CAA News Today
Obama Intends to Nominate Jim Leach as NEH Chairman
posted by Christopher Howard — June 04, 2009
Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate former Republican Congressman Jim Leach as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Obama said, “I am confident that with Jim as its head, the National Endowment for the Humanities will continue on its vital mission of supporting the humanities and giving the American public access to the rich resources of our culture. Jim is a valued and dedicated public servant and I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.”
Jim Leach served as a member of the US House of Representatives for the state of Iowa for thirty years. He founded and cochaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus, which is dedicated to advocating on behalf of the humanities in the House and to raising the profile of humanities in the United States. The caucus worked to promote and preserve humanities programs and commissions such as the Historical Publications and Records Commission. Leach and his cofounder, Rep. David Price, received the Sidney R. Yates Award for Distinguished Public Service to the Humanities from the National Humanities Alliance in 2005. During his tenure in Congress, Leach also served as chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services (1995-2001), a senior member of the House Committee on International Relations, and chairman of the committee’s Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs (2001-6). In addition, Leach is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the vice chairman of the Century Foundation’s board of trustees and has served on the boards of the Social Sciences Research Council, ProPublica, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Kettering Foundation. Since leaving Congress in 2007, he has taught at Princeton University and served as the interim director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Obama Intends to Nominate Jim Leach as NEH Chairman
posted by Christopher Howard — June 04, 2009
Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate former Republican Congressman Jim Leach as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Obama said, “I am confident that with Jim as its head, the National Endowment for the Humanities will continue on its vital mission of supporting the humanities and giving the American public access to the rich resources of our culture. Jim is a valued and dedicated public servant and I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.”
Jim Leach served as a member of the US House of Representatives for the state of Iowa for thirty years. He founded and cochaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus, which is dedicated to advocating on behalf of the humanities in the House and to raising the profile of humanities in the United States. The caucus worked to promote and preserve humanities programs and commissions such as the Historical Publications and Records Commission. Leach and his cofounder, Rep. David Price, received the Sidney R. Yates Award for Distinguished Public Service to the Humanities from the National Humanities Alliance in 2005. During his tenure in Congress, Leach also served as chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services (1995-2001), a senior member of the House Committee on International Relations, and chairman of the committee’s Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs (2001-6). In addition, Leach is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the vice chairman of the Century Foundation’s board of trustees and has served on the boards of the Social Sciences Research Council, ProPublica, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Kettering Foundation. Since leaving Congress in 2007, he has taught at Princeton University and served as the interim director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
May Obituaries in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — May 13, 2009
CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, art historians, and theorists. Of special note are two obituaries written especially for CAA: Richard R. Ranta on Carol Purtle, and Clark V. Poling on John Howett.
- Ernie Barnes, an artist who was also a professional football player, died on April 27, 2009, at the age of 70
- John Howett, a professor emeritus of art history at Emory University, died on April 8, 2009, at the age of 82
- Jack Prip, a silversmith who taught for many years at the Rhode Island School of Design, died on April 8, 2009. He was 86
- Carol Purtle, a professor of art history at the University of Memphis, died on December 12, 2008, at the age of 69
- David W. Scott, an artist, art historian, and founding director of the National Museum of American Art, died on March 30, 2009. He was 92
- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, a literary theorist and pioneer of queer studies, died on April 12, 2009, at the age of 58
- Honoré Sharrer, a figurative American artist who rose to prominence in the 1940s, died on April 17, 2009. She was 88
Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.
CAA Thanks 2009 Conference Mentors
posted by Emmanuel Lemakis — April 27, 2009
CAA wishes to thank the artists, art historians, curators, critics, and educators who generously served during Career Services at the 2009 Annual Conference as mentors for the Artists’ Portfolio Review and Career Development Mentoring, as leaders of the Professional Development Roundtable Discussions, as presenters of the Career Development Workshops, and as speakers at Orientation.
Artists’ Portfolio Review
Michael Bzdak, Sue Canning, Carole Garmon, Les Joynes, Jason Lahr, Marius Lehene, Suzanne Lemakis, Meg Linton, Holly Morrison, Margaret Murphy, Alastair Noble, Liz Roth, Richard Tichich.
Career Development Mentoring
Becca Albee, Pam Aloisa, Susan Altman, Michael Aurbach, Lucinda Bliss, Sally Cornelison, Connie Cortez, Julie Nelson Davis, Carole Gorman, Reni Gower, Julie Green, Randall C. Griffin, Courtney Grim, Richard Heipp, Jim Hopfensperger, Dennis Y. Ichiyama, Arthur Jones, Heather McPherson, Mary McInnes, David Raizman, David Sokol, Steve Teczar, Ann Tsubota, Jaime Ursic.
Roundtable Leaders
Susan Altman, Michael Aurbach, Sally Block, Diane Burko, Nicola Courtright, Diane Edison, Suzanne Lemakis, Harold Linton, Andrea Polli, Norie Sato, Marie Thibeault.
Career Development Workshops
Barbara Bernstein, Steven Bleicher, Mika Cho, David Dombrosky, Kate Kuykendall, Harold Linton, David Sokol.
