CAA News Today

Report on the CAA International Travel Grant Program

posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — Apr 18, 2012

Janet Landay is project manager of the CAA International Travel Grant Program.

Last February, twenty art historians and curators from eighteen countries around the world attended the 2012 Annual Conference in Los Angeles through the CAA International Travel Grant Program, a new initiative that was generously funded by the Getty Foundation. For many grant recipients, this visit was their first to the United States, and for most of them it was their first time at the CAA conference.

By coincidence, on the conference’s opening day, the Los Angeles Convention Center held two swearing-in ceremonies for twenty thousand new citizens and their guests, welcoming people from several nations to the US. Indeed, the CAA group felt like a miniature United Nations, and it was equally moving to see colleagues arrive at the conference from countries around the world. Participants included: Ganna Rudyck (Ukraine), Irena Kossowska (Poland), Pavlina Morganová (Czech Republic), Dóra Sallay and Gyöngyvér Horváth (Hungary), Cristian Nae (Romania), Daniel Premerl (Croatia), Malvina Rousseva (Bulgaria), Salam Atta Sabri (Iraq), Angela Harutyunyan (Lebanon), Nadhra Shahbaz Naeem Khan (Pakistan), Parul Pandya Dhar (India), Jageth Weerasinghe (Sri Lanka), Shao-Chien Tseng (Taiwan), Olabisi Silva (Nigeria), Didier Houenoude (Benin), Jean Celestin Ky (Burkina Faso), Federico Freschi and Judy Peter (South Africa), and Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves (Brazil). Read more about the recipients, their home institutions, and their areas of interest.

The purpose of this initiative was to encourage greater participation from countries not well represented at CAA’s Annual Conference in order to bring a more diverse and global perspective to the study of art history. The Getty travel-grant participants, as they became known, were selected by a jury of CAA members from among 150 applicants based on three general criteria: all had to be professors of art history, artists who teach art history, or museum curators with advanced degrees in art or art history; they had to work in a country where art history is an emerging discipline; and they needed to explain how attending the conference would significantly support or strengthen their work.

To welcome the participants and to ensure that they got the most out of the conference’s abundant offerings, members of CAA’s International Committee and representatives from the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA) volunteered to act as hosts. CAA warmly thanks these members for their service as hosts: Ann Albritton, Frederick M. Asher (NCHA chair), Kathryn Brown, Nicola M. Courtright, Diane Derr, Stephanie Dickey, Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Paul B. Jaskot, Geraldine A. Johnson, Jennifer Milam (International Committee chair), Steven Nelson, Nada Shabout, and Beth A. Steffel.

This wonderful aspect of the program revolved around informal dinners, lunches, and drinks, in which both participants and hosts could trade stories and share information about the ins and outs of practicing art history in their respective countries. Two roundtable meetings brought everyone together to meet CAA staff, providing opportunities for assessment and reflection on the various aspects of the conference program. Equally stimulating were the friendships made among the participants, as they learned about each other and discovered shared interests and challenges. Now, nearly two months later, a number of grant recipients have already begun to collaborate on research and teaching projects, with ambitious plans in the works.

In the coming months, CAA will publish online interviews with several participants and report on their collaborative work as it unfolds. Stay tuned to future issues of CAA News for these special announcements.

Top image: Participants in the CAA International Travel Grant Programs (from left): Shao-Chien Tseng, Salam Atta Sabri, Olabisi Silva, Jean Celestin Ky, Pavlina Morganová, Dóra Sallay, Federico Freschi, Judy Peter, Didier Houenoude, Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves, Daniel Premerl, Angela Harutyunyan, Malvina Rousseva, Cristian Nae, Ganna Rudyck, Irena Kossowska, Parul Pandya Dhar, Jageth Weerasinghe, and Nadhra Shahbaz Naeem Khan; Gyöngyvér Horváth is not pictured (photograph by Katie Underwood and provided by the Getty Foundation)

Middle image: Ganna Rudyck from Ukraine introduces herself to fellow grant recipients (photograph by Bradley Marks)

Bottom image: Among the grant recipients were (from left): Shao-Chien Tseng from Taiwan, Didier Houenoude from Benin, and Jean Celestin Ky from Burkina Faso (photograph by Bradley Marks)

Filed under: Annual Conference, Grants and Fellowships, International, People in the News —

David Craven: In Memoriam

posted by CAA — Apr 03, 2012

The following obituary was compiled by the deceased’s family and submitted by Patricia Mathews, professor of art history at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, and a member of the CAA Board of Directors.

David Craven

David Lee Craven, distinguished professor of art history at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, passed away on February 11, 2012. He was 60 years old. Craven was beloved by all who knew him for his passionate dedication to writing, lecturing, and teaching art history. He is recognized by his peers as one of the most informed and incisive art historians in the world, a leading scholar in twentieth-century art from Latin America, post-1945 art in the United States, and the critical theory and methodology of art history and visual culture. His ten books and over 150 articles have appeared in twenty-five different countries and been translated into fifteen different languages. Craven’s close friend and fellow professor at the University of New Mexico, Susanne Baackmann, recalled his “generous spirit” and remembered that “his love for life and work, two concepts that were synonymous in his mind, was as intense as it was infectious.” He had taught at New Mexico since 1993 and was affiliated with the university’s Latin American and Iberian Institute.

