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NEA Awards $20,000 Grant to CAA for ARTspace

posted by Nia Page — May 01, 2012

CAA has received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the next ARTspace, taking place during the 101st Annual Conference in New York, February 13–16, 2013.

The grant, which is the NEA’s fourth consecutive award to CAA for ARTspace programming, will help fund, among other things, ARTexchange, a popular open-portfolio event for artists, as well as [Meta] Mentors programming, which has covered topics such as do-it-yourself curatorial and exhibition practices, international networks for artists, and assistance with grants, taxes, and promotion.

Designed to engage CAA’s artist members and the general public, ARTspace offers program sessions free of charge and includes diverse activities such the Annual Artists’ Interviews, screenings of film, video, and multimedia works, live performances, and papers and presentations that facilitate a conversational yet professional exchange of ideas and practices. Held at each conference since 2001, ARTspace is intended to reflect the current state of the visual arts and arts education.

Image: Art in Odd Places and Performance Exchange sponsored performances outside the Los Angeles Convention Center as part of ARTspace’s Art in the Public Realm, a daylong event at the 2012 Annual Conference (photograph by Bradley Marks)

People in the News

posted by CAA — Apr 17, 2012

People in the News lists new hires, positions, and promotions in three sections: Academe, Museums and Galleries, and Organizations and Publications.

The section is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.

April 2012

Academe

Luba Freedman, a scholar of Italian Renaissance art and a member of the Renaissance Studies editorial board and the Sixteenth Century Journal editorial committee, has been promoted to the rank of full professor in the History of Art Department at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

Scott Johnson, a sculptor, photographer, and installation artist, has received tenure in the Art Department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

Susan Yelavich, a longtime faculty member at Parsons the New School for Design in New York, has been appointed director of the master of arts in design studies program at her school.

Museums and Galleries

Emily Beeny will join the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in June 2012 as assistant curator of nineteenth-century painting in Art of Europe. Beeny is presently a doctoral candidate completing a year in Paris on the Rudolf Wittkower Dissertation Fellowship from Columbia University in New York.

Olivier Meslay, senior curator of European and American art and Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art at the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, has been named associate director of curatorial affairs at his institution.

Joanne Pillsbury, formerly director of Precolumbian studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, has been named associate director of scholarly programs at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California.

Joel Smith, currently Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography at the Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey, has been appointed curator of photography at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. Smith begins his new position in September 2012.

People in the News

posted by CAA — Feb 17, 2012

People in the News lists new hires, positions, and promotions in three sections: Academe, Museums and Galleries, and Organizations and Publications.

The section is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.

February 2012

Academe

Joseph Basile, a professor of art history and chairperson of the Department of Art History at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore since 1994, has been named associate dean for liberal arts at his school.

Angela Ellsworth, a sculptor and professor of art at Arizona State University in Phoenix, has been awarded tenure.

Dennis Farber, a faculty member in the Foundation Department at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore since the 1990s, has been named associate dean of foundation studies at his school.

Anne Marie Oliver, assistant professor of intermedia and contemporary theory at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, has been named cochair of the master’s degree program in critical theory and creative research at her school.

P. Gregory Warden, professor of art history and associate dean for research and academic affairs in the Meadows School of Art at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, has been appointed president of Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland. Warden will leave his current institution at the end of academic year 2011–12.

Museums and Galleries

David Bomford has left his position as acting museum director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. Bomford, who joined the museum in 2007 as associate director for collections, will return to London to pursue research, scholarship, and writing.

Joy Garnett, a New York–based painter and the editor of NEWSgrist, has become director of Theodore:Art, a gallery that has recently relocated from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

Suzanne Folds McCullagh has been named Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Chair and Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. A museum staff member since 1975, McCullagh succeeds Douglas Druick as the head of her department.

JoAnne Northrup, previously chief curator at the San Jose Museum of Art in California, has joined the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno as director of contemporary initiatives.

Martha Tedeschi has been named Prince Trust Curator in Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. A museum staffer since 1982, Tedeschi takes the curatorial reins from Douglas Druick.

Sheena Wagstaff, chief curator at Tate Modern in London since 2001, has been recruited as the new department head of twentieth- and twenty-first century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Kenneth Wayne, a consultant for arts organizations since 2010 after leaving a curatorial post at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, has joined the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York, as deputy director for curatorial affairs.

CAA Names the Recipients of the Getty-Funded International Travel Grants

posted by Christopher Howard — Jan 23, 2012

CAA has awarded travel grants to twenty art historians and artists from around the world who will convene in Los Angeles to attend and participate in the 100th Annual Conference, taking place February 22–25, 2012. The CAA International Travel Grant Program was made possible by a generous grant from the Getty Foundation.

At the conference, the twenty recipients will participate in mentoring activities and other events planned in connection with the grant. Members of CAA’s International Committee have agreed to host the participants, and the National Committee for the History of Art will also lend support to the program.

