CAA News Today
Development of a Statement on Terminal-Degree Programs in the Visual Arts and Design
posted by CAA — March 12, 2014
While the College Art Association (CAA) continues to affirm that the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is the terminal degree in visual arts and design practice, a growing number of PhD and other doctoral degree programs in the arts are being offered by institutions within the United States and abroad. Consistent with its commitment to offer guidance to its members, their institutions, and other professional arts organizations, CAA recognizes the need to develop a statement regarding terminal degree programs in the visual arts and design. In February 2013 CAA’s Professional Practices Committee (PPC) outlined a twenty-month course of action to develop a Statement on Terminal Degree Programs in the Visual Arts and Design. This process began with the formation of an ad hoc committee to lead the project.
The committee worked over the past year on collecting and comparing information about terminal degree programs and developing draft statements. The most recent draft was presented to members at the CAA Annual Conference in Chicago in February 2014. The session was extremely well attended and included an open discussion period and a mechanism for collecting post-conference feedback. In addition, the committee presented an earlier draft at the September 2013 National Council of Arts Administrators Annual Conference and many committee members attended an open hearing on the same subject at the October 2013 National Association of Schools of Art and Design Annual Meeting.
The committee continues its work on a timetable to submit a final draft statement for PPC review by June 1, 2014; for CAA staff and legal counsel review by September 1, 2014; and for CAA Board of Directors review in October 2014.
Please review the current draft statement. Members can offer responses, comments, and suggestions at feedback@collegeart.org until April 22, 2014. All submissions will be reviewed and considered. Please be aware that the committee will be unable to respond directly to members.
Linda Downs
Executive Director
2014 International Travel Grant Recipients Attend the Chicago Conference
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — March 10, 2014
This year’s recipients of CAA’s International Travel Grants arrived in Chicago on Sunday, February 9, a few days in advance of the Annual Conference. Although the temperature outside was freezing, the mood among the program’s participants was considerably warmer due to their enthusiasm and friendliness. Funded by a generous grant from the Getty Foundation, the grantees (as pictured above from left to right) included: Katerina Gadjeva (Bulgaria), Freeborn Odiboh (Nigeria), Susana S. Martins (Portugal), Kanwal Khalid (Pakistan); Magdalena Nowak (Poland), Adriana Oprea (Romania), Cezar Bartholomeu (Brazil), Daria Kostina (Russia), Eddie Butindo-Mbaalya (Uganda); Lilianne Lugo Herrera (Cuba), Laris Borić (Croatia), Josefina de la Maza Chevesich (Chile), Fernando Martinez Nespral (Argentina), Portia Malatjie (South Africa), Mahmuda Khnam (Bangladesh), Rael Artel (Estonia); Ahmed Wahby (Egypt), Hugues Heumen Tchana (Cameroon), Heba Nayel Barakat Hassanein (Malaysia), and Eric Appau Asante (Ghana). For some, it was their first visit to the United States; for all, it was their first to Chicago and to a CAA Annual Conference.
Now in its third year, CAA’s International Travel Grant Program aims to bring a more diverse and global perspective to the study of art history by generating international scholarly exchange. Over time, the program will build CAA’s international membership and strengthen its connections to an increasingly global art community. The international travel grant recipients were selected by a jury of CAA members from over one hundred applicants based on the following criteria: all had to be art history professors, artists who teach art history, or museum curators with advanced degrees in art or art history; they had to be from countries not well represented in CAA’s membership; and they had to demonstrate that attending the conference would significantly support or strengthen their work.
With additional support from the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA), several CAA members—including members of its board of directors and International Committee and representatives from NCHA—took part in the visitors’ activities throughout the conference week, serving as hosts and/or participants in a preconference session about international topics in art history. This year graduate students from Chicago-area universities also participated to assist the grant recipients in visiting museums and galleries around town. Through informal conversations, excursions, and meals, these CAA members introduced grantees to colleagues in their fields, advised them about conference activities, and exchanged information about the practice of art history in their countries. For many, the week’s activities marked the beginning of new friendships and scholarly collaborations, to be continued in various countries around the world and at future CAA conferences.
A highlight of this year’s program was the full-day preconference about International Topics in Art History held on Tuesday, February 11, 2014. Each of the grant recipients gave presentations about their work, addressing topics such as art and national identity, international issues in contemporary art, cross-cultural influences on artistic styles, and curriculum reassessments of art historical training. The talks featured a wide range of art, from Renaissance arches to Islamic-Hispanic domestic architecture, from communist-era paintings in Poland and Russia to contemporary art in Estonia, South Africa, and Malaysia. Following the presentations, Rick Asher, professor of art history at the University of Minnesota, led a lively discussion that further explored these topics and related issues about how art history is practiced in different parts of the world. Joining him were Professors Mark Cheetham (University of Toronto), Jennifer Milam (University of Sydney), Steven Nelson (UCLA), and museum curator Joanne Pillsbury (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
“The diversity of the grantees was astonishing, and their respective self-introductions brought very much to the meeting. It was clear that nobody had had such opportunities of meeting colleagues from so many distant cultures and countries as we did that day.”
