CAA News Today
NEA AND SMITHSONIAN BENEFIT FROM ECONOMIC-RECOVERY BILL
posted by Christopher Howard — Feb 19, 2009
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed by Congress late last week. The $787 billion stimulus bill includes considerable appropriations for the National Endowment for the Arts ($50 million for a federal agency with a $245 million budget for the current fiscal year) and Smithsonian Institution ($25 million, but cut from the House’s original request of $150 million). Language that, in the Senate version of the act, would have excluded museums, theaters, and arts centers from receiving federal funds was removed from the final legislation.
Casey Selix and Cynthia Dizikes of MinnPost.com report:
According to the bill, the NEA money is “to be distributed in direct grants to fund arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the non-profit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.” Forty percent of the money is to be distributed to state arts agencies and regional arts councils . . . and 60 percent for “competitively selected projects.”
Helen Stoilas from the Art Newspaper and Robin Pogrebin at the New York Times have also reported on the arts portion of the stimulus bill.
In a press release from last week, Americans for the Arts argued that 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences generate $166.2 billion annually in US economic activity, supporting 5.7 million jobs and providing nearly $30 billion in government revenue. While politicians debated the merits of including the arts in the economic-recovery package, some stood firm. On the House floor last Friday, Congressman David Obey (D-WI) stated: “There are five million people who work in the arts industry. And right now they have 12.5 percent unemployment—or are you suggesting that somehow if you work in that field, it isn’t real when you lose your job, your mortgage, or your health insurance? We’re trying to treat people who work in the arts the same way as anybody else.”
The New York Times has published a full breakdown of the $787 billion, although arts and education funding don’t appear in standalone categories. However, Doug Lederman at Inside Higher Ed once again lists higher-education allotments in the House and Senate bills, as well as amounts in the final compromise that was approved by President Obama.
While groups like Americans for the Arts and CAA applaud the provisions for art and education in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, others point out larger issues. In the Wall Street Journal, Greg Sandow writes that “Fifty million dollars . . . is just a bubble on a wave” and feels that arguments about the economic value of the arts need closer examination. Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes also casts a skeptical eye on the NEA funding, suggesting that people in the arts should “join Washington’s think-tank culture . . . to develop new ideas about how government should be involved in the arts (and not just in one little agency, but across the federal apparatus).”
NEA Names New Acting Chairman
posted by Christopher Howard — Feb 03, 2009
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced yesterday the appointment of Patrice Walker Powell as acting chairman. In this position, she will provide oversight for agency grantmaking and day-to-day agency operations and supervise administrative activities. She assumed the role on January 29.
In 2008, Powell was appointed deputy chairman for states, regions, and local arts agencies. In that role, she was responsible for managing the agency’s grants and special projects involving a national network of governmental and nonprofit partners; small grant programs such as Challenge America Fast-Track; and the NEA’s AccessAbility activities that are also carried out in conjunction with state and regional organizations. Powell has been a staff member at the NEA since 1991.
In addition, Anita Decker was appointed by the White House as NEA director of government affairs effective February 4. In this role she manages the endowment’ relations with Congress and the White House, international and federal partnership programs, and the operations of the National Council on the Arts. Previously, Decker was on the staff of President Barack Obama’s election campaign.
NEA NAMES NEW ACTING CHAIRMAN
posted by Christopher Howard — Feb 03, 2009
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced yesterday the appointment of Patrice Walker Powell as acting chairman. In this position, she will provide oversight for agency grantmaking and day-to-day agency operations and supervise administrative activities. She assumed the role on January 29.
In 2008, Powell was appointed deputy chairman for states, regions, and local arts agencies. In that role, she was responsible for managing the agency’s grants and special projects involving a national network of governmental and nonprofit partners; small grant programs such as Challenge America Fast-Track; and the NEA’s AccessAbility activities that are also carried out in conjunction with state and regional organizations. Powell has been a staff member at the NEA since 1991.
In addition, Anita Decker was appointed by the White House as NEA director of government affairs effective February 4. In this role she manages the endowment’ relations with Congress and the White House, international and federal partnership programs, and the operations of the National Council on the Arts. Previously, Decker was on the staff of President Barack Obama’s election campaign.