This travel-grant program is intended to familiarize international professionals with the Annual Conference program, including the session participation process. CAA accepted applications from art historians, artists who teach art history, and art historians who are museum curators; those from developing countries or from nations not well represented in CAA’s membership were especially encouraged to apply. In late 2011, a jury of CAA members selected the final twenty awardees, whose names, home institutions, and primary areas of scholarly and professional interest are as follows:

  • Salam Atta Sabri, Director, National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad, Iraq. Atta Sabri conducts research on missing works of art from Iraq and is also a ceramic artist
  • Parul Pandya Dhar, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. Dhar focuses on the history of Indian art and architecture to 1300 CE, cultural interactions in South and Southeast Asia, the visual arts and visual archives as sources of history, performing arts, and the historiography of Indian art
  • Federico Freschi, Associate Professor, History of Art, Wits School of Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Freschi’s work explores South African modern art and architecture and postcolonial identity politics
  • Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves, Professor of Art Theory and Aesthetics, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil. Gonçalves is interested in the role of modernism in recent debates in art theory
  • Angela Harutyunyan, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts and Art History, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. Harutyunyan is interested in methodologies of reading and historicizing contemporary art and studies the political aesthetics of the Armenian avant-garde
  • Gyöngyvér Horváth, Assistant Professor of Art History, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, Hungary. Horváth studies the historiography of narrative painting
  • Didier Houenoude, Assistant Professor, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin. Houenoude teaches art history and drawing and closely follows contemporary art in Benin
  • Nadhra Shahbaz Naeem Khan, Visiting Faculty, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. Khan’s work focuses on Sikh art and architecture
  • Irena Kossowska, Professor of Art History, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland. Kossowska works on national identity in Central Europe as reflected in the visual arts and also researches nineteenth- and twentieth-century European art
  • Jean Celestin Ky, Professor of Art History, University of Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Celestin researches African art and works with the National Museum of Burkina Faso in conserving and promoting contemporary art
  • Pavlína Morganová, Researcher and Professor, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic. Morganová works on contemporary art
  • Cristian Nae, PhD Lecturer, Department of Art History and Theory, Faculty of Fine Arts, George Enescu University of Arts, Iaşi, Romania. Nae examines post–World War II art history, critical theory, hermeneutics, and cultural studies
  • Judy Peter, Lecturer, Faculty of Art, Design, and Architecture, and Head, Department of Jewellery Design and Manufacture, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. Peter works in art history, theory, cultural and postcolonial studies, the history of jewellery. She is also interested in curriculum development in the context of a neoliberal South Africa
  • Daniel Premerl, Research Associate, Institute of Art History, Zagreb, Croatia. Premerl is interested in Renaissance and Baroque art and art-historical methodology
  • Malvina Rousseva, Professor, Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria. Rousseva pursues research in archaeology, Thracian tombs and temples, interdisciplinary studies, architectural history, cultural and visual studies, and philosophy
  • Ganna Rudyk, Deputy Director General of Research, Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Arts, Kyiv, Ukraine. Rudyk is a specialist in Islamic art who presents Islamic and generally non-Western art to broad publics
  • Dóra Sallay, Curator of Italian Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary. Sallay works with thirteenth- to sixteenth-century Italian art, in particular Sienese painting, the history of collecting and museums, and the history of the reception of Gothic and Renaissance painting
  • Olabisi Silva, Director, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria. Silva is working on the first roaming African art academy, placing equal emphasis on artistic practice, art history, critical thinking, and curatorial practice
  • Shao-Chien Tseng, Associate Professor of Art History, Graduate Institute of Art Studies, National Central University, Jhongli City, Taiwan. A specialist in nineteenth-century French art, Tseng is interested in modern art and natural history, landscape painting and photography, and postcolonialism and Taiwanese art
  • Jagath Weerasinghe, Director and Professor, Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Trained in fine arts, archeology, and conservation, Weerasinghe recently established his country’s first graduate program in art history, which will offer postgraduate diplomas and master of arts degrees in art history, focusing primarily on Asian art

CAA hopes that this travel grant will not only increase international participation in the organization’s activities, but will also expand international networking and the exchange of ideas. The Getty Foundation grant allows CAA to expand greatly the participation of international colleagues beyond its regular program of Annual Conference Travel Grants for graduate students and international artists and scholars.

Recipients of the 2012 Awards for Distinction

posted by Christopher Howard — Jan 18, 2012

CAA has announced the recipients of the 2012 Awards for Distinction, which honor the outstanding achievements and accomplishments of individual artists, art historians, authors, conservators, curators, and critics whose efforts transcend their individual disciplines and contribute to the profession as a whole and to the world at large.

CAA will formally recognize the recipients at a special awards ceremony during the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, on Thursday afternoon, February 23, 2012, 12:30–2:00 PM, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Led by Barbara Nesin, president of the CAA Board of Directors, the awards ceremony will take place in West Hall Meeting Room 502AB, Level 2; it is free and open to the public. The Los Angeles Convention Center is located downtown, at 1201 South Figueroa Street adjacent to the Staples Center.

