CAA News Today
New Faces for CAA’s Journals
posted by Christopher Howard — August 02, 2013
The president of the CAA Board of Directors, Anne Collins Goodyear, has confirmed new appointments to the editorial boards of CAA’s three scholarly journals and to the Publications Committee, in consultation with the vice president for publications, Suzanne Preston Blier. The appointments took effect on July 1, 2013.
The Art Bulletin
The three new members of the Art Bulletin Editorial Board are: Sarah Betzer, assistant professor of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art and director of the undergraduate program in art history at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; Rita Freed, a historian of Egyptian art and chair of the Department of Art of the Ancient World at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Massachusetts; and Glenn Peers, a professor of medieval art at the University of Texas at Austin. They will serve four-year terms, through June 30, 2017. In addition, Goodyear appointed David Getsy of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois to a two-year term as editorial-board chair.
Art Journal
The new member-at-large for the Art Journal Editorial Board is Juan Vicente Aliaga, a curator and a professor of modern and contemporary art and theory at Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain.
caa.reviews
The caa.reviews Editorial Board welcomes David Raskin as editor designate through June 30, 2014. Raskin is professor of contemporary art history in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism and chair of the Department of Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. Juliet Bellows, assistant professor of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art in the Department of Art at American University in Washington, DC, joins the editorial board for a three-year term.
New field editors for the journal are: Suzanne Hudson, a historian of modern and contemporary art at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and an active critic, as field editor for reviews of exhibitions of modern and contemporary art on the West Coast; Kevin Murphy, chair of the History of Art Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, as field editor for books on architecture and urbanism from 1800 to the present; Kristoffer Neville, assistant professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of California, Riverside, as field editor for books on architecture and urbanism, pre-1800; Andrei Pop, assistant professor of art history at Universität Basel in Switzerland, as field editor for books on theory and historiography; and Jason Weems, assistant professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of California, Riverside, as field editor for books on American art.
Publications Committee
Susan Higman Larsen joins CAA’s Publications Committee. Larsen is director of publications at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan and an adjunct professor in the graduate program in museum studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — July 31, 2013
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.
Art Collection Assessed as Detroit Nears Bankruptcy
As the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy case survived its first legal challenges in federal court, the Detroit Institute of Arts remains at the center of a national debate over what city-owned property can and should be liquidated to help cover its estimated $18 billion debt. At some point in the past two months, Christie’s auction house sent two employees to Detroit to assess the collection. The employees did not meet with museum leadership during their visit. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
Embargoes for Dissertations?
The American Historical Association has released a policy calling on history departments and university libraries to allow students to place embargoes on the online versions of PhD dissertations in the field for up to six years. The association says that such a policy is needed to enable new PhDs to successfully publish books based on their dissertations. But some historians are upset about the proposal, which they say isn’t needed and runs counter to the scholarly mission of sharing research findings. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
Publishing Your Dissertation Online: What’s a New PhD to Do?
The American Historical Association recently released a controversial statement that strongly advised graduate programs and libraries to adopt a policy allowing the embargoing of the publication of completed dissertations online for up to six years. Supporters argue that it protects junior authors, given that in the current academic climate a completed and published single-authored monograph continues to be the standard for tenure and promotion. Opponents counter with several arguments, such as making the dissertation research public allows the junior scholar to gain credit for his or her work. (Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Jeffrey Deitch Resigns as Head of Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Jeffrey Deitch has made it official: he’ll be stepping down after a stormy three years as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The museum’s board said it had launched a search for his successor. Deitch told the board of his decision to leave at a recent meeting, according to an official statement. “He will stay on to ensure a smooth transition and the successful completion” of a campaign begun in March to boost the museum’s endowment to $100 million. (Read more in the Los Angeles Times.)