Meiss Grant Seeks Jury Member
posted by CAA — Jan 20, 2009
CAA seeks nominations and self-nominations for an individual to serve on the Millard Meiss Publication Fund Jury for a four-year term, July 1, 2009–June 30, 2013. Applicants with expertise in East Asian art, African, or twentieth-century art, or in the history of photography, are especially invited to apply.
The jury awards grants that subsidize the publication of book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art and related subjects. It reviews manuscripts and grant applications twice a year and meets in New York in the spring and fall to select awardees. CAA reimburses committee members for travel and lodging expenses in accordance with its travel policy. For more information about the Meiss grant, please see www.collegeart.org/meiss.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on another CAA editorial board or committee. Jury members may not themselves apply for a grant in this program during their term of service. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name. Please send a letter describing your interest in and qualifications for appointment, CV, and contact information to: Millard Meiss Publication Fund Jury, CAA, 275 Seventh Ave., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Deadline: April 15, 2009.
CAA Letter to Barack Obama
posted by Christopher Howard — Jan 15, 2009
On January 14, 2009, CAA President Paul Jaskot and CAA Executive Director Linda Downs sent a letter to Bill Ivey of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, discussing the needs of artists and scholars in the coming years.
CAA has signed onto letters with many other nonprofit organizations urging full funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute for Library and Museum Services (IMLS). However, CAA felt that it was necessary to have a separate voice on issues of importance to its members.
CAA will have a presence in Washington, DC, in March 2009 at the Humanities Advocacy Day and Arts Advocacy Day. Jaskot and Downs will be making separate appointments to visit the new chairs of the NEA, NEH and IMLS once they have been appointed.
CAA Letter to President-elect Barack Obama
January 14, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama
President-elect Transition Team
Dear President-elect Barack Obama:
College Art Association, representing over 16,000 artists, art historians, scholars, curators, collectors, art publishers, universities, and libraries, looks forward to working with you and your administration to ensure the revitalization of support for professional artists and art historians in America.
College Art Association:
- Promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts and in creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art;
- Facilitates the exchange of ideas and information among all people interested in art and the history of art;
- Advocates comprehensive and inclusive education in the visual arts;
- Speaks for its membership on issues affecting the visual arts and humanities;
- Publishes scholarly journals, art criticism, and artists’ writings;
- Fosters career development and professional advancement;
- Identifies and develops sources of funding for the practice of art and for scholarship in the arts and humanities;
- Supports and honors the accomplishments of artists, art historians, and critics; and
- Articulates and affirms the highest ethical standards in the conduct of the profession.
As the leading association in the world that represents professional visual-arts practitioners, CAA endorses your campaign platform’s support of the arts. We strongly agree that in order to remain competitive in the global economy America must reinvigorate the creativity and innovation that has made this country great.
CAA would like your Administration to include not only community arts organizations in its arts program of support but, also, to give greater focus to professional artists and art historians in academia, art museums, and independent professional visual-arts practitioners. Visual art must be reinstated as a respected and esteemed profession in America.
CAA advocates that professionally educated artists and art historians teach K–16 students. To meet this end we must offer all students, K–16, equal access to visual-arts education taught by professionally trained instructors in studio art and art history.
We also believe that public/private partnerships should expand not only between schools and communities but also among the academic community within colleges, universities, and art schools.
We endorse the creation of an art corps comprised of professionally educated artists and art historians who will work with students in urban schools on community-based projects that raise the awareness of the importance of creativity and professional artists. CAA would also like to see an emphasis on visual arts in government-sponsored projects such as AmeriCorps, in both urban and rural areas that address job preparation as well as environmental issues. Professional artists are eager to work on environmental programs that involve community-organized design projects.
CAA would like to emphasize that, in order to publicly champion the importance of arts education, America needs to support the proper preparation and training of artists and art historians who teach at the primary, secondary, and college/university levels. Visual arts need to become part of the core curriculum in each grade and at every stage of education.
CAA fully supports increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Library and Museum Services. Specifically, professional artists need to be supported on an individual basis, and we strongly recommend reinstatement of the Individual Artist Fellowship program to enable our best artists to pursue and develop their work. We have found that grants to other areas of the arts and humanities far exceed federal and private foundation grants to professional visual artists. It would be an outstanding legacy of this administration to again make federal support of the arts a priority in defending the promotion of our nation’s cultural heritage.