Craven earned a PhD in art history from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1979, an MA degree in art history from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1974, and a BA in European history from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1972. Fluent in Spanish, German, and French, Craven gave lectures in universities and museums in the United States and internationally, traveling to Russia, Mexico, Spain, Germany, England, and France. His art-history books are respected as authoritative in the field, and many are popular with a general audience, such as the widely read Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910–1990 (2002), which was nominated for a 2004 Mitchell Prize. His other books include Diego Rivera as Epic Modernist (1997); The New Concept of Art and Popular Culture in Nicaragua since the Revolution in 1979 (1989); Poetics and Politics in the Life of Rudolf Baranik (1997); and Abstract Expressionism as Cultural Critique: Dissent during the McCarthy Period (1999). He recently edited Dialectical Conversions: Donald Kuspit’s Art Criticism (2011) with Brian Winkenweder.

Among the many awards and recognitions Craven received during his long teaching career are a Medal for Excellence from the state of New York in 1991 for his work at Cortland College at the State University of New York, and a Faculty Acknowledgement Award at the University of New Mexico in 2003. In 2007 he was chosen to be the Rudolf Arnheim Professor at Humboldt University in Berlin. Craven won more than fifteen major national and international grants and fellowships from numerous organizations, such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ministerio de Cultura de Espana, and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes de Mexico. His work on Latin and Central American art has earned him the praise of Ernesto Cardenal Martínez, Nicaragua’s minister of culture from 1979 to 1987.

Craven was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, on March 22, 1951, to Peggy and Albert Craven. He lived with his family in Houston, Texas, before moving to Oxford, Mississippi, where his father taught at the University of Mississippi. Craven’s parents encouraged his early interest in art, and he began taking art classes in fourth grade. A gifted athlete, Craven was the star quarterback for the Oxford High School football team and won MVP honors in the 1969 season. He also brought his high school’s basketball team into the state championship.

Craven was preceded in death by his father Albert Craven; his sisters Anita and Peggy Melinda; and his brother Jonathon. He is survived by his mother Peggy Craven; his sister Laura Duncan and her husband Lee, and a niece and nephew, Caroline and Lee Duncan; his brother Brian Craven and his wife Pam and nephews Jonathon, Allen, and Mark Craven; his brother Paul Craven; his niece Edy Dingus and nephew Charles Dingus, and nephew John Phillip Dingus, as well as his dear friends Susanne Baackmann and Hannah Baackmann-Friedlander of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Filed under: Obituaries —

THE STATE OF CAA: A REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

posted by Linda Downs — Mar 21, 2012

2012 Annual Conference

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)

The 100th CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles, held February 22–25, 2012, was a great success with over five thousand attendees, two hundred sessions addressing topics from ancient art to contemporary criticism, a sold-out Book and Trade Fair with more than 120 exhibitors, and a plethora of exciting events throughout southern California. The timing of the conference happily coincided with Pacific Standard Time, a large group of exhibitions and programs focused on modern and contemporary art made in the region, sponsored by the Getty Foundation and involving sixty public institutions and many commercial galleries. California Design, 1930–1965: “Living in a Modern Way” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was an eye-opener to place so many familiar modern designs in their original West Coast context.

The atmosphere throughout the conference was collegial and extremely positive. Maybe it was the delicious LA sunshine, or perhaps it was due in part to the presence of over ten thousand new citizens who appeared on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center for a naturalization ceremony at the start of CAA’s conference. Citizenship, something many of us take for granted, was visibly cherished on their proud faces.

Graduate Public Practice from the Otis College of Art and Design presented “Re/Locating Learning: Public Practices as Art” (photograph by Christopher Howard)

Special Centennial Sessions were organized by a committee under the chairmanship of Ruth Weisberg, an artist and former CAA board president and former dean of the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California. One of the highlights of these sessions was “Re/Locating Learning: Public Practices in Art,” presented by Suzanne Lacy, an artist and chair of public practice at Otis College of Art and Design, in which members discussed new approaches to academic teaching and ways to engage the public over the conference’s full four days.

A new presentation technique debuted in “Hot Problems/Cool Solutions in Arts Leadership,” a session organized by the National Council of Arts Administrators in which twelve panelists—in extremely short presentations—proposed solutions ranging from administrative issues such as how to write ninety letters of recommendation in one semester (don’t do it unless they are serious job candidates) or how to be kind in academic interactions for productive and cooperative faculty outcomes.

Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, spoke at the 2012 Centennial Convocation (photograph by Bradley Marks)

The conference featured two excellent keynote addresses. Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, spoke at Convocation. Stating that only two newspapers in the United States employ full-time art critics, Landesman presented a new grassroots initiative entitled Knight/NEA Community Arts Journalism Challenge that is fostering art criticism in four cities. This new program provides unique partnerships to expand arts journalism that both informs and engages audiences. April Greiman, a prominent international designer, presented her work at the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, including a gigantic mural in Koreatown in Los Angeles and the design of Miracle Manor Retreat, an intimate hot-springs motel on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park.

The Service to Artists Committee, chaired by Jackie Apple, professor of art at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, organized a vast number of programs through ARTspace, including the Media Lounge, ARTexchange, and performance pieces that engaged attendees and the general public alike.

Some of the most packed sessions included the Distinguished Scholar Session, in which Rosalind Krauss’s work was both lauded and critiqued; the Annual Artists’ Interviews with Mary Kelly and Martin Kersels; “‘Your Labels Make Me Feel Stupid’: Museum Labels as Art Historical Practice,” organized by the Association of Art Museum Curators; the performance works inside and outside the convention center; and sessions devoted to the fortieth anniversary of the beginning of feminism.

The art historian Benjamin H. D. Buchloh participated in the 2012 Distinguished Scholar Session honoring Rosalind Krauss (photograph by Bradley Marks)

CAA’s Committee on Intellectual Property presented critical information on copyright and fair use in its session. The group has also reviewed intellectual-property information on the CAA website and will soon publicly post the revised pages.

New publishing platforms and online resources were presented at a session organized by the artist Tara McPherson, called “Art History Meets the Digital Age,” in which new multimedia platforms for publishing were presented following a hands-on workshop that introduced thirty CAA members to the Scalar platform. CAA will use Scalar in demonstration projects in the coming months developed by The Art Bulletin and caa.reviews.

Celebrating the conclusion of CAA’s Centennial year, Susan Ball, former CAA executive director and interim director of programs at the New York Foundation for the Arts, led a panel of five of the fourteen authors who contributed to the recent book on CAA’s history, The Eye, The Hand, The Mind: 100 Years of the College Art Association (New York: College Art Association; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011). The group discussed their revelations about watershed moments and movements in the history of the organization, including characterizations of the differing cultures of the journals and the historical ups and downs of the association. In the former category, the development of visual resources for teaching, advocacy, and the influence of feminism on the structure of the conference were cited. The latter category includes the unfortunate split between CAA and the Society of Architectural Historians in 1940.

CAA gained insights into issues that are of critical importance to members at the two speak-out sessions organized by Anne Collins Goodyear, incoming president of the Board of Directors, and the town-hall meeting organized by Margaret Lazzari, a professor in the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California. A separate article will be devoted to the topics raised at these sessions. A predominant theme was contingent faculty concerns—from course loads to the need to teach a wide breadth of courses.

Three recipients of the Getty Foundation International Travel Grant: Shao-Chien Tseng from National Central University in Taiwan; Didier Houenoude of the Université d’Abomey-Calavi in Benin; and Jean Celestin Ky from the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (photograph by Bradley Marks)

The Getty Foundation awarded CAA a generous grant to organize the CAA International Travel Grant Program, which supported the selection of twenty international art historians from eighteen countries to attend the conference. The grantees were hosted by experienced members of CAA’s International Committee and by representatives from the National Committee for the History of Art. For all but two recipients, the conference was their first introduction to CAA apart from reading the journals. The grant recipients attended sessions, were introduced to fellow CAA members by their hosts, explored the museums and collections in the Los Angeles area, and also carried out independent research. As a result, CAA’s membership now represents almost seventy countries. This program is part of an ongoing effort to provide a wider network of international members, to assess their needs and interests, and to provide an integrated network for the exchange of ideas, research, and creative projects.

Governance

The artist and designer April Greiman spoke at the Annual Members’ Business Meeting (photograph by Bradley Marks)

At the Annual Members’ Business Meeting, Barbara Nesin, the current board president, announced the new board members: Suzanne Preston Blier, Harvard University; Stephanie D’Alessandro, Art Institute of Chicago; Gail Feigenbaum, Getty Research Institute; and Charles A. Wright, Western Illinois University. Teresa López, CAA chief financial officer, then presented a balanced budget. Anyone interested in receiving a copy of CAA’s fiscal year 2011 audit may email López. Nesin reiterated her aspirations for the organization to have greater inclusivity and responsiveness to its members. She also mentioned her commitment to sustainability and communication.

The full Board of Directors met on Sunday, February 26. The most significant action items included the results of a review of three of the nine Professional Interests, Practices, and Standards Committees: the International Committee, the Services to Artists Committee, and the Committee on Women in the Arts. The board commended all three groups for their outstanding work this year.

The election of officers to the board included Patricia McDonnell for a second term as vice president for external affairs; Jacqueline Francis as vice president for Annual Conference; Randall C. Griffin for a second term as vice president for publications; DeWitt Godfrey as the new vice president for committees; and Maria Ann Conelli as secretary.