From Art Book to iPad App: Josef Albers’s Classic Work Undergoes a “Magical” Transformation
Interaction of Color—Josef Albers’s iconic book that taught legions of students and professionals alike how to think creatively about color—has been given a modern makeover as an iPad app, just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of its publication by Yale University Press. The app, which combines Albers’s traditional teaching methods with twenty-first-century technology, was created by the press and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and developed by Potion, an award-winning design and technology firm specializing in interactive experiences. (Read more in Yale News.)
Genres, Like Sand, Tricky to Pin Down
It is pitch dark as you are swallowed up in a crowd of unknowable size, voices chanting and burbling around you, bodies jostling close by. There is no way to know how big the room is, where you are going, or whether you are about to collide with a wall or a human. It is Tino Sehgal’s This Variation, and as your eyes adjust, performers become slowly visible, moving amid the crowd, dancing and singing or pausing to talk about money and jobs. (Read more in the New York Times.)
Is the Australian Resale Royalty Scheme Benefiting Indigenous Artists?
Australia’s artist resale royalty scheme, which came into effect in June 2010 and is currently being reviewed, seems to be offering increased protection to indigenous artists, with 60 percent of the artists who have been paid royalties being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Indeed, one of the driving forces behind the introduction of the Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists Bill was to improve the welfare of indigenous artists. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
Union Raises for Adjuncts
When adjuncts push to unionize, they typically want better pay, better benefits (or any benefits if they don’t have them), and job security. With unionization drives spreading, a key question is: does collective bargaining yield meaningful gains? The results of numerous initial contracts suggest the answer is “Yes.” Negotiations on first contracts can take six months or more, but gains in those contracts frequently include significant pay increases and other, nonfinancial benefits. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
First Issue of Art Journal under New Editor-in-Chief
posted by Christopher Howard — July 31, 2013
The new issue of Art Journal, which features Burn the Diaries, an artist’s project by Moyra Davey, is the first in the editorship of Lane Relyea.
Essays consider topics such as role of the art critic in the emerging art market of China ca. 1990, the 1970s Tee Pee Video Space Troupe of the artist Shirley Clarke, obscurity and stillness in current film-based installations, and ethnicity in Marcel’s Duchamp’s gender-bending alter ego, Rrose Sélavy.
An essay by Michael Jay McClure on the work of Trisha Donnelly, titled “If It Need Be Termed Surrender,” has been published as free content on the Art Journal website, along with Maymanah Farat’s review of the exhibition and publication The Fertile Crescent.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — July 24, 2013
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.
The Rise of the Machines: NEH and the Digital Humanities, the Early Years
Stephen Mitchell suffered from allergies. “When the trees come out, I can’t see. People stand around saying, ‘Isn’t it lovely,’ but I weep,” he told the New York Times in 1965. A thirty-five-year-old professor at Syracuse University, he found sanctuary in the temperature-controlled environment of the school’s computer center, where he surprised many people by showing how computers could be used to advance work in the humanities. (Read more in Humanities.)
Well-Marked Paths to Tenure Put New Professors at Ease
Peter Seldin has visited more than 350 colleges as a consultant specializing in faculty evaluation. At nearly every one, he says, young faculty members have the same problem: “They are scared to death.” The reason, he says, is that unclear expectations about tenure generate apprehension among tenure-track faculty members who are worried their careers might stall or jump the rails. (Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
AHA Statement on Policies regarding the Embargoing of Completed History PhD Dissertations
In its June 2013 meeting, the AHA Council drafted a statement on policies regarding best practices for embargoing completed history PhD dissertations. “The American Historical Association,” the document begins, “strongly encourages graduate programs and university libraries to adopt a policy that allows the embargoing of completed history PhD dissertations in digital form for as many as six years.” (Read more from the American Historical Association.)
Detroit Art Caught in Bankruptcy Battle
Detroit, which became the largest city to declare bankruptcy in United States history, is home to one of the most prestigious collections of art in the world. And one of the options on the table to deal with its crippling debt is for all of that to be sold. But it’s not so simple. To Rod Spencer, the Detroit Institute of Arts is priceless. “The DIA is the history of Detroit. That’s what it means to me,” he said. (Read more from CBS News.)