–Eva Forgacs, professor of Russian and Central European art history and a host for this year’s program
Later in the week, grantees attended a session sponsored by CAA’s International Committee entitled Topics in Global Art History: Historical Connections. The first in a series of sessions on global art history, this year’s panel included presentations by two former grant recipients, Shao-Chien Tseng (Taiwan) and Trinidad Perez (Ecuador). The goal going forward is to solicit proposals for papers from former grantees to reinforce connections between them and CAA members.
CAA’s International Committee remained centrally involved in planning this year’s travel grant program. We are particularly grateful to Ann Albritton, outgoing chair of the committee, for her enthusiastic support. In addition to co-organizing the session on Topics in Global Art History (with committee member Gwen Farrelly), Ann offered guidance on program plans, lined up several hosts, and served as an energetic host herself.
At the close of the week’s activities, grant recipients and hosts met again to report on what they had learned and how it will impact their work in the future. Several discussed preliminary plans to co-organize meetings, guest curate exhibitions, and/or arrange guest lectures at each other’s universities. Their experiences were well-summarized by Laris Borić, who wrote after he returned home:
Personally I was deeply impacted by the enthusiasm and dedication of some of the speakers at the conference, CAA staff and my fellow grant recipients. As I have already said in one of the debates, awareness that we all share a common passion and dedication towards research and teaching made me feel I belong to a common tribe or nation made of art historians wherever they come from.
–Laris Borić, professor of Renaissance art and architecture and grant recipient from Croatia
Image Captions
First: 2014 CAA International Travel Grant Recipients (left to right): Katerina Gadjeva (Bulgaria), Freeborn Odiboh (Nigeria), Susana S. Martins (Portugal), Kanwal Khalid (Pakistan); Magdalena Nowak (Poland), Adriana Oprea (Romania), Cezar Bartholomeu (Brazil), Daria Kostina (Russia), Eddie Butindo-Mbaalya (Uganda); Lilianne Lugo Herrera (Cuba), Laris Borić (Croatia), Josefina de la Maza Chevesich (Chile), Fernando Martinez Nespral (Argentina), Portia Malatjie (South Africa), Mahmuda Khnam (Bangladesh), Rael Artel (Estonia); Ahmed Wahby (Egypt), Hugues Heumen Tchana (Cameroon), Heba Nayel Barakat Hassanein (Malaysia), Eric Appau Asante (Ghana) (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Second: Joanne Pillsbury and Eric Asante (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Third: Fernando Martinez Nespral and Mahmuda Khnam (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Fourth: Deborah Marrow from the Getty Foundation talks with grant recipients at a reception following the preconference (left to right): Eddie Butindo-Mbaalya, Cesar Bartholomeu, Hugues Heumen Tchana, Freeborn Odiboh, Eric Appau Asante (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Watch a Panel Discussion on CAA’s Fair-Use Initiative from the 2014 Annual Conference
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — March 07, 2014
In late January CAA published Copyright, Permissions and Fair Use among Visual Artists and the Academic and Museum Visual Arts Communities. The report—available as a free download on CAA’s website—reveals a situation in which uncertainty about copyright law and the availability of fair use, particularly in the digital era, has made many practitioners risk-averse, too often abandoning or distorting projects due to real or perceived challenges in using copyrighted materials. These findings are part of an ongoing fair-use initiative that will conclude with the development of a code of best practices related to the use of copyrighted materials.
You can now go to CAA’s YouTube page to watch a discussion about the fair-use initiative that took place at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago. In this video, Christine Sundt, chair of CAA’s Committee on Intellectual Property, moderates a discussion with the project’s lead researchers, Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi, professors of communications and law, respectively, at American University in Washington, DC; Anne Collins Goodyear, president of the CAA Board of Directors; Jeffrey Cunard, CAA’s legal counsel and cochair of the Task Force on Fair Use; and Paul Catanese, associate chair and associate professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts at Columbia College Chicago and chair of the New Media Caucus, a CAA affiliated society.
Please share this video with your friends and send CAA your thoughts about the project!
CAA’s fair-use initiative is supported by a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It also received generous preliminary funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Image Caption
Patricia Aufderheide displays the recently published Issues Report during the Committee on Intellectual Property’s session at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago.
Conference Events from CAA’s Student and Emerging Professionals Committee
posted by Christopher Howard — February 10, 2014
CAA Appoints New Committee Members
posted by Christopher Howard — January 30, 2014
CAA’s nine Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees welcome their newly appointed members, who will serve three-year terms (2014–17). In addition, three new chairs will take over committee leadership. New committee members and chairs will begin their terms at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago. CAA warmly thanks all outgoing committee members for their years of service to the organization.