The board then passed a resolution to revise the Procedures for Task Forces. The revision added the step of the Executive Committee’s review and prioritization of all proposals for task forces before presentation and adoption by the board. Nesin extended thanks to two members who are rotating off the board after four years of dedicated service: Jay Coogan, president of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design; and Judith Thorpe, professor of art and head of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Connecticut.

Chris Sundt, a former board member, the editor of the journal Visual Resources, and current cochair of the Committee on Intellectual Property, presented the newly drafted Visual Resources Association: Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study. She presented the history of CAA’s involvement in fair-use issues and explained how the Visual Resources Association statement can clarify how best to use visual resources in the classroom. The board also reviewed the Association of Research Libraries’ newly drafted Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, which addresses fair use of visual resources in libraries. The board unanimously adopted both statements.

Looking Forward

Three dedicated leaders who have served as president of the CAA Board of Directors: Paul B. Jaskot, Barbara Nesin, and Nicola M. Courtright (photograph by Bradley Marks)

This Centennial year was a time of reflection for CAA. Hundreds of members participated in delving into the organization’s history and evaluating its present state and possible future. Please see the Centennial Case Statement for the projects and publications that resulted from these investigations.

CAA has changed enormously since its founding in 1911, from a handful of art professors who saw the need to advocate for visual-arts curricula in higher education to its current 14,000 members from over seventy countries. CAA has held to its mission and focus of advocacy, providing a platform for new research and creative expression, job placement, best practices, standards and guidelines, and a place to network with like-minded and not-so-like-minded professionals in the field.

The future for CAA holds a greater use of technology for conferences, publications, and member networking. Under the leadership of Goodyear, incoming board president, the Task Force on Annual Conference Technology will explore ways of extending the conference and increasing member interaction. A consultant from Chain Bridge Group, Raym Crow, has been hired to work with the board, the Publications Committee, and CAA staff to analyze the risk and rewards of developing online versions of The Art Bulletin and Art Journal. Also under consideration is the challenge to find a business model for open access to caa.reviews and an investigation in developing a business model for practical publications. And various networking systems are being explored for future use.

CAA will also have a greater focus on advocacy for the visual arts in the academic and public spheres. As James Leach, chairman of the National Endowment of the Humanities, stated in his Convocation address at the 2011 Annual Conference in New York, it is essential to address not only the intrinsic value of the visual arts, but also its importance to American business and national security. Knowledge and exchange of creative ideas, international cultures, languages, and history are essential to international understanding and security. He addressed the decades-long trend in higher education on the concept of profit-centers and focusing on only those majors that return profits by satisfying the “customer” (student). He warned us of the problems of using reasonable math to determine curriculum instead of emphasizing the intrinsic educational value of the subject. It is time to build defenses of the arts and humanities in universities as well as in the public sphere.

CAA’s Centennial year has deepened the knowledge of our field by reflecting on its history, the current status of the visual arts, and the need to put even more effort into advocating for art and art history in academia and in the public sector. Thank you to the hundreds of members who researched CAA’s history and analyzed its many facets, and who continue to lend their expertise to the future of the field.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Features —

Dear Colleague Letter in Support of the NEA and NEH

posted by Linda Downs — Mar 20, 2012

US Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) is circulating a Dear Colleague letter that requests funding for the National Endowment for the Art and the National Endowment for the Humanities for fiscal year 2013, as requested in President Barack Obama’s federal budget. CAA encourages you to contact your senators, asking them to sign the letter.

NEA/NEH FY13 Letter to Appropriators

This letter requests funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at the level requested in the President’s budget, which is $154 million for each endowment. This is the same level included in the Senate’s FY12 Interior Appropriations mark. More details below:

The FY12 President’s Request – $146.255 million for each endowment
The FY12 Enacted – $146.255 million
FY12 Senate mark – $154 million
The FY13 President’s Request – $154 million

Staff Contact: Jeanette Lukens, Jeanette_lukens@tomudall.senate.gov.

Deadline for Signatures is COB Monday March 26th.

Dear Colleague Letter

March 27, 2012

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye
Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Capitol, S-128
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Jack Reed
Chairman
Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies
SD-131
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Thad Cochran
Vice Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Capitol, S-128
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Lisa Murkowski
Ranking Member
Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies
SH-125
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Chairman Inouye, Vice Chairman Cochran, Chairman Reed, and Ranking Member Murkowski:

We write to express appreciation for your continued support of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and to urge you to support the President’s funding request for the endowments as outlined in his Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal. As our nation grapples with economic uncertainty, federal support for the arts and humanities is a vital economic, educational, and cultural priority that impacts communities across the United States.