Orientation
Michael Aurbach, Irina D. Costache, Margaret Lazzari, David Sokol.
Holland Cotter Wins Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
posted by Christopher Howard — April 21, 2009
Holland Cotter of the New York Times has received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. It’s the first time in thirty-five years that an art critic has received the prestigious journalism award. The last Pulitzer for art criticism went to the late Emily Genauer of Newsday in 1974.
Since 1980 a number of art critics have been finalists, including, most recently, Sebastian Smee of the Boston Globe (2009); Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times (2007); and Jerry Saltz, then writing for the Village Voice (2006).
Recent Deaths in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — April 09, 2009
CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, scholars, and architects. Of special note is Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and June Hargrove’s obituary for CAA on the Swiss art historian Hans A. Lüthy.
- Robert Delford Brown, an artist who helped create Happenings in the early 1960s, was found dead in Wilmington, North Carolina, on March 24, 2009. He was 78
- Hanne Darboven, a German artist who was a major figure in Conceptual art, died on March 9, 2009, near Hamburg. She was 67
- Johnny Donnels, a New Orleans photographer, died on March 19, 2009, at the age of 84
- Lorenz Eitner, a professor who rebuilt the Stanford University Art Department and directed the school’s museum, died on March 11, 2009. He was 89
- Sverre Fehn, a Norwegian architect who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, died on February 23, 2009, at age 84
- Mary Hambleton, an artist, teacher, and Guggenheim fellow, died on January 9, 2009. She was 56
- Helen Levitt, an American photographer whose first solo exhibition was at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943, died on March 29, 2009, in New York. She was 95
- Hans A. Lüthy, a Swiss art historian, died on March 8, 2009
- Stephen M. Panella, an artist based in Aurora, Illinois, died on November 29, 2008, at the age of 34
- Susan Peterson, a ceramic artist, writer, and professor, died on March 26, 2009, in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was 83
Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.
New Board Officers Elected
posted by Vanessa Jalet — March 31, 2009
New officers for the CAA Board of Directors were chosen by the board at its last meeting, held on March 1, 2009. These officers join the CAA president and executive director in forming the Executive Committee. The new officers start their work at the next board meeting, taking place on May 3.
Andrea Kirsh, an independent scholar and curator, is vice president for external affairs; Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker of Mills College was reelected to a second year as vice president for committees; Sue Gollifer of the University of Brighton was elected vice president for Annual Conference; Anne Collins Goodyear of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, is now vice president for publications; and Barbara Nesin of Spelman College was reelected secretary. Jeffrey P. Cunard of Debevoise & Plimpton and John Hyland, Jr., of McFarland, Dewey & Company were both reappointed to their posts of counsel and treasurer, respectively.
Paul Jaskot of DePaul University is in the second and last year of his term as CAA board president, and Linda Downs remains the organization’s executive director.
Results from the 2009–13 board election were announced earlier this month. CAA is still seeking nominations and self-nominations for individuals interested in serving on CAA’s board for the 2010–14 term.
New CAA Board Members
posted by Christopher Howard — March 10, 2009
CAA members have elected four new members to serve on the Board of Directors from 2009 to 2013: Jacqueline Francis, DeWitt Godfrey, Patricia Mathews, and Patricia McDonnell.
Results of the election were announced on February 27, 2009, during the Annual Members’ Business Meeting at the 97th Annual Conference in Los Angeles. These four take office at the next board meeting in May 2009; their original candidate statements appear below.
CAA is still seeking nominations and self-nominations for individuals interested in serving on CAA’s board for the 2010–14 term.
Jacqueline Francis
California College of the Arts and San Francisco State University
For the last two years, I have served on the CAA Committee on Diversity Practices, which works to advance several of CAA’s most important objectives: to define diversity, to communicate its importance to our membership, and to provide strategies for achieving it in the cultural realms in which we operate. As an organization, CAA will be stronger through the recognition of existing diversity within our ranks and through clear articulation about its centrality to stated goals of increasing membership (and hence, revenue), promoting and expanding our services, and demonstrating our continued relevance as a resource nexus and network. This is the vibrant profile that we must present to current and future members, to partner organizations, and to philanthropies and other potential sources of support.
DeWitt Godfrey
Colgate University
Because I spent the first fifteen years of my professional life as an independent artist, followed by a decade of teaching at the university level, I believe I offer some unique insights into CAA’s mission. In addition, my own academic experiences, as a student and professor, are located in departments that combine the study of art practice and art history. The creation, teaching, and reception of art, I have found, resonate strongly in settings that sustain multiple intellectual, critical, and creative discourses.