A call for nominations for these committees appears annually from July to September in CAA News and on the CAA website. CAA’s president, vice president for committees, and executive director review all nominations in November and make appointments that take effect the following February. CAA’s vice president for committees is an ex officio member of all nine groups.
New Committee Members and Chairs
Committee on Diversity Practices: Amanda Cachia, University of California, San Diego; Lisandra Estevez, Winston-Salem State University; Christine Young-Kyung Hahn, Kalamazoo College; and Barbara Mendoza, Santa Clara University.
Committee on Intellectual Property: Susan Bielstein, University of Chicago Press; Nathan Budoff, University of Puerto Rico; and Mary DelMonico, DelMonico Books/Prestel. The new committee chair is Judy Metro of the National Gallery of Art.
Committee on Women in the Arts: Christine Filippone, Millersville University; and Cecilia Mandrile, University of the West of England.
Education Committee: Denise Amy Baxter, University of North Texas; Katherine Brown, Walsh University; Dana Byrd, Bowdoin College; and Andrew Hairstans, Auburn University.
International Committee: Jennifer Griffiths, American University of Rome; Abayomi Ola, Spelman College; Miriam Paeslack, University at Buffalo, State University of New York; Judy Peter, University of Johannesburg; and Sarah Smith, Glasgow School of Art. Rosemary O’Neill of Parsons the New School for Design is the new committee chair.
Museum Committee: Antoniette (Toni) Guglielmo, Getty Leadership Institute, Claremont Graduate University; Anne Manning, Baltimore Museum of Art; and Leslee Katrina Michelsen, Museum of Islamic Art.
Professional Practices Committee: Paul Catanese, Columbia College Chicago; Michael Grillo, University of Maine; Bruce Mackh, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Ellen Mueller, West Virginia Wesleyan College; Katherine Sullivan, Hope College; and Joe A. Thomas, Kennesaw State University. Anne McClanan of Portland State University is the new committee chair.
Services to Artists Committee: David J. Brown, Fine Art Museum, Western Carolina University; Zoe Charlton, American University; Darren Douglas Floyd, Davidson College; and Stacy Miller, Parsons the New School for Design.
Student and Emerging Professionals Committee: Brittany Lockard, Wichita State University; Tamryn McDermott, University of Missouri, Columbia; Carrie Pavel, Georgia Institute of Technology; and Lauren Puzier, Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
CWA Picks for December 2013
posted by Christopher Howard — December 05, 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 December 2013 consist of four important survey exhibitions of work by Isa Genzken at the Museum of Modern Art and Harmony Hammond at Alexander Gray Associates in New York, by Martha Wilson at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and by Kimsooja in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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 Caption
Isa Genzken in her studio, 1982 (photograph provided by the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin).
2014–15 Nominating Committee Seeks Members
posted by Vanessa Jalet — December 04, 2013
CAA invites you to help shape the future of the organization by serving on the 2014–15 Nominating Committee. Each year, this committee nominates and interviews potential candidates for the CAA Board of Directors and selects the final slate for the membership’s vote. The candidates for the 2014–18 board election were announced on November 26, 2013.
The Board of Directors and the Nominating Committee strive to find the best candidates that represent the broad subdisciplines and practitioners represented in the membership. The current Nominating Committee will choose the new members of its own committee at its business meeting, to be held at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago in February. Once selected, all committee members must propose, in the spring, a minimum of five and a maximum of ten people for the board. Service on the committee also involves conducting telephone interviews with candidates during the summer and meeting in fall 2014 to select the final board slate. Finally, all Nominating Committee members attend their business meeting, at the New York conference in 2015, to select the next committee.
Nominations and self-nominations should include a brief statement of interest and a 2–3 page CV. Please email a statement and your CV as Word attachments to the attention of DeWitt Godfrey, CAA vice president for committees, care of Vanessa Jalet, CAA executive liaison. Deadline: January 3, 2014.
November 2013 Picks from CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — November 21, 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 November 2013 include solo exhibitions of work by Sarah Lucas, Ana Mendieta, and Dayanita Singh in London; Anita Steckel, Dorothea Rockburne, Mary Beth Edelson, and Wangechi Mutu in New York; and Amy Sillman and Sophie Calle in Boston. In addition, the committee selected Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz’s show Patriarchal Poetry in Germany and Dear Art, the first appearance in the United Kingdom for the curatorial collective What, How & for Whom.
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 Caption
Wangechi Mutu, Riding Death in My Sleep, 2002, ink and collage on paper, 60 x 44 in. Collection of Peter Norton, New York (artwork © Wangechi Mutu).