The NEH is the primary source of federal support for humanities research and related activities in the United States. It provides support for professional development to scholars, educators, curators, librarians, historians, filmmakers, and more. Through the endowment’s efforts, heritage is preserved, civic institutions are strengthened, and Americans are better prepared to address the challenges in a constantly changing world. In addition to appropriated funding, the NEH is able to leverage significant, non-federal contributions through competitive grant awards, with direct matching totaling more than $2 billion over the last few decades.

Federal funding for the NEH includes support for state humanities councils who work in partnership with the endowment to reach millions of Americans each year through teacher institutes, family literacy programs, and thousands of other programs. With this extensive network of state humanities councils and general NEH programming, the endowment reaches every state and territory across the nation.

For over 40 years, the NEA has provided strategic leadership and investment in the arts and has proudly expanded arts activity across the nation with the mission “to bring arts to every American.” For every one dollar spent on federal arts initiatives there are eight non-federal dollars leveraged while at the same time children and communities are enriched through access to the arts that they might not otherwise have.

Federal funding for the NEA acts as seed money that generates massive economic return with the non-profit arts industry generating $166.2 billion annually in economic activity and supporting 5.7 million full-time jobs. Additionally, the federal government enjoys a direct return of $12.6 billion in income taxes, as well as the indirect benefit of improved education, community development, and increased business activity across the country.

The President’s requested funding for FY13 for the NEA will help the endowment maintain its extremely successful programs, including The Big Read, Our Town, Challenge America, The Mayor’s Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative, Blue Star Museums, Shakespeare in American Communities, and Operation Homecoming. In FY11, the NEA awarded over $124 million in appropriated funds through just over 2,400 grants reaching all 435 congressional districts.

Thanks to your leadership, the NEH and NEA continue to play a vital role in every state. We urge you to continue to support federal funding of the arts and humanities in FY13 by adopting the President’s request level for both endowments in your final appropriations legislation. We appreciate your attention to this vital funding, and look forward to working with you on this and the other important issues facing our nation.

Filed under: Advocacy — Tags: Government and Politics, Government Funding for the Arts and Humanities —

CAA Salutes Donors in the Annual Acknowledgments

posted by Nia Page — Mar 15, 2012

Since membership fees cover less than half of CAA’s operating costs, voluntary contributions from members significantly help to facilitate the wide range of programs and services that the organization offers. In the Acknowledgments section of its website, CAA recognizes the distinguished contributors for each of the following in calendar year 2011:

The Centennial Campaign celebrates CAA’s one hundredth anniversary, a celebratory landmark for any organization but particularly so for CAA given its dynamic influence in shaping the study and practice of the visual arts
The Donors Circle of Patron, Sponsoring, and Sustaining Members includes individuals who contribute to CAA above and beyond their regular dues
Life Members are individuals who make one-time payments of $5,000 and remain active CAA members for life
The Art Bulletin Publication Fund supports the production of CAA’s preeminent scholarly journal covering all areas and periods of art history
The Art Journal Publication Fund supports the production of CAA’s cutting-edge quarterly of contemporary art and ideas
The caa.reviews Publication Fund supports the production of CAA’s online journal devoted to critical reviews of books, exhibitions, and projects in all areas and periods of art history and visual studies
The Annual Conference Travel Grants help cover expenses for graduate students in art history and studio art, and for international artists and scholars, who attend the CAA Annual Conference

CAA offers additional ways to contribute to the organization. Through Planned Giving, you can include CAA in your will. You can also purchase Benefit Prints by the artists Willie Cole and Buzz Spector or a collection of Art Journal Artists’ Projects by Barbara Bloom, Clifton Meador, Mary Lum, and William Pope.L. For general inquiries on CAA’s campaigns and funds, please contact Hannah O’Reilly Malyn, CAA development associate, at 212-392-4435.

Filed under: Acknowledgments, Art Bulletin, Art Journal, caa.reviews, Centennial, Membership, People in the News, Publications —

Affiliated Society News for March 2012

posted by CAA — Mar 09, 2012

American Institute for Conservation

Registration is open for the next annual meeting of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), taking place from May 8 to 11, 2012, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Help AIC celebrate its fortieth anniversary and be a part of the lively discussions surrounding the theme of “Connecting to Conservation: Outreach and Advocacy,” an exploration of how conservation connects with allied professionals, the press, clients, and the general public.

Art, Literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence

Art, Literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence (ALMSD) will present its second conference, “The Symbolist Movement: Its Origins and Its Consequences,” from April 25 to 28, 2012, at Allerton Park in Monticello, Illinois. For the keynote address, Liana De Girolami Cheney will deliver a paper titled “Edward Burne-Jones’s The Sirens: Magical Whispers.” You can register, reserve a room, and learn more about the historic Allerton Park and Retreat Center online.

ALMSD is accepting news from scholars whose work focuses on the Symbolist movement for its annual newsletter. Please submit the your items to Rosina Neginsky.

