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.

Modest Gains in Faculty Pay

First the good news: full-time faculty member salaries grew somewhat meaningfully year over year: 1.4 percent, adjusted for inflation, according to the American Association of University Professors’ Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession. Not adjusted for inflation, that’s about 2.2 percent across ranks and institution types, and 3.6 percent for continuing faculty members in particular. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)

For the Humanities, Some Good News Is Mixed with the Bad

In an otherwise grim picture of the field of humanities, there are still a few bright spots: financial support for academic research in the humanities, which is typically dwarfed by spending to support other fields, has increased in recent years, and there are signs of rising interest in the humanities at the high school and community-college levels. Those are some of the findings in a report released by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)

Facing Facts: Artists Have to Be Entrepreneurs

In order to be a successful—a word that I grapple with constantly—performing artist, you need to understand business fundamentals, and disseminating this information is crucial. How do you run a crowdfunding campaign that doesn’t make your friends block you on Facebook? How do you identify and brand (ugh … brand) your work? How do you really figure out who your audience is? (Read more from Howl Round.)

Mind the Gap: Art Museum Education, Academia, and the Future of Our Field

Dana Carlisle Kletchka of the Palmer Museum of Art delivered this keynote address at the National Art Education Association’s national convention last month after being honored by that organization as National Museum Education Art Educator of the Year. (Read more from Art Museum Teaching.)

Art Collectors Weigh Title Insurance

When you buy a piece of art, can you be sure it’s really yours? Many collectors don’t always feel certain on that score. They worry in some cases that after they make a purchase someone will show up, maybe years later, and claim the art was stolen at some point in the past—ultimately leaving the new owner empty handed, without the art or the money paid for it. That’s one reason many art advisers and lawyers recommend title insurance, which can at least partially protect a collector’s financial interests if a piece of art has to be surrendered. (Read more from the Wall Street Journal.)

Crystal, AIG Offer Conceptual Art Insurance for Private Clients

Crystal & Co., a strategic risk and insurance advisor, has partnered with AIG Private Client Group to create a new insurance product for private clients with collections of Conceptual art. A certificate is provided by the artist to authenticate an item and without this, the piece is considered worthless. Therefore, if the certificate was lost or damaged, the item may have lost most of its value, according to Crystal & Co. (Read more from the Insurance Journal.)

A Guide to Thesis Writing That Is a Guide to Life

How to Write a Thesis, by Umberto Eco, first appeared on Italian bookshelves in 1977. For Eco, the playful philosopher and novelist best known for his work on semiotics, there was a practical reason for writing it. Up until 1999, a thesis of original research was required of every student pursuing the Italian equivalent of a bachelor’s degree. Collecting his thoughts on the thesis process would save him the trouble of reciting the same advice to students each year. (Read more from the New Yorker.)

Your Teaching Headspace

After my job talk, I was focusing on people’s questions about my scholarship during the Q&A period—and deeply in my “research headspace”—when all of a sudden someone asked: “What is your approach to teaching and how do you teach X concept?” He wasn’t asking how my research informs my teaching. He was just asking about my teaching. Isn’t that a strange question in a job talk Q&A? (Read more from Vitae.)