CAA News Today

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.

Who’s Getting Tenure-Track Jobs? It’s Time to Find Out

As the academic labor market turns grimmer and tenure-track professorships become scarcer, it’s hard not to wonder: Who’s getting hired to the desperately coveted positions that remain? It’s a question with serious implications, both for the academy and for the hordes of job-seeking scholars. Yet it’s been over a decade since anyone made much of an effort to come up with an answer—to find the names of the fortunate and talented few, across disciplines, and put them all in one place. (Read more from Vitae.)

What They Never Told You about Consigning Your Art

Art consignment agreements are deceptively simple. This essay goes behind that simplicity to raise issues for art owners that are not fully addressed—or only imperfectly so—by the text of the usual agreement. Rescission by the auction house (undoing the sale long after the auction) is one of these issues. There are others. (Read more from Spencer’s Art Law Journal.)

Court Sides with University of Missouri in Fight over Teacher-Prep Syllabi

A state appeals court has ruled that the University of Missouri system does not have to release course syllabi, as they are the intellectual property of the faculty and therefore exempt from the state’s open-records law, the Columbia Daily Tribune reports. The decision, handed down last week, is the latest chapter in a bid by the National Council on Teacher Quality to rank teacher-preparation programs by obtaining course syllabi and other materials from institutions nationwide. (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)

The Upside of Art School

Art school is an easy and enjoyable target for satire and jokes. Most everyone I know has had some of the kind of experiences that fall into the way art school is usually portrayed—I’ve even brought a list of those bad stories to Daniel Clowes, and a couple from my wife Linda were in the movie Art School Confidential. But I also had a many good experiences in art school, some with caring teachers who shared insights that have made a lasting impact on me. (Read more from the Huffington Post.)

Fate of Detroit’s Art Hangs in the Balance as Bankruptcy Trial Begins

This week a bankruptcy trial to determine the future of the city of Detroit began after more than a year of negotiations—and the fate of the Detroit Institute of Arts hangs in the balance. The resolution of the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history is likely to set precedents for other struggling cities. At the center of the conflict is whether a bankrupt city can avoid selling any valuable asset, including its art collection. (Read more from the Art Newspaper.)

Academics and Archaeologists Fight to Save Syria’s Artifacts

The upheavals and conflicts sweeping the Middle East in recent years have caused untold human suffering and have resulted in deep losses to the heritage of the region. Scholars can do little to stop the fighting and looting, but they have created blogs, websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts to monitor the destruction and raise awareness about it. By sharing excavation records, scholars outside the Middle East have helped their counterparts in the Arab world to compile online lists of missing or stolen objects. (Read more from the New York Times.)

The Elusiveness of Stolen Art

Earlier this month thieves made off with a giant Renaissance masterpiece: a 10 x 6 feet piece painted by Guercino in 1639 and worth over $8 million. Whoever took the painting didn’t have to do much; the security alarm on the church wasn’t working, and according to the Telegraph the church that housed the painting didn’t have the money to get it fixed. Once a work of art leaves a museum or church, the chances of getting it back are extraordinarily slim. (Read more from the Atlantic.)

Should I Explain Why I’m Leaving?

I just finished my second year in my position as an assistant professor, and I’m going back on the market next year. My university is broke, and I have been very productive and outperformed my current position. Do I mention that in my cover letter? I like my colleagues and get along well with everyone, so I don’t want people reading my letter to think I’m leaving because I am hard to work with. So do I explain why I want to leave? (Read more from Vitae.)