Does Art Help the Economy?
An unexpected upshot in the wake of Britain’s latest spending review was the fate of the culture budget—it avoided a pummeling. What might be considered an easy target in a time of austerity emerged relatively unscathed, with only a 5 percent decrease in funding from £472 million to £451 million. The arts world had already been hit by a 30 percent cut meted out in the 2010 budget and had been waiting to find out whether they might be granted a reprieve at this latest round of belt-tightening. This time, advocates for arts funding breathed a collective sigh of relief, with the budget reduction described as a “best-case scenario.” (Read more in the Atlantic.)
LACMA, Broad, and Other Art Museums Work to Put Storage on Display
Behind an art museum’s gleaming galleries lies the off-limits and uninviting space that can hold as much as 95 percent of its collection: storage. These spaces are often packed with hundreds or even thousands of paintings, decorative art objects, and other artifacts that can languish, unappreciated and untouched by curators, for years. But as a way to bring art out from its underbelly and display more of a museum’s possessions, several institutions are embracing “visible storage” in public areas, exhibiting the art without the expense of a spacious, beautifully installed and curated show. (Read more in the Los Angeles Times.)
Smithsonian Institution Grapples with Maintenance of Its Growing Inventory
The world’s largest museum complex is bursting with stuff, from elephants to first-lady gowns, biological specimens to space shuttles. Now, the Smithsonian Institution is grappling with a long-term challenge: how to maintain the 137 million items in its collection. Last week the Committee on House Administration held a collections stewardship hearing to discuss challenges to implementing a maintenance plan to care for the art, archival footage, and dinosaur bones. (Read more in the Washington Post.)
Art Education Fails to Paint a Pretty Picture
The views of older men of painting are often dismissed as out-of-touch and old-fashioned, harking back to a mythical golden age. But the critical remarks made by the acclaimed artist Ken Currie, in advance of his first exhibition in over ten years—Meditations on Portraiture at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery—warrant consideration. He raises serious questions about the problems with art schools today. (Read more in the Scotsman.)
Recent Deaths in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — July 23, 2013
In its regular roundup of obituaries, CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, photographers, scholars, architects, educators, museum directors, and others whose work has significantly influenced the visual arts. Notable deaths this summer include the artist Sarah Charlesworth and the former Museum of Modern Art director John Hightower. In addition, CAA has published a special obituary on Jens T. Wollesen, a historian of the art of medieval Italy and Cyprus who taught at the University of Toronto for many years.
- Gabriele Basilico, a prominent Italian photographer of architecture and urban landscapes, died on February 13, 2013. He was 68
- George Paul Horse Capture Sr., former deputy assistant director for cultural resources at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and later senior counselor to its director, died on April 16, 2013. Also known as Nay Gyagya Nee (Spotted Otter), he was 75 years old
- Sarah Charlesworth, an artist and photographer associated with the Pictures Generation, died on June 25, 2013, at the age of 66
- Alex Colville, a celebrated Canadian painter who depicted realistic scenes of everyday life, passed away on July 16, 2013. He was 92 year old
- Martha Mayer Erlebacher, a figurative artist and longtime professor at the New York Academy of Art, died on June 22, 2013. She was 75
- Paul Feiler, an Anglo-German painter of lyrical abstraction, died on July 8, 2013, at age 95. He had taught for many years at the West of England College of Art (now Royal West of England Academy) in Bristol
- Mark Fisher, a set designer for the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and U2 who trained as an architect, died on June 25, 2013. He was 66
- John Hightower, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1970 to 1971, died on July 6, 2013. Hightower also led the New York State Council of the Arts from 1964 to 1970 and later served as director of the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia, for thirteen years
- Elspeth kydd, a filmmaker, author, and scholar, passed away on April 9, 2013, at the age of 46. She had taught at the University of Toledo, the University of the West of England, and the University of the West Indies
- Henning Larsen, an award-winning architect who designed the Copenhagen Business School Dalgas Have and the Royal Danish Opera, died on June 22, 2013. He was 87 years old