The 2012 Annual Conference—presenting scholarly sessions, panel discussions, professional-development workshops, a Book and Trade Fair, and more—is the largest gathering of artists, art historians, students, and arts professionals in the United States.

David Hammons, Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement

The innovative, far-ranging work of David Hammons is central to the history of postwar art in all its complexities. For the past five decades, Hammons has ingeniously blurred boundaries separating sculpture, Conceptual art, performance, and installation. Through a restless hybridization of practices, he has explored many timely and urgent contemporary issues, commenting on the civil rights movement, racial stereotyping, institutional exclusion, and the commodification of artistic identity. Hammons is not only one of the great political artists of our time, but also a crafter of careful assemblage and canny composition, creating irreverent, sometimes scathing works that are as formally riveting as they are incisive.

Adrian Piper, Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work

Since the late 1960s, the provocative and often challenging work of Adrian Piper has profoundly influenced the language and form of Conceptual art. Her 2010 exhibition Past Time: Selected Works 1973–1995, presented at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York, showcased several bodies of work that dealt with dissent in varying forms and represented a period of time widely considered as her most influential. Piper’s artistic practice flirts with the syntax of Minimalism and infuses it with explicitly political content, addressing issues of race, gender, and identity politics. Additionally, her work has been shaped by studies in philosophy, a subject on which she has lectured since earning a doctorate in the discipline thirty years ago. A keen interlocutor of mass culture, Piper has produced art and writing that makes us question our constantly shifting contemporary social landscape.

Lucy R. Lippard, Distinguished Feminist Award

For more than five decades, the critic, activist, and curator Lucy R. Lippard has been a consistent, passionate, and influential advocate of feminist art. A prolific author first honored by CAA in 1975 with the Frank Jewett Mather Award, she is known for her concise, accessible, and lucid prose that brings feminist perspectives to bear on a wide scope of art and activism—from Eva Hesse (1976) to The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist Art (1995). Lippard’s curatorial efforts—such as c. 7,500 (1973), the groundbreaking all-woman exhibition of Conceptual art—have also been vital to the feminist art movement and offered some of the earliest considerations of global feminisms. Throughout her life, she has modeled a complex, ever-changing point of view as it intersects with progressive notions of art and politics.

Allan Sekula, Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art

Allan Sekula has devoted his life as an artist to writing, photography, installation, and film. While his multidisciplinary approach to problems of representation and politics has earned him accolades as an artist, his writings have helped students, scholars, and the public to think critically about interventions in the political and social realities of our world. The essays collected in his first book, Photography against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973–83 (1984), significantly altered the way in which the documentary function of photography was conceptualized. His more recent volumes—such as Fish Story (1995), Titanic’s Wake (2003), and Performance under Working Conditions (2003)—mobilize us through his vision and words to carefully consider the effects of capitalism, globalization, information formats, and the dematerialization of image and word.

David Antin, Frank Jewett Mather Award

David Antin has been a singular, combative voice in art criticism since the mid 1960s. His Radical Coherency: Selected Essays on Art and Literature 1966 to 2005 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011) demonstrates his sustained critical commitment, constant formal experimentation, and a style of thought and expression that is unique to both the visual arts and poetry. The essays and “talking poems” in Radical Coherency display a no-nonsense, skeptical intelligence squaring off firsthand with the work of artists—many of them his contemporaries—who were bent on radically transforming art, from Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol to the artists of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 1971 exhibition Art and Technology.

Alexander Nagel, Charles Rufus Morey Book Award

Alexander Nagel’s The Controversy of Renaissance Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011) is a compelling reexamination of the key paradoxes that define this era and the works associated with it. Guided in part by sixteenth-century religious history and the writings of historians of that era, Nagel positions sixteenth-century art making in the realm of the experimental, a vantage also in concert with the efforts of the religious reformers concerned with ritual and devotional practices usually associated with the Middle Ages. A breakthrough volume that makes significant contributions to scholarship on sixteenth-century Italian art, Nagel’s book compels art historians more generally to reconsider “standard” interpretations of many canonical monuments of the periods in which they are working.

Maryan W. Ainsworth, Stijn Alsteens, and Nadine M. Orenstein, Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award

Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart’s Renaissance (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, in association with Yale University Press, 2010) is a “summa” of Maryan Ainsworth’s decades-long exploration of the artistic legacy of this place and time. Using a variety of methods—technical analysis, connoisseurship, archival research, biography, iconography, and sustained attention to each object—she and the other authors place Gossart at the center of a rich world of intertwined relationships. Together they reveal the artist’s groundbreaking engagement with Rome and antiquity, his intent study of architecture and sculpture, his carefully crafted experimentation in a variety of media, and his amazing versatility as a painter of religious scenes, mythological subjects, and innovative portraits over a long career. The book is also significant for the insightful way in which it situates Gossart among his contemporaries, including the painters Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach, the sculptor Conrad Meit, and the patron and connoisseur Philip of Burgundy.