CAA supports legislation that will allow scholars to publish so-called orphan works, which are copyrighted works—such as books, pictures, music, recordings, or films—whose copyright owners cannot be identified or located. This legislation has been introduced in prior Congresses, and we hope it will be passed during the new Congress. Due to the risks of publishing copyrighted material without obtaining permission, many art historians and scholars are unable to publish orphan works, thereby causing great detriment to scholarly publishing, research and public access to these works. At the same time, orphan works legislation must be carefully crafted in respect to the legitimate interests and concerns of visual artists, including photographers.
CAA supports your platform for cultural diplomacy by enhancing international opportunities offered through agencies, such as the United States Information Agency, for exhibitions, teaching, research, and lecture tours by professional visual artists and art historians. CAA’s international membership testifies to the promotion of cultural understanding that occurs through international cultural exchange. Every year CAA seeks funding to support travel of international artists and art historians to its Annual Conference. Current Homeland Security laws and a lack of government funding make it difficult for foreign artists and scholars to present their work and research at conferences of their peers. CAA endorses streamlining the visa process and providing government support for international exchanges of graduate students and professional artists and art historians.
CAA supports providing health care to professional artists and art historians. This is a major concern for professional artists and art historians who are not associated with a college, university, or art museum and attempt to work independently to support themselves. As you are aware, each state has its own laws on insurance. Professional organizations such as CAA would like to offer national healthcare coverage for artists but are prohibited from offering insurance to its members due to differences in state laws. CAA endorses the creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange as one step in the direction of coverage for artists. In the meantime, we encourage you to press for government reforms of insurance laws so that professional organizations such as CAA will be in a position to assist its members to obtain universal coverage.
CAA endorses tax fairness for artists. We have worked hard—and will continue to work hard—to support the Artist-Museum Partnership Act, which was introduced in the prior Congress by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work, rather than just the costs of the materials, when they make charitable contributions of that work. Not only has the current tax law been harmful to artists, the creative legacy of a whole generation of professional visual artists has not been donated to our great public institutions because of disincentives to donate created by the current tax laws.
CAA realizes that change takes the support and involvement of every member of society. CAA is committed to promoting the support of professional visual artists and art historians in all areas of American society. We stand ready to help provide information on visual arts professionals, suggestions for specific programs, or any other aid that you may find helpful in promoting a better world for artists and art historians in America.
With your leadership and the groundswell of support for activism, we can reestablish the professional visual-arts practitioner as a contributor to positive cultural change in America.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Jaskot, President, CAA, and Professor of Art and Art History, DePaul University; and Linda Downs, Executive Director, CAA
CAA Letter to Barack Obama
posted by Christopher Howard — Jan 15, 2009
On January 14, 2009, CAA President Paul Jaskot and CAA Executive Director Linda Downs sent a letter to Bill Ivey of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, discussing the needs of artists and scholars in the coming years.
CAA has signed onto letters with many other nonprofit organizations urging full funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute for Library and Museum Services (IMLS). However, CAA felt that it was necessary to have a separate voice on issues of importance to its members.
CAA will have a presence in Washington, DC, in March 2009 at the Humanities Advocacy Day and Arts Advocacy Day. Jaskot and Downs will be making separate appointments to visit the new chairs of the NEA, NEH and IMLS once they have been appointed.
CAA Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama
January 14, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama
President-elect Transition Team
Dear President-elect Barack Obama:
College Art Association, representing over 16,000 artists, art historians, scholars, curators, collectors, art publishers, universities, and libraries, looks forward to working with you and your administration to ensure the revitalization of support for professional artists and art historians in America.
College Art Association:
- Promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts and in creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art;
- Facilitates the exchange of ideas and information among all people interested in art and the history of art;
- Advocates comprehensive and inclusive education in the visual arts;
- Speaks for its membership on issues affecting the visual arts and humanities;
- Publishes scholarly journals, art criticism, and artists’ writings;
- Fosters career development and professional advancement;
- Identifies and develops sources of funding for the practice of art and for scholarship in the arts and humanities;
- Supports and honors the accomplishments of artists, art historians, and critics; and
- Articulates and affirms the highest ethical standards in the conduct of the profession.
As the leading association in the world that represents professional visual-arts practitioners, CAA endorses your campaign platform’s support of the arts. We strongly agree that in order to remain competitive in the global economy America must reinvigorate the creativity and innovation that has made this country great.