- Virginia Pitts Rembert Liles, a professor of art history who served as chair of the Art Department at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, died on July 5, 2013. The fall 2012 issue of the Loupe published a profile on Liles’s long, distinguished career
- Cynthia Moody, a British filmmaker and editor of documentaries and advertisements, died in summer 2013, at the age of 89. Moody was also the caretaker of the estate of her Jamaican-born uncle, the sculptor Ronald Moody
- Norman Parish, an artist and art dealer whose gallery in Washington, DC, showed the work of African American artists, died on July 8, 2013. He was 75
- Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, an Australian-born ceramicist whose work was known internationally, passed away on July 5, 2013, age 78. The National Gallery of Victoria held a major retrospective of her pottery in 2006
- Alejandro Puente, an Argentinian artist who participated in the avant-garde scene at the Instituto Di Tella in Buenos Aires, has died. Born in 1933, Puente was also associated with the geometría sensible movement
- Monica Ross, a performance artist, feminist, and professor at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, died on June 14, 2013. She was 63 years old
- William Z. Slany, chief historian of the US Department of State whose work helped to recover Jewish property looted by the Nazis, died on May 13, 2013. He was 84
- Jeffrey Smart, an Australian painter based in Italy who was known for his postindustrial urban landscapes, died on June 20, 2013. He was 91 years old
- Bert Stern, a commercial photographer and documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe taken six weeks before her death, passed away on June 26, 2013. He was 83
- William Turner, an English artist who was a leading member of the Northern School of Lancashire painters, died on July 10, 2013, at the age of 93
- Jens T. Wollesen, a historian of medieval art who was a longtime professor in the Department of Art at the University of Toronto, died on April 22, 2013. Born in 1947, Wollesen had recently completed a book, Acre or Cyprus: A New Approach to Crusader Painting around 1300. CAA has published a special obituary on the late professor
- Walter Zanini, a Brazilian professor of philosophy and the founder of the Brazilian Committee of History of Art, died on January 29, 2013. Born in 1925, Zanini served as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo from 1963 to 1978
Read all past obituaries in the arts in CAA News, which include special texts written for CAA. Please send links to published obituaries, or your completed texts, to Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor, for the next list.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — July 17, 2013
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.
Art Teaching for a New Age
In arts education, something profound is happening that will force us to rethink what and how we teach. Art making has changed radically in recent years. Artists have become increasingly interested in crossing disciplinary boundaries: choreographers use video, sculpture, and text; photographers create “paintings” with repurposed textiles. New technologies enable new kinds of work, like interactive performances with both live and web-based components. International collaboration has become de rigueur. And policy makers and businesspeople have embraced at least the idea of the so-called creative economy, with cities rushing to establish arts districts, and business schools collaborating with design schools. (Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Academia’s Pink-Collar Workforce
Victoria Baldassano, an English instructor at Montgomery College and the mother of a child with disabilities, thought turning to teaching from her previous career as a journalist would offer more stable pay and a better career path. But in the nearly eight years she’s been working at the community college, she hasn’t seen much improvement in the long hours, the inadequate office space and the poor salary. Recently president of the SEIU Local 500 at Montgomery, Baldassano and her fellow part-time faculty workers are beginning to organize for better pay and working conditions. (Read more in the Nation.)
Arts Leader Sentiment Survey Results
Southern Methodist University’s National Center for Arts Research has released the results of its Arts Manager Sentiment Survey, which collected and analyzed national arts leaders’ opinions on the health of the nation’s cultural sector across a range of disciplines. The survey results indicated that, overall, arts leaders have a positive outlook for the future of their organizations in areas like attendance and revenue streams. (Read more from Southern Methodist University.)
