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.

Humanities for All

The Publicly Engaged Humanities project will document the full range of publicly engaged humanities work that college and university faculty and students have carried out over the past decade. Over two years, we will collect examples of this work and build a visually rich website that features representative project profiles and synthetic claims about the state of the field. (Read more from the National Humanities Alliance.)

This New Bootcamp Is Grooming Artists to Run for Office

Even for the most politically engaged artist, it’s a big step from making politically charged artworks to entering the fray as a candidate. While some artists have the skills and knowledge to work in politics, the road from being in a biennial to appearing on a ballot is not easy to navigate. Enter the Artist Campaign School. (Read more from Artsy.)

Instead of Focusing on Yesterday’s Monuments, Artists Are Building Tomorrow’s

Five years before Charlottesville, curators Paul Farber and Ken Lum led a course at the University of Pennsylvania called Memory, Monuments, and Urban Space. Together, the professors and students in attendance discussed the meaning of monuments in this contemporary age. (Read more from the Huffington Post.)

Why the White House’s Arts and Humanities Committee Decided to Resign All at Once

On Friday morning, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities made the startling decision to resign from Donald Trump’s committee all at once. In a joint statement, its members explained in specific terms why they no longer felt comfortable serving the president in the wake of his inflammatory remarks about the Charlottesville tragedy. (Read more from Vanity Fair.)

Read Kara Walker’s Furious Letter to America’s Navel-Gazing Art World

Famous for her black paper cut-outs depicting simultaneously whimsical and grotesque scenes of slavery and human depravity, Kara Walker is one of the biggest stars in contemporary American art. But in our current political turmoil, the African American artist is getting sick of her vaunted position. (Read more from Quartz.)

Should Protesters Be Allowed to Have Guns?

The question is also posing dilemmas for mayors and university presidents, who fear the violence will come to their towns and schools. Their best option may be to ban the carrying of guns to these events, but their legal position is tenuous. In many states, they’ll need to convince a court that it’s only by banning weapons that the First Amendment rights of all demonstrators can be honored. (Read more from Politico.)

#fyi: On Slack and Surf Clubs

I love Slack. The jury is still out on whether or not this sort of inspired link-sharing is conducive to my at-work productivity, but it has led me to consider the link between the respective practice of the recreational Slack team and the mid-2000s internet artist surfing club. (Read more from Rhizome.)

What Is Dark Yellowing?

Dark yellowing is the reversible, temporary yellowing that dried oil paint undergoes when stored in the dark or subdued lighting. While noted in many historical writings, most painters remain unaware of it and become surprised or concerned when they discover it happening to their own works. (Read more from Just Paint.)