CAA would like your Administration to include not only community arts organizations in its arts program of support but, also, to give greater focus to professional artists and art historians in academia, art museums, and independent professional visual-arts practitioners. Visual art must be reinstated as a respected and esteemed profession in America.
CAA advocates that professionally educated artists and art historians teach K–16 students. To meet this end we must offer all students, K–16, equal access to visual-arts education taught by professionally trained instructors in studio art and art history.
We also believe that public/private partnerships should expand not only between schools and communities but also among the academic community within colleges, universities, and art schools.
We endorse the creation of an art corps comprised of professionally educated artists and art historians who will work with students in urban schools on community-based projects that raise the awareness of the importance of creativity and professional artists. CAA would also like to see an emphasis on visual arts in government-sponsored projects such as AmeriCorps, in both urban and rural areas that address job preparation as well as environmental issues. Professional artists are eager to work on environmental programs that involve community-organized design projects.
CAA would like to emphasize that, in order to publicly champion the importance of arts education, America needs to support the proper preparation and training of artists and art historians who teach at the primary, secondary, and college/university levels. Visual arts need to become part of the core curriculum in each grade and at every stage of education.
CAA fully supports increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Library and Museum Services. Specifically, professional artists need to be supported on an individual basis, and we strongly recommend reinstatement of the Individual Artist Fellowship program to enable our best artists to pursue and develop their work. We have found that grants to other areas of the arts and humanities far exceed federal and private foundation grants to professional visual artists. It would be an outstanding legacy of this administration to again make federal support of the arts a priority in defending the promotion of our nation’s cultural heritage.
CAA supports legislation that will allow scholars to publish so-called orphan works, which are copyrighted works—such as books, pictures, music, recordings, or films—whose copyright owners cannot be identified or located. This legislation has been introduced in prior Congresses, and we hope it will be passed during the new Congress. Due to the risks of publishing copyrighted material without obtaining permission, many art historians and scholars are unable to publish orphan works, thereby causing great detriment to scholarly publishing, research and public access to these works. At the same time, orphan works legislation must be carefully crafted in respect to the legitimate interests and concerns of visual artists, including photographers.
CAA supports your platform for cultural diplomacy by enhancing international opportunities offered through agencies, such as the United States Information Agency, for exhibitions, teaching, research, and lecture tours by professional visual artists and art historians. CAA’s international membership testifies to the promotion of cultural understanding that occurs through international cultural exchange. Every year CAA seeks funding to support travel of international artists and art historians to its Annual Conference. Current Homeland Security laws and a lack of government funding make it difficult for foreign artists and scholars to present their work and research at conferences of their peers. CAA endorses streamlining the visa process and providing government support for international exchanges of graduate students and professional artists and art historians.
CAA supports providing health care to professional artists and art historians. This is a major concern for professional artists and art historians who are not associated with a college, university, or art museum and attempt to work independently to support themselves. As you are aware, each state has its own laws on insurance. Professional organizations such as CAA would like to offer national healthcare coverage for artists but are prohibited from offering insurance to its members due to differences in state laws. CAA endorses the creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange as one step in the direction of coverage for artists. In the meantime, we encourage you to press for government reforms of insurance laws so that professional organizations such as CAA will be in a position to assist its members to obtain universal coverage.
CAA endorses tax fairness for artists. We have worked hard—and will continue to work hard—to support the Artist-Museum Partnership Act, which was introduced in the prior Congress by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work, rather than just the costs of the materials, when they make charitable contributions of that work. Not only has the current tax law been harmful to artists, the creative legacy of a whole generation of professional visual artists has not been donated to our great public institutions because of disincentives to donate created by the current tax laws.
CAA realizes that change takes the support and involvement of every member of society. CAA is committed to promoting the support of professional visual artists and art historians in all areas of American society. We stand ready to help provide information on visual arts professionals, suggestions for specific programs, or any other aid that you may find helpful in promoting a better world for artists and art historians in America.
With your leadership and the groundswell of support for activism, we can reestablish the professional visual-arts practitioner as a contributor to positive cultural change in America.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Jaskot, President, CAA, and Professor of Art and Art History, DePaul University; and Linda Downs, Executive Director, CAA
LOS ANGELES ART MAGAZINE EDITORS IN CONVERSATION
posted by Christopher Howard — Dec 29, 2008
Los Angeles is home to four internationally distributed art magazines: the triannual Afterall and the quarterly X-TRA, both nonprofit publications, and two commercial magazines, Art Ltd and the newly created The Magazine.