Association of Academic Museums and Galleries

The Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) welcomes two new board members. James Rosengren, deputy director of the University of Houston’s Blaffer Art Museum in Texas, begins his first term as a board member at large; and Susan Longhenry, director of the University of New Mexico’s Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, begins her first term as the Mountain–Plains regional representative. Both new board members bring extensive academic leadership experience, along with expertise in business and education, to AAMG.

Registration is still open for the AAMG annual conference, “Tools of Engagement: Securing Commitment on Campus,” to be held on April 28, 2012, at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, a day before the start of the American Association of Museums’ annual meeting. Through the presentation of outstanding case studies, thoughtful papers, and lively roundtable discussions, the AAMG conference will explore various creative strategies for negotiating with, and advocating value to, parent institutions. You may preview the conference schedule and register online. The deadline for registration is April 7, 2012.

Association of Historians of American Art

The Association of Historians of American Art (AHAA) has announced its new chair and members. Jenny Carson, Maryland Institute of Art, chair, 2012–13; Sarah E. Kelly, Art Institute of Chicago, cochair, 2012–13; and Katherine Smith, Agnes Scott College, sessions coordinator, 2012–15.

Save the date for the second AHAA symposium, “American Art: The Academy, Museums, and the Market,” to be held October 11–13, 2012, and hosted by the Boston Athenaeum and Boston University in Massachusetts. For more information, please contact the symposium cochairs, David Dearinger and Melissa Renn.

AHAA wishes to sponsor a two-and-a-half-hour scholarly session at the 2014 CAA Annual Conference in Chicago. Please review the submission guidelines before sending your proposal. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2012.

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

The Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA) began 2012 with especially good tidings. In the final days of December, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the organization a grant of $49,800 in support of its scholarly electronic journal, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide. Specifically, the funds will enhance the journal’s already innovative use of digital technology. Over the next three years, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide will have the means to support new approaches to digital research for contributing authors and to publish articles with enriched media content, such as computer graphics, architectural modeling, and streaming video. The Mellon award recognizes the journal not only as a leading venue for research on nineteenth-century art, but also for its standard-setting determination to make online scholarship free and available to anyone with internet access. The managing editor, Petra ten-Doesschate Chu of Seton Hall University, anticipates sponsoring at least six articles that involve enhanced digital research or digital presentation through the grant. A key contributor to the initiative is Emily Pugh, the journal’s web designer and developer. Scholars of nineteenth-century art who believe their work engages digital scholarship in an innovative way and who might be interested in participating in this pilot project should contact Chu.

Foundations in Art: Theory and Education

Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE) will hold its national biennial conference at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia from April 3 to 6, 2013. Titled “postHaus,” the conference has a theme of “Instructing, Constructing, and Connecting with Students in the Twenty-First Century.” Each FATE biennial conference attracts a fantastic group of first-year studio professors and instructors from two- and four-year colleges across the United States and internationally. For “postHaus,” FATE seeks to expand its reach. Topics for session proposals can include but are not limited to: innovations in studio courses; curriculum development; approaches to art history; liberal-arts instruction; the importance of research librarians; and the vital role of lab technicians. The deadline for proposals is March 16, 2012.

Historians of German and Central European Art and Architecture

The Historians of German and Central European Art and Architecture (HGCEA) has a new redesigned website. With a banner of six images on the homepage, the site now features many links to resources, including research and grant opportunities, databases, calls for papers, and websites of other institutions and journals. It also includes a membership directory, archives of its CAA Annual Conference sessions since 2005, and a list of member publications.

Historians of British Art

The Historians of British Art (HBA) has announced its 2011 awards for the three best books on British art and architecture. All three titles were published by Yale University Press. Chaired by Elizabeth Honig, associate professor of art history at the University of California, Berkeley, the HBA committee has selected Celina Fox’s The Arts of Industry in the Age of Enlightenment (2010) as the best in the category of single-author book on a pre-1800 subject, and Morna O’Neill’s Walter Crane: The Arts and Crafts, Painting, and Politics, 1875–1890 (2010) in the category of single-author book on a post-1800 subject. In the category of edited/multiauthor book on a subject of any period, the award goes to Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance (2010), edited by Cassandra Albinson, Peter Funnell, and Lucy Peltz. “We congratulate all of the winners,” says HBA president Peter Trippi, “and we warmly encourage our members and colleagues to acquire these superb titles for their own libraries.”

Historians of Netherlandish Art

The Historians of Netherlandish Art (HNA) has elected three new board members: Lloyd DeWitt, curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; Paul Crenshaw, associate professor of art history at Providence College in Rhode Island; and Martha Hollander, associate professor of art history at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

The organization has awarded its 2012 HNA Fellowships for Scholarly Research, Publication, and Travel to aid the publication of the following four books: Natasha T. Seaman, The Religious Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen: Reinventing Christian Painting after the Reformation in Utrecht (Ashgate); Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, In the Footsteps of Christ: Hans Memling’s Passion Narratives and the Devotional Imagination in the Early Modern Netherlands (Brepols); Anna C. Knaap, Rubens and the Antwerp Jesuit Church: Art, Rhetoric, and Devotion (Brepols); and Elizabeth A. Sutton, Early Modern Dutch Prints of Africa (Ashgate).