Arts Education Has Many Benefits, but Links to Improved Academics Are Limited
A comprehensive new report called Art for Art’s Sake: The Impact of Arts Education outlines the benefits and limits of arts education by digging into data and outlining what research has already been established in the field. Among the findings: Learning music can boost students’ IQ scores and visual arts likely help students’ understanding of geometrical reasoning. But the report also notes that there’s no evidence theater and dance help with overall academic skills. (Read more from Southern California Public Radio.)
US Government Strengthen Ties with UNESCO
The United States government has confirmed it is committed to restoring relations with UNESCO, with the intention of resuming funding to the cultural agency. On July 9, President Barack Obama announced that the lawyer and writer Crystal Nix-Hines, who also raised funds for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, has been nominated as the next US ambassador to UNESCO. If the Senate approves her post, Nix-Hines will succeed David Killion, whose four-year term is up this summer. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
Mind the Gap
When Stanford University enrolled over 100,000 students in its first massive open online courses (MOOCs) in fall 2011, the subjects were database architecture and artificial intelligence. A small but growing number of MOOCs is growing in the humanities, the largest of which is a course in modern and contemporary poetry, which enrolled 36,000 students this fall. The Museum of Modern Art has offered online courses since fall 2010, which are neither massive (enrollment is capped in the low double-digits) nor free (a five-week course costs $350). Last fall I took an online course in contemporary art at MoMA, and enrolled simultaneously in the poetry class, to see what it was like. (Read more in Artforum.)
The Rapper Is Present
Three years ago, when the performance artist Marina Abramović sat in the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art for 750 hours, many people who had waited in long lines to sit across from her melted down in her presence. Abramović remained silent and still, enduring thirst, hunger, and back pain (and speculation as to how, exactly, she was or was not peeing), while visitors, confronted with her placid gaze, variously wept, vomited, stripped naked, and proposed marriage. But the other day, at the Pace Gallery in Chelsea, where Jay-Z was presenting his own take on Abramović’s piece—rapping for six hours in front of a rotating cast of art-world VIPs—viewers’ primary response was to get up and dance. (Read more in the New Yorker.)
Rescued Art: Meet Rodney Parrott, the King of Thrift-Store Finds
Last year was a banner year for dramatic art finds. A Salvador Dalí etching surfaced at Goodwill, a possible Leonardo da Vinci painting turned up at a Scottish farmhouse, and a $100,000 avian masterpiece was found in the dusty corners of someone’s attic. The series of unexpected discoveries made us wonder just how easy it is to uncover a fine art treasure outside a high-priced gallery. (Read more in the Huffington Post.)
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — July 10, 2013
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.
Remember Talent? Does It Still Matter in Art Education?
The cost of an education at an art school or in a college art department has gotten too expensive for merely learning how to express oneself in the likes of painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Who wants to go tens of thousands of dollars into debt just to become another starving artist? Today’s art students now look to the commercial specialties—graphic design, fashion, comic strips and graphic novels, industrial design, textiles, video, filmmaking—to provide them with postgraduate employment and, in the bargain, status as hip young determiners of society’s style. (Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Same-Sex Ruling Brings Bumper Tax Benefits to Art-World Professionals
A decision by the US Supreme Court will bring significant tax benefits to art collectors, artists, and dealers who are in same-sex marriages. In a ruling on June 26, 2013, the court said that the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined “marriage” as a legal union between a man and woman only, was unconstitutional. The historic decision means better fiscal deals for gay spouses such as estate tax deduction and copyright revision, among new arrangements. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
Confidentiality and Faculty Representation in Academic Governance
This report argues that requiring faculty members to sign confidentiality agreements as a requirement to serve on university committees is in most cases inconsistent with widely accepted standards of shared governance and with the concept of serving as a representative. This argument does not apply to faculty serving on promotion and tenure committees and similar bodies, where faculty do not serve as representatives, but instead are elected to exercise their own professional judgment in interpreting and applying faculty-established criteria relevant to these areas. (Read more from the American Association of University Professors .)