Roy Flukinger, Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for Smaller Museums, Libraries, Collections, and Exhibitions

With The Gernsheim Collection (Austin: Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas Press, 2010), Roy Flukinger has crafted an exceptional catalogue of the Helmut and Alison Gernsheim Collection, one of the earliest and most comprehensive collections of photography in the world. One hundred and twenty-six items are beautifully illustrated and analyzed in readable, absorbing prose that traces the story of the couple’s achievements as sleuths, gatherers, connoisseurs, photographers, devotees, and champions, while at the same time recognizing and examining their (sometimes controversial) role as architects of the study of photography. Contributions by Alison Nordstrom and Mark Haworth-Booth illuminate the role this collection has played in the history of photography as well as the Gernsheims’ commitment to the medium as a form of fine art. In this way, the book considers the process (in addition to the underlying principles, assumptions, and implications) of canon formulation in an emerging discipline.

Jacki Apple, Distinguished Teaching of Art Award

For the past twenty-eight years, Jacki Apple has provided students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, with a dynamic, inspiring, and evolving model of the possibilities and rewards of an interdisciplinary practice. An artist, writer, and producer, she has produced work in multiple modes—performance, installation, drawing, book art, photography, film, radio, text, and audio—and presciently engages the opportunities afforded by new technologies. Praised by students and colleagues alike for her intelligence, generosity, enthusiasm, and critical discernment, Apple adeptly bridges various disciplines using a wide scope of knowledge about contemporary culture and technology and a depth of understanding about the history and practice of the visual and performing arts. A gifted communicator, Apple is exceptionally effective in encouraging students to think for themselves.

Gabriel P. Weisberg, Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award

Gabriel P. Weisberg’s distinguished teaching record—which includes faculty positions at the University of New Mexico, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Pittsburgh, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Minnesota, where he is currently a professor in the Department of Art History—spans nearly half a century. His students, both graduate and undergraduate, praise his presentation of art as a dynamic interplay among culture, aesthetics, and human experience, revealed through direct examination of works of art in the context of primary historical documentation. Weisberg’s varied and distinguished background as a historian, curator, and administrator seamlessly integrates academic and museum realms, and his scholarship has shaped the discipline of nineteenth-century art history in a profound way.

Francesca G. Bewer, CAA/Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation

Francesca G. Bewer, research curator in the Harvard Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, is an exemplary technical art historian. An expert in the materials and techniques of European Renaissance and Baroque bronze sculpture, she trained as both an art historian, at University College London, and as a conservator, at Palazzo Spinelli in Florence. A highly valued teacher and lecturer, Bewer has published a steady stream of superb texts in conservation and art-historical journals, exhibition catalogues, and monographs. She also recently authored a book on the history of conservation, A Laboratory for Art: Harvard’s Fogg Museum and the Emergence of Conservation in America, 1900–1950 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Art Museum; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010).

Rebecca Molholt, Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize

Rebecca Molholt’s article “Roman Labyrinth Mosaics and the Experience of Motion,” published in the September 2011 issue of The Art Bulletin, is an imaginative study of seven North African mosaics that were once floors in Roman bathhouses. She introduces a fresh methodology for their assessment, building on a distinction that Walter Benjamin drew between “vertical and horizontal forms of viewing.” Moholt argues that mosaics have long been read as if they were vertical easel paintings rather than understood as “materials underfoot,” which are experienced while kinetically moving over their horizontal surfaces. She uncovers a metaphoric reading of these mosaics that relates the labyrinths, their subject matter, and architectural context—the Roman bath—to athleticism and heroism.

Art Journal Award

An article by the online journal Triple Canopy, authored primarily by Colby Chamberlain of Columbia University, has won the 2012 Art Journal Award. The text, called “The Binder and the Server,” appears in the Winter 2011 issue.

Contact

For more information on the 2012 Awards for Distinction, please contact Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Visit the Awards section of the CAA website to read about all past recipients.

CAA announced the shortlists for the 2012 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award and the two Alfred H. Barr Jr. Awards on December 2, 2011.

New and Revised CAA Standards and Guidelines

posted by Michael Fahlund — Dec 21, 2011

In line with CAA’s practice to update regularly its Standards and Guidelines for professional practices in the visual arts, the Board of Directors approved one new and four revised guidelines at its meeting on October 23, 2011. The Professional Practices Committee, chaired by Charles Wright of Western Illinois University, worked with subcommittees over the past several years. Maria Ann Conelli, CAA vice president for committees, presented the documents to the board for approval.

Professional Practices for Artists

Beauvais Lyons of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chaired the task force to update Professional Practices for Artists, first published in 1977. Extensive changes were made in sections pertaining to the code of ethics, copyright, safe use of materials and equipment, and exhibition and sales.

Standards for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Degrees in Studio Art

Judith Thorpe of the University of Connecticut chaired the task force to update Standards for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Degrees in Studio Art. A section on multidisciplinary curricula was added, and extensive changes were made to sections on the BFA and studio curriculum and on faculty and staff.

Standards for the Associate of Fine Arts Degree

A new document, Standards for the Associate of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art, was developed to recognize that 50 percent of all college students in the United States attend institutions offering two-year degree programs. Bertha Gutman of the Delaware County Community College chaired the task force.