ARTexchange in Chicago
posted by Lauren Stark — November 18, 2013
CAA’s Services to Artists Committee invites artist members to participate in ARTexchange, an open forum for sharing work at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago. Free and open to the public, ARTexchange will be held on Friday, February 14, 5:30–7:30 PM, in a central location at the Hilton Chicago. A cash bar will be available.
ARTexchange is an annual event showcasing the art of CAA members, who can exhibit their paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and digital works using the space on, above, and beneath a six-foot folding table. Artists may also construct temporary mini-installations and conduct performance, sound, and spoken-word pieces in their space. In the past, many ARTexchange participants found the event to be their favorite part of the conference, with the table parameter sparking creative displays.
To be considered for ARTexchange in Chicago, please send your full name, your CAA member number, a brief description of the work you want to exhibit (no more than 150 words), and a link to your website to Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Artists presenting performance or sound art, spoken word, or technology-based work, including laptop presentations, must add a few sentences about their plans. Such performance pieces must significantly limit volume and action so as not to disrupt the other ARTexchange participants. Accepted participants will receive an email confirmation. Because ARTexchange is a popular venue with limited space, early applicants will be given preference. Deadline: December 13, 2013.
Participants are responsible for their work; CAA is not liable for losses or damages. Sale of work is not permitted. Participants may not hang artworks on walls or run power cords from laptops or other electronic devices to outlets—bring fully charged batteries.
Image Caption
The artists Jeff Schmuki and Wendy DesChene, founders of PlantBot Genetics, demonstrate their products during ARTexchange at the 2012 Annual Conference in Los Angeles (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Recipients Selected for 2014 CAA International Travel Grants
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — October 07, 2013
In an effort to promote greater interaction and exchange between American and international art historians and artists, CAA offers twenty International Travel Grants to bring colleagues from around the world to its Annual Conference, to be held next year in Chicago from February 12 to 15, 2014. This is the third year of the program, which has been generously funded by the Getty Foundation since its inception. CAA is pleased to announce this year’s recipients—professors of art history, curators, and artists who teach art history—who were selected by a jury of CAA members from a highly competitive group of applicants. Their names and affiliations are listed below.
In addition to covering travel expenses, hotel accommodations, and per diems, the CAA International Travel Grants include conference registration and a one-year CAA membership. At the conference, the twenty recipients will be paired with hosts, who will introduce them to CAA and to specific colleagues who share their interests. Members of CAA’s International Committee have agreed to serve as hosts, along with representatives from the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA) and CAA’s Board of Directors. CAA is grateful to NCHA for renewing its generous underwriting of the hosts’ expenses. The program will begin on February 11 with an introductory preconference for grant recipients and their hosts.
CAA hopes that this travel-grant program will not only increase international participation in the organization’s activities, but also expand international networking and the exchange of ideas both during and after the conference. The Getty-funded International Travel Grant Program supplements CAA’s regular program of Annual Conference Travel Grants for graduate students and international artists and scholars. We look forward to welcoming the grant recipients in Chicago at the next Annual Conference.
2014 Recipients of CAA International Travel Grants
- Rael Artel, Director, Tartu Art Museum, Estonia
- Eric Appau Asante, Lecturer, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
- Cezar Tadeu Bartholomeu, Professor of Art History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Laris Borić, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of Zadar, Croatia
- Eddie M. P. Butindo-Mbaalya, Lecturer, Kyambogo University, Uganda
- Josephina de la Maza Chevesich, Assistant Professor, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile
- Katerina Zdravkova Gadjeva, Assistant Professor, Institute of Art Studieso, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Bulgaria
- Heba Nayal Barakat Hassanein, Head, Curatorial Affairs Department, Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia
- Lilianne Lugo Herrera, Professor and Vice Dean, Research and Postgraduate Studies, University of Arts, Cuba
- Heuman Tchana Hugues, Junior Lecturer, University of Maroua/Higher Institute of the Sahel, Camaroon
- Kanwal Khalid, Assistant Professor, Lahore College for Women University, Pakistan
- Mahmuda Khnam, Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic History & Culture, Jagannath University, Bangladesh
- Daria Kostina, Lecturer in Art History, Ural Federal University, and curator of B. U. Kashkin Museum, Yekaterinburg, Russia
- Portia Malatjie, Lecturer, Art History and Visual Culture Rhodes University, South Africa
- Susana S. Martins, Lecturer and Research Fellow, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
- Fernando Luis Martinez Nespral, Head Professor and Researcher, University of Buenos Aires, School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism, Argentina
- Magdalena Anna Nowak, Assistant Curator, National Museum in Warsaw, Poland
- Freeborn O. Odiboh, Associate Professor of Art History and Criticism, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
- Adriana Oprea, Archivist and Researcher, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Romania
- Ahmed E. Wahby, Lecturer and Vice Dean for Student Affairs, German University in Cairo, Egypt