Division of Preservation and Access Evaluates the Impact of Its Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Program
Excellence in research, education, and public programming in the humanities depends heavily upon the ongoing availability of source materials. To address this need, a National Endowment for the Humanities program called Humanities Collections and Reference Resources provides critical support to the nation’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural-heritage institutions to help enable long-term public access to significant collections of books, manuscripts, photographs, art and artifacts, sound recordings, moving images, and more. (Read more from the National Endowment for the Humanities.)
Yes, Kickstarter Raises More Money for Artists Than the NEA. Here’s Why That’s Not Really Surprising
During a session at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Aspen Institute president Walter Isaacson asked Perry Chen, founder of Kickstarter, whether it was true that Kickstarter now funds more arts-related projects than the National Endowment for the Arts. The crowdfunding site has, Chen told Isaacson, funded over $600 million in arts projects. (Read more in the Washington Post.)
Help Desk: Release the Press!
If you poke around the internet, you’ll find a lot of information about how to write a press release. In fact, there is so much information on the subject that I recommend you start with a broad search to familiarize yourself with the fundamentals, which are too numerous to cover here. (Read more in Daily Serving.)
Speedier Visas Planned for US-Bound Artists
A comprehensive immigration reform bill recently passed by the US Senate stands to make it easier for foreign artists to visit the country. The 1,200-page bill, which offers a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, also requires the government to process artists’ visa requests within one month of their initial filing. Under the current system, artists can wait up to six months for a visa and must pay a fee of $1,225 to receive expedited service. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
Learning to Love Rejection
Rejections are a dirty secret among academics. Publication successes are cause for celebration, or at least a proud listing on CVs and departmental lists. Failures—rejected papers and unsuccessful grant and promotion applications—are usually hidden and sometimes a source of shame. The result is that many scholars, especially junior ones, have unrealistic expectations. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
July 2013 Picks from CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — July 09, 2013
Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts produces a curated list, called CWA Picks, of recommended exhibitions and events related to feminist art and scholarship in North America and around the world.
The CWA Picks for July 2013 consist of numerous excellent exhibitions of women artists in Europe: Lorna Simpson in Paris; Yoko Ono in Denmark; Agnès Varda in Sweden; Valérie Favre in Germany; and Pauline Boty, Moyra Davey, and Cornelia Parker in the United Kingdom. Here in the United States, Martha Wilson is showing work at the Institute of Visual Arts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Jane and Louise Wilson have a show at 303 Gallery in New York. The CWA Picks also list a call for papers for a session at the next annual conference of the Association of Art Historians.
Check the archive of CWA Picks at the bottom of the page, as several museum and gallery shows listed in previous months may still be on view or touring.
Image: Moyra Davey, Kevin Ayers (Psychic), 2013, chromogenic print with adhesive tape, stamps, and ink (artwork © Moyra Davey)
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — July 03, 2013
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.
Images of Works of Art in Museum Collections: The Experience of Open Access
This report describes the current approach of eleven art museums in the United States and the United Kingdom to the use of images of works of art in their collections, where the underlying works are in the public domain. Each approach is slightly different. By presenting the thought processes and methods of these institutions, this report aims to inform the decision making of other museums that are considering open access to images in their collections. (Read more from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.)
SNAAP Report Focuses on the Impact of Gender, Race, and Socioeconomic Status on Arts Graduates
Findings from a national study released last week by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) show that a postsecondary arts education affords some unique advantages for women, minorities, and disadvantaged students. However, significant gaps remain and inequalities persist related to school debt, racial diversity within artistic occupations, and disparities in earnings by gender. The report, An Uneven Canvas: Inequalities in Artistic Training and Careers, details findings from more than 65,000 arts alumni of all ages from 120 institutions in the United States and Canada. (Read more from Indiana University.)