Historians of Islamic Art Association

The Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA) have established the Oleg Grabar Memorial Fund in support of the annual award of Grabar Grants and Fellowships.

HIAA has announced full program details for its third biennial symposium, to be hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from October 18 to 20, 2012. The symposium’s theme is “Looking Widely, Looking Closely.”

International Association of Word and Image Studies

The International Association of Word and Image Studies (IAWIS/AIERTI) seeks proposals for “From the Wall, to the Press, to the Streets,” its session for CAA’s 101st Annual Conference in New York, taking place February 13–16, 2013. IAWIS/AIERTI invites reflections on contemporary art practices that occur outside the traditional framework of the gallery or museum space. Topics to consider include: public art rhetoric (how language challenges elitist/populist divides); working around the frame (spatial transgression as institutional critique); art’s new open-access sites (the internet and social networks); and institutional responses (marketing and copyright laws). Please submit proposals and CV to Eve Kalyva and Ignaz Cassar by June 1, 2012. IAWIS/AIERTI membership is not required.

Italian Art Society

The Italian Art Society (IAS) has named Debra Pincus as the speaker of the third annual Italian Art Society–Kress Foundation Lecture Series in Italy, being held in Venice on June 6, 2012. Pincus will speak on “The Lure of the Letter: Renaissance Venice and the Recovery of Antique Writing” at the Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti, seat of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti.

IAS would like to congratulate the 2012 recipients of the IAS/Kress Foundation Travel Grants for American or foreign scholars traveling from abroad to present papers in IAS-sponsored sessions: Michele Luigi Vescovi, for “Defining Territories and Borders in Italian Romanesque Architecture: Regions, Sub-regions, Meta-regions” at the CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles; Daniele Rivoletti, for “Pinturicchio’s Coronation of Pius III: The Interests of a Family in a Republican Context” at the Renaissance Society of America; and Christine Ungruh for “Kairo: On the Efficacy of a Classical Motif in Italian Medieval Art” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo.

IAS is sponsoring one individual and three linked sessions at the Renaissance Society of America’s 2012 annual meeting, taking place in Washington, DC, from March 22 to 24, 2012.

Mid-America College Art Association

Save the date for the Mid-America College Art Association (MACAA) biannual conference: October 3–6, 2012, in Detroit, Michigan. The James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University will host the event. Programming will include three featured speakers; panel presentations in art, design, art history, and visual resources; studio workshops; MACAA member exhibitions; and museum visits. The conference will have two content areas, “Meaning and Making” and “Community and Collaboration.” Read more about on MACAA membership, conference registration and accommodations, and submission guidelines for papers. The deadline for submission proposals is April 10, 2012. For further information, please email the conference coordinator.

Midwest Art History Society

Attend the thirty-ninth annual conference of the Midwest Art History Society (MAHS) in Wichita, Kansas, from March 29 to 31, 2012. Papers on topics ranging from art history to modern film to collecting Asian art will be presented on the Wichita State University campus and at the Wichita Art Museum. The keynote address will be delivered by Marilyn Stokstad, Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor Emerita of Art History at the University of Kansas and the acclaimed author of Art History (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010), a widely used textbook in American colleges. Her topic will be “Art Patronage in a Civil Society.” Please visit the MAHS website to register for the conference and to review the schedule of events.

National Council of Arts Administrators

The National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA) will hold its annual conference, “Granting Permission,” at Ohio State University in Columbus on November 7–10, 2012. Sergio Soave, art chair at Ohio State, is creating an ambitious and lively schedule of events that will include an administrator’s workshop, tours of the Wexner Center for the Arts, cultural walks in Columbus, and much more. The NCAA board seeks proposals for presentations, sessions, and/or panels for the annual Arts Administrators Workshops, taking place on November 7. Topics might include but are not limited to: leadership and management; promotion and tenure; interpersonal communication; budget management, personnel evaluation, and growth; career paths; and case studies related to arts administration. Proposals and inquiries should be sent to Jim Hopfensperger, NCAA president. Initial proposals of no more than 350 words are due by May 21, 2012. Selected entries will be notified by June 20.

NCAA sends many thanks to all who participated in the organization’s activities at the CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. The annual reception was extremely well attended, and the “More Hot Problems/Cool Solutions in Arts Leadership” session drew enthusiastic responses for its innovative and unusual solutions to challenges in arts leadership.

Society for Photographic Education

The Society for Photographic Education (SPE) will hold its forty-ninth national conference, “Intimacy and Voyeurism: The Public/Private Divide in Photography” from March 22 to 25, 2012, in San Francisco, California. The keynote speaker is the acclaimed photographer Sally Mann; other featured speakers include Trevor Paglen, Sharon Olds, and Sandra S. Phillips, senior curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. You need not be an SPE member to register for the conference, but membership offers a reduced ticket price. In addition, a discounted conference rate is available for student volunteers.