Peer Review in CAA Publications

Susan Waller of the University of Missouri, Saint Louis, and John Klein of Washington University in Saint Louis made up the task force that revised Peer Review in CAA Publications from 2004. The task force consulted the current editors-in-chief and editors-designate of The Art Bulletin and Art Journal as well as members of the Publications Committee that oversees the editorial boards of CAA’s three journals. The standards included a definition of peer review and addressed works submitted to the journals by artists.

Standards for the Retention and Tenure of Art and Design Faculty

Jim Hopfensperger of Western Michigan University chaired the task force on Standards for the Retention and Tenure of Art and Design Faculty. The revised standards recommend transparency in matters of renewal, retention, promotion, and tenure; specified contact hours; and added the categories of collaborative artworks, situated artworks, online work, commissions, consultations, and/or curatorial work to documentation to be considered for retention and promotion review.

Report from the October 2011 Board of Directors Meeting

posted by Linda Downs — Dec 19, 2011

The fall meeting of the CAA Board of Directors took place on Sunday, October 23, 2011, in New York. Twenty-two board members were joined by eight staff members and one guest.

Anne Collins Goodyear was elected by the board as president-elect. Her term of office begins in May 2012 and will conclude at the end of April 2014. Goodyear is associate curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC. She has served on the CAA board since 2006 as vice president for external affairs and vice president for publications and is currently vice president for Annual Conference. As vice president for publications, Goodyear headed a task force that reviewed all editorial safeguards and procedures for CAA’s three journals. She is an art historian who has contributed to the field through major exhibitions, including Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture in 2009. She is only the second art museum curator to lead CAA in thirty years (the first being Joshua C. Taylor, director of the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, in 1981). Before stepping into the presidency, Goodyear will lead a task force on the Annual Conference to explore future web-based extensions.

The Professional Practices Committee, chaired by Charles Wright of Western Illinois University, worked with subcommittees over the past several years and updated five existing but outdated standards and added one new document to CAA’s Standards and Guidelines. Maria Ann Conelli, vice president for committees, presented these standards to the board for approval. The board adopted these standards and commended the subcommittees and the Professional Practices Committee for their outstanding work in providing the field with this critical information. The new standards reflect and correspond to the guidelines of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and regional accreditation commissions where applicable.

Beauvais Lyons of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chaired the task force to update Professional Practices for Artists, first published in 1977. Extensive changes were made in sections pertaining to the code of ethics, copyright, safe use of materials and equipment, and exhibition and sales. The task-force members were: Charles Wright, Western Illinois University, Chair of the Professional Practices Committee; Brian Bishop, Framingham State University; Margaret Lazzari, University of Southern California; and James Hopfensperger, Western Michigan University.

Judith Thorpe of the University of Connecticut chaired the task force to update Standards for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts Degrees in Studio Art. A section on multidisciplinary curricula was added, and extensive changes were made to sections on the BFA and studio curriculum and on faculty and staff. The task force comprised: Denise Mullen, Oregon College of Art and Crafts and CAA board; Sergio Soave, Ohio State University; Frederick Cartwright, University of Saint Francis; and Cora Lynn Deibler, University of Connecticut.

Susan Waller of the University of Missouri, Saint Louis and John Klein of Washington University in Saint Louis made up the task force that revised Peer Review in CAA Publications from 2004. The task force consulted the current editors-in-chief and editors-designate of The Art Bulletin and Art Journal as well as members of the Publications Committee that oversees the editorial boards of CAA’s three journals. The standards included a definition of peer review and addressed works submitted to the journals by artists.

Jim Hopfensperger of Western Michigan University chaired the task force on Standards for the Retention and Tenure of Art and Design Faculty, whose members were: Carolyn Cardenas, Utah State University; Dana Clancy, Boston University; Andrea Eis, Oakland University; Amy Hauft, Virginia Commonwealth University; Janet Hethorn, University of Delaware; Robert Hower, University of Texas at Arlington; Patricia Olynyk, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; Sergio Soave, Ohio State University; Adrian Tio, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; and Star Varner, Southwestern University. The revised standards recommend transparency in matters of renewal, retention, promotion, and tenure; specified contact hours; and added the categories of collaborative artworks, situated artworks, online work, commissions, consultations, and/or curatorial work to documentation to be considered for retention and promotion review.

A new document, Standards for the Associate of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Art, was developed to recognize that 50 percent of all college students in the United States attend institutions offering two-year degree programs. Bertha Gutman, Delaware County Community College, chaired the task force, whose members were: Carmina L. Cianciulli, Tyler School of Art, Temple University; Sandra Esslinger, Mt. San Antonio College; Martina Hesser, Mesa College; David Koffman, Georgia Perimeter College; and Christina McNearney, Pima Community College.

CAA’s deputy director, Michael Fahlund, announced that CAA had received 168 applications for the Professional-Development Fellowship in Visual Art and 19 for the Professional- Development in Art History. The juries will meet in December to select three visual-art fellows and two art-history fellows with awards of $5,000 each. The awardees will be honored at the Annual Conference in Los Angeles.

