that installed it had a permit. They are the advertising firm McCann New York—whose leadership team has only three women among eleven people, or 27 percent women—and the asset manager SSGA—whose leadership team has five women among twenty-eight people, or 18 percent women. SSGA is a division of State Street, which has a board of directors that includes only 27 percent women. (Read more from Hyperallergic.)

Dispute on Cultural Appropriation Leads to Assault Charges

Last week a Hampshire College student was in a Massachusetts court to face charges that she assaulted a member of the women’s basketball team of Central Maine Community College when, at a January game, the woman refused to take out braids that she had in her hair—braids that Carmen Figueroa, the student facing charges, demanded be removed because they are an example of cultural appropriation. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)

Did ISIS Inadvertently Uncover the Secret to the “Lost” Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

To the surprise of the archaeologists, upon examining the reconquered Iraqi city of Mosul, they found evidence that when ISIS blew up parts of the Nebi Yunus shrine, the militants unveiled a major discovery: a palace that predated the tomb of the Prophet Jonah and had been buried beneath it—unseen for thousands of years. (Read more from Salon.)