The fiftieth SPE national conference will be held March 7–10, 2013, in Chicago, Illinois.

Society of Architectural Historians

The sixty-fifth annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) will be held in Detroit, Michigan, from April 18 to 22, 2012. Topics under discussion include rebuilding Detroit, midcentury modern design, historic preservation, and the legacy of the automobile industry. Information on conference registration, hotel accommodation, and travel has been published online.

SAH invited CAA members to participate in an upcoming SAH study tour of Saxony, Germany, from July 12 to 25, 2012. As an exclusive offer for CAA members, the SAH membership requirement to participate in this tour will be waived. Led by the renowned scholar of German architecture, Juergen Paul, the tour will survey sites ranging from late Romanesque to modern and include religious and secular buildings, the Bauhaus, landscapes, and gardens. The tour will begin in Berlin and visit the following cities: Dessau, Gorlitz, Leipzig, Grimmer, Cowlitz, Wechselburg, Kriebstein, Lichtenwalde, Agustusburg, Annaberg, Marienberg, Freiberg, Dresden, Bautzen, Lobau, Gorlitz, Wermsdorf, Torgau, and Wittenberg. The deadline for tour registration is May 4, 2012. Please review the website for the tour itinerary and pricing; Study Tour Fellowships are also available to current full-time MA and PhD students and to emerging professionals who have received their degree between 2007 and 2011.

Southeastern College Art Conference

The sixty-eighth annual meeting of the Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), hosted by Meredith College, will be held in historic Durham, North Carolina, from October 17 to 20, 2012. SECAC membership is required to attend and to participate in the conference; registration will open on August 1, 2012. Please visit the website for registration fees, travel and accommodation details, and local information on Durham. The deadline for submitting proposals for papers is April 20, 2012. Current SECAC members are eligible to apply for the SECAC Artist’s Fellowship, a grant of $5,000 to be made to an individual or a group of artists working on a specific project. The postmark deadline is August 1, 2012, and the winner will be announced at the conference in October. Questions? Please contact Beth Mulvaney, conference chair for SECAC 2012.

Filed under: Affiliated Societies —

Affiliated Society News for January 2012

posted by CAA — Jan 09, 2012

American Council for Southern Asian Art

The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) held its fifteenth biennial symposium from September 22 to 25, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A report of the proceedings is available online.

Association of Academic Museums and Galleries

Registration has opened for the annual conference of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), to be held April 28, 2012, at the Weisman Art Museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Titled “Tools of Engagement: Securing Commitment on Campus,” the event will focus on positive strategies for getting the buy-in needed from our faculty, academic administrators, presidents, and other campus stakeholders.

In addition, AAMG has recently been granted 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service. This status will allow the organization the opportunity to gain access to new funding sources in order to execute its mission to establish and support best practices, educational activities, and professional development, enabling member organizations to fulfill their educational missions.

Association of Historians of American Art

The Association of Historians of American Art (AHAA) is sponsoring two sessions at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. The professional session, “Ideology, Industry, and Instinct: The Art of Labor,” cochaired by Wendy Katz and Brandon Rudd, is scheduled for Friday, February 24, 2012, 12:30–2:00 PM, Concourse Meeting Room 402AB at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The scholarly session, “American Symbolism,” chaired by Erika Schneider, will take place on Saturday, February 25, 2012, 9:30 AM–NOON, West Hall Meeting Room 502A. Following this session, the AHAA business meeting will be held 12:30 PM–2:00 PM in the Concourse Meeting Room 408B. Light refreshments will be served. All members and other interested parties are invited to attend these events.

Save the date for the second AHAA symposium, “American Art: The Academy, Museums, and the Market,” to be held October 12–13, 2012, hosted by the Boston Athenaeum and Boston University in Massachusetts. For more information, contact the symposium cochairs: David Dearinger and Melissa Renn.

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

The Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA) will sponsor several activities at the 2012 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Scott Allan, assistant curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, will moderate the annual “Future Directions” panel on Thursday, February 23, 12:30–2:00 PM in the Concourse Meeting Room 402AB at the Los Angeles Convention Center. David O’Brien of the University of Illinois will chair AHNCA’s main session, the two-part “Civilization and Its Others in Nineteenth-Century Art,” taking place on Thursday, February 23, and Saturday, February 25. Finally, AHNCA’s annual business meeting will take place on Thursday, February 23, at 5:30 PM in Concourse Meeting Room 402AB.

In addition, AHNCA invites its members to attend a free private tour of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena on Wednesday, February 22. The curator Leah Lehmbeck will present highlights and rarely exhibited holdings from the museum’s collection. The visit will conclude with a reception generously hosted by the Norton Simon. There is no cost for AHNCA members, but space is limited. To reserve your place, please contact Elizabeth Mansfield. Deadline: January 15, 2012