Patricia McDonnell, vice president for external affairs, presented the first of three reports on membership development to the board. She thanked Nia Page, director of membership, development and marketing, for the work that she and her staff carried out to identify all national and international sources of future CAA members. The board has requested a plan to increase membership revenue over the next three years, and this comprehensive first-phase report was reviewed and accepted by the board. It was also announced that two new full-time staff members have been hired: Hannah O’Reilly Malyn, development associate, and Nancy Nguyen, institutional membership assistant.

The board approved new guidelines for board liaisons to the Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees. The new guidelines include acting in an advisory (without vote) capacity by attending their assigned committee meetings and reporting back to the vice president of committees, thereby bringing issues of critical importance to the vice president and the board and back to the committees from the board.

Paul Jaskot of DePaul University chaired the Task Force on the Use of Human and Animal Subjects in Art and presented its recommendations to the board. Members of the task force included Wayne Enstice, University of Cincinnati; Michael Golec, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Ellen Levy, independent artist; Marlena Novak, independent artist; Bernard Rollin, University of Colorado; and Kristine Stiles, Duke University. The task force researched and presented existing guidelines for the use of animals and humans in experiments and performance; sampled existing practices in the art world; prepared and sent a survey to members regarding attitudes about the use of animals in art; and compiled a short bibliography of ethical and artistic debate on these subjects. The task force produced a set of principles and questions that artists and other professionals in the visual arts can consult when using animals and human subjects in art. The task force suggested that another task force be established to develop formal guidelines on the use of animals in art and to develop a page on the CAA website for related resources in the future. The board accepted the recommendations of the task force, commended Paul and the task-force members for their work on this difficult subject, and decided to postpone the formation of another task force, since five new task forces were being presented at the meeting and needed prioritization by the executive director.

A resolution to establish a Task Force on the Annual Conference was presented to the board by Goodyear. The task force, approved by the board, will address electronic extensions of the conference in order to reach a larger, international membership. The vice president announced that the 2013 Annual Conference Committee has reviewed the 279 session proposals that were submitted and selected 111 for the New York conference. In addition to the 111 peer-reviewed sessions there will be 23 affiliated-society sessions, 3 committee sessions, 20 contemporary issues/studio art sessions, 8 educational and professional practices sessions, 53 historical studies sessions, and 4 Open Forms sessions.

Goodyear also announced that 150 people have applied for the Getty Foundation International Travel Grant Program. The jury will meet in November to select twenty awardees, who will receive a free CAA membership for a year, free registration, and free travel and hotel to the 2012 conference in Los Angeles. The program is intended to acclimate art historians or artists teaching art history in developing college art departments to become acquainted with the session proposal submission process, to assist them in networking with colleagues, and to address common professional issues. The project is supported by a grant from the Getty Foundation. The CAA project manager is Janet Landay.

A resolution was presented by a board member, Jean Miller of the University of North Texas, and approved by the board to establish a Task Force on Design. This group will conduct research on design programs in order to attract more designers to CAA membership. A resolution was presented by another board member, Judith Thorpe, to increase participation in CAA by its affiliated societies. The resolutions were approved with the proviso that the formation of the task forces be delayed until Downs determines when the staff support will be available to assist the task forces.

The Executive Committee approved affiliated-society status for the Diasporic Asian Art Network (DAAN).

The annual audit was presented by EisnerAmper, Accountants and Advisors. There were no recommendations, and the chief financial officer, Teresa López, was commended for her work. Copies of the audit will be made available at the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, taking place on Friday, February 24, 2012, at the CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles; it can also be obtained directly from López. The treasurer, John Hyland Jr., presented a balanced budget. CAA’s investment manager, Domenic Colasecco from Boston Trust, presented a thorough report on the investment portfolio.

At the request of the board, Downs presented a comprehensive report on funding sources at CAA including membership (representing 42 percent of all revenue); earned revenue including grants (45 percent); private contributions (.5 percent); and investment drawdown (9.4 percent). The board will set a specific date to discuss ideas on increasing private contributions to CAA funds.

Downs commended the CAA staff for a successful move to the new office at 50 Broadway and especially thanked Fahlund, who coordinated the move; López, who managed the move’s financial aspects; and Michael Goodman, director of information technology, who oversaw the installation of the new phone system and all the office computers, copiers, and machines, and also helped make necessary changes to the website. The move will assist in a budget reduction because of a five-year lease reduction rebate provided by the City of New York through the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Open House

Open House at the CAA office, from left: Minerva Navarrete, Michael Fahlund, and Sydelle Zemering

As part of the meetings taking place that weekend for the three journals’ editorial boards, the Annual Conference Committee, and the full Board of Directors, the CAA staff organized an Open House for members at the organization’s new office on Saturday, October 22, 2011. Close to fifty members visited the office and met board and staff members. Two delightful visitors were Minerva Navarrete and Sydelle Zemering, former CAA staff members who regaled us with stories of their experiences at CAA during the 1950s, when the office was in a Madison Avenue townhouse. One board member, Roger Crum of the University of Dayton, introduced several members to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and the World Trade Center construction site from the vantage point of the twentieth floor of the Club Quarters, World Trade Center hotel. (CAA belongs to the Club Quarters network in major cities around the world, and members receive discounts on room reservations.) This particular Club Quarters is on the southern edge of the World Trade Center site and has extraordinary views of the construction of the towers and the memorial’s fountains. Crum made a presentation on the concept of memorializing September 11 and the skyscraper engineering and safeguards going into the seven towers. After the Open House, several members also visited Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, just a few blocks north. CAA’s new neighborhood is very lively, with many tourists, commemorators, construction crews, and demonstrators.