As CAA approaches its one-hundredth year and embarks on its next strategic-planning process, it must be equally creative and innovative, responding to and taking the lead in its support of emerging hybrid forms of artistic creation and scholarly production. Building on its core strengths, CAA must maintain its vitally important academic and professional standards, sustain the Annual Conference while exploring new models of collegial gatherings, and provide expanded venues for the presentation and publication of creative and scholarly work. CAA needs to better support its recent graduates and emerging professionals, encourage and provide for pedagogical innovation, and reexamine, reaffirm, and reinvigorate strategies to support its artists members. The association should also explore new paths of communication with membership that better address the specific needs of its various constituencies and embrace the opportunities and challenges of an increasingly digital world, as well as increase its advocacy for the place of art in the larger culture by expanding partnerships with other organizations. The planning, articulation, and implementation of these programs, as well as fundraising and membership expansion, are essential to CAA’s long-term fiscal health and stability.
Patricia Mathews
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
CAA has recently moved in constructive directions. I particularly applaud the interest in diversity and would like to improve financial support and organizational visibility for women and underrepresented scholars and artists. Further, as an extremely vital and lively organization, CAA should have a broader profile, especially in light of shrinking resources for arts organizations across the country.
As a member of a small liberal-arts college, I am interested in pedagogy and curricula. I have personally worked to develop these areas at Hobart and William Smith Colleges over the last few years and consider both of importance for the future of art history. To this end, I recently attended a Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching on new ideas in education and have been working closely with the director of the Center of Teaching and Learning at my school. There is a great deal of new literature on how students learn and what keeps them from learning well, and the workshops on pedagogy this year at the CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles look quite valuable. Accordingly, I would like to institute our own study of best practices for teaching art and art history that could benefit both our professionals and our students.
I would bring to the board an unusual talent among art historians. I supported myself as an undergraduate by working for a small accounting firm, where I kept the books and did taxes for a number of medium-size companies. These skills would be useful in the board’s work with the annual budget.
Patricia McDonnell
Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University
College Art Association—the organization’s name signals its role as an advocate for all who teach the visual arts at the postsecondary level. Many of its members do that in the classroom. Those of us who work in art museums also guide learning about visual culture by enriching people’s firsthand encounters with works of art. Museum curators, editors, conservators, and librarians, as well as faculty artists and art historians, all contribute to the CAA world.
As a longtime curator and now as a museum director, and as a devoted member for seventeen years, I have relied greatly on CAA. Because CAA does an excellent job with its highly valuable Annual Conference and various publications—programs that we should sustain—I am especially interested in expanding the organization’s advocacy role for the visual arts in American culture. This advocacy should extol the intrinsic value of encounters with original works of art and partner with organizations such as Americans for the Arts. Advocacy should emphasize the critical importance of visual-arts education in American life and support for those who teach it.
Recent Deaths in the Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — March 09, 2009
Below is a list of recent deaths in the arts, with a link to each person’s published obituary:
- Lucille Virginia Burton, a curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on February 22, 2009, at the age of 90
- Schuyler Chapin, a cultural affairs commissioner for New York City and a dean of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, died on March 7, 2009. He was 86
- William de Looper, an artist associated with the Washington Color School and a curator for the Phillips Collection, died on January 30, 2009, at age 76
- Louisa Edwards, an art dealer at McIntosh Gallery in Atlanta who promoted black artists, died on February 23, 2009. She was 83
- Sverre Fehn, a Norwegian architect who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, died on February 23, 2009, at age 84
- Virgil Grotfeldt, a painter and sculptor based in Houston, Texas, died on February 23, 2009. He was 60
- Mary Hambleton, an artist and a professor of art at Parsons the New School Design, died January 9, 2009, at the age of 56
- Judith Hoffberg, an art librarian, curator, and editor of the journal Umbrella who championed artist’s books, died on January 16, 2009. She was 74
- Howard Kanovitz, a Photo Realist painter who emerged in the 1960s, died on February 2, 2009, at the age of 79
- Max Neuhaus, a percussionist and a pioneer of sound art, died on February 3, 2009, at the age of 69
- Olga Raggio, a scholar who taught at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and a curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on January 24, 2009. She was 82
- George Schneeman, a poet and painter based in New York, died January 22, 2009, at age 74
- Franz-Joachim Verspohl, an art historian who taught at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in Germany, died in February 2009
- Dina Vierny, an artist’s model who inspired the sculptor Aristide Maillol, died on January 20, 2009. She was 89
Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.
NEA Names New Acting Chairman
posted by Christopher Howard — February 03, 2009
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced yesterday the appointment of Patrice Walker Powell as acting chairman. In this position, she will provide oversight for agency grantmaking and day-to-day agency operations and supervise administrative activities. She assumed the role on January 29.
In 2008, Powell was appointed deputy chairman for states, regions, and local arts agencies. In that role, she was responsible for managing the agency’s grants and special projects involving a national network of governmental and nonprofit partners; small grant programs such as Challenge America Fast-Track; and the NEA’s AccessAbility activities that are also carried out in conjunction with state and regional organizations. Powell has been a staff member at the NEA since 1991.
In addition, Anita Decker was appointed by the White House as NEA director of government affairs effective February 4. In this role she manages the endowment’ relations with Congress and the White House, international and federal partnership programs, and the operations of the National Council on the Arts. Previously, Decker was on the staff of President Barack Obama’s election campaign.