Warhol Foundation Settles Case against Insurance Firm
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has reached a settlement with the Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company, ending a case that lasted more than two years. The company agreed to pay the “lion’s share” of the foundation’s legal fees stemming from two lawsuits brought by the collectors Joe Simon and Susan Shaer in 2007, according to a press release from the foundation. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
Of Mice and Manet
The humble mouse is a doughty workhorse of science. Every day, in laboratories around the world, the little critters are subjected to all manner of carefully controlled insults, from electric shocks to the induction of cancer, all in the name of research. But the mice in the lab of Shigeru Watanabe, a psychologist at Keio University in Japan, have a more enjoyable life than most. Specifically, he is exploring their taste in fine art. (Read more in the Economist.)
Five Facts about Professional Artists in the United States
Instagram and Etsy have made everyone seem like artistic geniuses, but according to the National Endowment for the Arts, artists make up only 1.4 percent of the US labor force. Last week, we learned much more about the roughly 2 million artists in the workforce thanks to the NEA study, “Equal Opportunity Data Mining: National Statistics about Working Artists.” The study, based on census data, classifies artists by occupation, demographics, and region. Here are five of the more surprising findings. (Read more in the Washington Post.)
Museums Faulted on Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art
Not until 1998, when forty-four nations including the United States signed the groundbreaking Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, did governments and museums formally embrace the idea that they have a special responsibility to repair the damage caused by the wholesale looting of art owned by Jews during the Third Reich’s reign. Now, fifteen years later, historians, legal experts, and Jewish groups say that some American museums have backtracked on their pledge to settle Holocaust recovery claims on the merits. (Read more in the New York Times.)
The Googleheim Museum of Art
Google may have set out to “organize the world’s information,” but thanks to the creativity of a huge variety of artists, designers, hackers, and other tinkerers it’s become something else: an art museum hidden within a search engine. Because a slew of people have found clever ways to exploit or misuse Google’s tools and algorithms and endless troves of data, Google has accidentally become a mother lode of artistic inspiration (and, often humorously, a passive artistic collaborator.) (Read more from Yahoo News.)
Amazon to Launch Virtual Art Gallery
Amazon.com is expected to launch an online art gallery later this year. The online retailer of books, electronics, and apparel aims to offer over 1,000 art objects from at least 125 galleries, according to dealers who have been approached by the website’s business-development group. Amazon executives told one dealer that 109 galleries have already agreed to participate. (Read more in the Art Newspaper.)
Download the 2013 Abstracts and Directory of Attendees
posted by Christopher Howard — July 01, 2013
Registrants for the 2013 Annual Conference in New York may download the Abstracts and Directory of Attendees. These publications, available as PDFs, summarize the contents of hundreds of papers and talks that were presented in program sessions and list the names and contact information for those attendees who registered by both the early and advance deadlines.
Program sessions are alphabetized by the chair’s last name and appear in the contents pages (4–10). An index in the back of the publication names all the speakers. Alternatively, use your Adobe Reader to conduct a keyword search for terms relevant to your interests. Similarly, the Directory of Attendees helps with networking and communication after the conference.
To download the two publications, registrants can log into their CAA account, click the “Conference Registrant Information” image, and then click the Abstracts and/or Directory of Attendees icon to download a PDF. The Abstracts and Directory of Attendees are part of the registration package; there is no added cost to paid or complimentary registrants for access to these publications.
Conference attendees who purchased single-time slot tickets, or those who want the Abstracts but did not go to New York, may attain the document for a charge: $30 for CAA members and $35 for nonmembers. The Abstracts and Directory of Attendees will remain on the CAA website for download or sale through July 31, 2013.
Beginning with the 2010 conference in Chicago, CAA offers its Abstracts exclusively as a PDF download. Past issues of the printed publication from 1999 to 2009 are also available. The cost per copy is $30 for CAA members and $35 for nonmembers. For more information and to order, please contact Roberta Lawson, CAA office coordinator.