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Institutional News

posted by CAA — Dec 17, 2011

Read about the latest news from institutional members.

Institutional News is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.

December 2011

The American Academy in Rome in Italy has received a 2011 grant from the Graham Foundation, intended to help present and produce publications, exhibitions, films, initiatives in new media, and other programs.

The Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois has been awarded a 2011 grant from the Graham Foundation, intended to help present and produce publications, exhibitions, films, initiatives in new media, and other programs.

The Brooklyn Museum in New York has won a 2011 National Medal for Museum and Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency. Four other museums and five libraries also received medals, chosen from the institute’s director, Susan Hildreth, following a call for nominations.

The California Institute of the Arts in Valencia has been named America’s Number 1 College for Students in the Arts in a report recently released by Newsweek and the Daily Beast.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Quebec, has earned a 2011 grant from the Graham Foundation, intended to assist the presentation and production of publications, exhibitions, films, initiatives in new media, and other programs.

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has published the entire archive of past Center reports from 1980–81 to the present. These thirty-one reports contain information about the center’s fellowships, meetings, research, and publications, as well as research reports by fellows in residence for each academic year.

The Frick Art Reference Library, based at the Frick Collection in New York, has announced that research database records in its Photoarchiv created since 1996, and all future records created for the existing collection and for new acquisitions, are now accessible via the New York Art Resources Consortium’s online catalogue, Arcade. The records offer detailed historical documentation for the works of art, including basic information about the artist, title, medium, dimensions, date, and owner of the work, as well as former attributions, provenance, variant titles, records of exhibition and condition history, and biographical information about portrait subjects.

Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore has launched the Baltimore Art and Justice Project, the first project of its kind in the United States to identify, amplify, and connect arts-based practitioners advancing the cause of social justice in a particular city. The project, in partnership with a citywide advisory committee, kicked off with a two-year, $150,000 grant from the Open Society Foundations in New York.

Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore will offer two new graduate programs in 2012: an master of professional studies in information visualization and a master of arts in critical studies. In addition, the college will expand its undergraduate offerings in the fall with new concentrations in game arts, sound art, and sustainability and social practice.

The Mason Gross School of the Arts and the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, have established an education and professional hub for filmmaking. Directed by Dena Seidel, the Rutgers Center for Digital Filmmaking will offer a seven-course certificate program, beginning in spring 2012, and will also house the Rutgers Film Bureau.

Parsons the New School for Design in New York has announced a new master of arts in design studies, to begin in fall 2012. Based in the School of Art and Design History and Theory, the program will shape a new generation of thinkers to critically address historical, philosophical, and social issues related to design practices, products, and discourses. It is geared toward those seeking to pursue a career in design research, writing, curating, consulting, or criticism, as well as designers seeking to incorporate design research into their practice.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania has received a 2011 grant from the Graham Foundation, intended to help present and produce publications, exhibitions, films, initiatives in new media, and other program.

The School of Visual Arts in New York will begin offering a master of arts in critical theory and the arts in fall 2012. Chaired by Robert Hullot-Kentor and based on the Frankfurt School of Social Research, the program will bring together leading minds in philosophy, sociology, and art criticism to examine critical theory in relation to contemporary culture and the arts.

The University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville has received a four-year, $315,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a new, full-time academic curator who will aid and expand the museum’s curatorial and academic programming mission as a teaching museum. The curator will also play an essential role in developing initiatives that integrate the museum with innovation in the humanities across the university.

The Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, has been awarded a $4 million bequest from the estate of John Bourne of Santa Fe, New Mexico, to endow a center for the study, conservation, interpretation, and display of the arts of the ancient Americas. The funds accompany Bourne’s donation of seventy works of art, as well as 230 additional planned gifts.

Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library has received the gift of $3 million from a museum trustee, John L. McGraw and his wife Marjorie, to endow its director of museum collections, a post held by Linda S. Eaton. The endowment of the position—named the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections—ensures that this vital aspect of Winterthur’s operations will be funded permanently into the future and reflects the institution’s commitment to the exceptional scholarship, publications, and exhibitions for which it is known.

People in the News

posted by CAA — Oct 17, 2011

People in the News lists new hires, positions, and promotions in three sections: Academe, Museums and Galleries, and Organizations and Publications. sftp://caaorg:@64.49.219.228/includes/membernews/bookspublished-2011-10.inc.php

The section is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.

October 2011

Academe

Alan C. Braddock, an art historian specializing in American art, has been promoted to the rank of associate professor in the Department of Art History at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Christopher M. Cassidy, an artist and associate professor of design at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, has been awarded tenure in his school’s Department of Art.

Jeff McMahon, a performance artist and writer, has received tenure and been promoted to associate professor in the School of Theatre and Film at the Herberger of for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University in Tempe. He will be on sabbatical for the 2011–12 academic year.

Adele E. Nelson, a writer and art historian specializing in the modern and contemporary art of Brazil, has been appointed a visiting assistant professor of art history at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, for the 2011–12 academic year.

Museums and Galleries

Margarita Aguilar, a senior specialist in Latin American art at Christie’s, has been appointed the director of El Museo del Barrio in New York. Aguilar worked in the curatorial department at El Museo from 1998 to 2006.

Wassan Al-Khudhairi, a specialist on contemporary art from the Arab world with an emphasis on Iraq and chief curator of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, has been named one of six joint artistic directors of the ninth Gwangju Biennal, taking place in 2012 in South Korea.

Elizabeth Brown has stepped down from her position as chief curator and director of exhibitions and collections of the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle. She was responsible for many innovative exhibitions over her ten-year tenure, including solo shows of work by Lari Pittman, Brian Jungen, Kiki Smith, Eirik Johnson, and William Kentridge.

Douglas Druick, a curator and department chair at the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois, has been named president and Eloise W. Martin Director of the museum. A member of the Department of Prints and Drawings since 1985, he joined the Department of Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture in 2006, leading both departments.

Natasha Egan, associate director and curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois, has been promoted to director. An eleven-year veteran of the museum, Egan hopes to amplify the visibility of the institution in her new position and to continue supporting international dialogue.

Paul Ha, director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in Missouri since 2002, has been appointed as the new director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, effective December 1, 2011.

Russell Lord, a scholar, curator, and writer, has been named the Freeman Family Curator of Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art in Louisiana. He will begin work on October 17, 2011.

Will South, chief curator of the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio, has been appointed the chief curator at the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina. He succeeds Todd Herman, who has become executive director of the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.

John R. Stomberg, formerly deputy director and chief curator at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has become the next Florence Finch Abbott Director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Kristina Van Dyke, curator for collections and research at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, has been named director of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in Saint Louis, Missouri, succeeding Matthias Waschek. She begins her new position on November 7, 2011.

Organizations and Publications

Holland Cotter, an insightful writer and recipient of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in criticism, has been named the co–chief art critic for the New York Times. He will share the position with his fellow critic at the newspaper, Roberta Smith.

Ofelia Garcia, an artist and professor of art at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, has been appointed chair of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, succeeding Sharon Burton Turner.

Deborah Solon, a renowned scholar, educator, and curator, has been named the West Coast director of American art at Heritage Auctions. A specialist in American Impressionism, she will work in the auction house’s office in Beverly Hills, California.

Institutional News

posted by CAA — Oct 17, 2011

Read about the latest news from institutional members.

Institutional News is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.

October 2011

Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore has received a $10 million endowment gift from a longtime trustee, George L. Bunting Jr., and his wife, Anne Bunting, which will help expand the school’s graduate studies by providing scholarships, supporting the creation of art, and acquiring technological resources for research. The gift will also fund robust programs of visiting artists, faculty–student research collaborations, and engagement with community partners.

The Morgan Library and Museum in New York has created a new Drawing Institute, which will present exhibitions, sponsor annual fellowships, host seminars, and organize public and academic programs. It will also collaborate with other institutions, sharing artworks and resources with the Menil Drawing Institute and Study Center in Houston, Texas, and the International Museum and Art Foundation Center for Drawings at the Courtauld Gallery in London, England. A Morgan trustee, Eugene V. Thaw, donated $5 million to begin the project.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, has received a gift from Fleur Bersler, an art patron and collector of textiles and objects of turned wood, to create an endowment to support a curatorial position at the museum. Nicholas R. Bell, curator at the museum’s Renwick Gallery, has been named the Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator of American Craft and Decorative Art.

Southern Methodist University has launched a new PhD program in the rhetoric of art, space, and culture, supervised by the Department of Art History in the Meadows School of the Arts. The new doctorate, which emphasizes historical and new media, race, gender, performance, and technology used for visual communication, will have a particular focus on the art of Latin America, Iberia, and the Americas, facilitated by the Meadows Museum, the Bridwell Library, and the DeGolyer Library.

The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio has received a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to design and facilitate postdoctoral fellowships targeted at cultivating museum leaders of the future. The program will combine interdisciplinary methods with curatorial studies. The program will accept three fellows, who will start each January from 2012 through 2014, for two-year terms that include annual pay, benefits, and compensated travel for research.

The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, has signed an international memorandum of cooperation with the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany. The agreement will include exhibition exchanges, professional-development opportunities for staff members, long terms loans of art, and discussions of best practices for museums.