In June 2008, Christopher Howard, editor of CAA News, talked via email with editors from the first two publications, Elizabeth Pulsinelli from X-TRA and Stacey Allan from Afterall, about their respective magazines.
X-TRA and Afterall
Cover of the Winter 2007 issue of X-TRA, with Marnie Weber, The Spirit Bear, 2007, wood, foam, resin, surfacing veil, acrylic paint, sword, rope, and casters, 120 x 56 x 50 inches (artwork © Marnie Weber)
Christopher Howard: Can you tell me about your backgrounds and how you came to your respective publications?
Elizabeth Pulsinelli: I joined the X-TRA editorial board a few years after I graduated with an MFA from CalArts. I was a founding member of the Project X Foundation for Art and Criticism, the nonprofit formed to act as publisher of the magazine. Later, I stepped down from the foundation to become the managing editor of X-TRA. I left that position to become the executive editor earlier this year. Before moving to Los Angeles several years ago, I received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Stacey Allan: I began as associate editor of Afterall in September 2007. Before relocating to Los Angeles to work for Afterall, I spent the last five years in New York working at nonprofit exhibition spaces such as the Kitchen and apexart, writing and curating independently, and earning my MA in curatorial studies from Bard College. Prior to that, I commissioned public-art projects for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and, like Elizabeth, earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
CH: X-TRA was founded in 1997, and Afterall started a year later. What was happening in the mid-1990s in Los Angeles that led to the formation of both publications?
EP: In the mid-1990s, students were pouring out of exciting programs such as CalArts, Art Center College of Design, and UCLA and staying in Los Angeles. There was an abundance of intelligent, provocative art and many venues in which to see it, but not a lot of forums for critical dialogue outside of the classroom. Stephen Berens and Ellen Birrell started Project X as a collaborative curatorial venture. But they soon realized that the small publications they were producing in conjunction with the exhibitions were filling a more pressing need than the shows. So, X-TRA was born to address the dearth of quality art writing in LA’s vibrant art scene.
SA: Afterall was founded in London by a curator, Charles Esche, and an artist, Mark Lewis, as a research and publishing initiative started at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. I can imagine that the post-YBA years in London were not terribly different from the scenario in Los Angeles that Elizabeth describes, with an outpouring of MFA graduates and a boom in artistic production, as well as commercial growth that created a need for critical discourse and reflection. In their foreword to the pilot issue of the journal in 1998, Charles and Mark emphasized the wider social, political, and philosophical context in which artists can act as critical intellectuals. I think the journal was, in part, also an appeal to artists to consider and hold on to their role as such.
CH: Afterall is a joint publication between CalArts and University of the Arts London. What are the journal’s specific ties to Los Angeles, and also to London?
Elizabeth Pulsinelli, executive editor of X-TRA
SA: The Los Angeles office was formed when Thomas Lawson (artist, writer, and dean of the School of Art at CalArts) joined Charles and Mark as a coeditor in 2002. Though I think we’re still often thought of as a London-based publication, we’re invested in Los Angeles and in maintaining the dialogue between those two cities that is the publication’s strength. I’m a new arrival, having just moved here from New York, but Tom has been in Los Angeles for almost twenty years now and, as an educator, has been deeply involved in the arts community and the development of a generation of LA-based artists. So providing a critical voice that is rooted here, and doing so within the context of an “international” publication—not just international in terms of geographical coverage or distribution, but also as an editorial and academic collaboration that aims to put the two cities in dialogue—is really of key importance. We’re also actively trying to strengthen our ties to the city by using our website to publish more local exhibition reviews and interviews with LA-based artists.
CH: How does X-TRA balance the support of a regional art community while sustaining a national—even international—audience?
EP: The regional art community in Los Angeles is an international art community. Our mission, first and foremost, is to promote and provoke critical dialogue about contemporary art. In addition, we also strive to be a publication of record for the artwork produced and exhibited in and around Los Angeles, which is recognized around the world as a major center for the production of contemporary art.
CH: How has X-TRA grown during the present decade, when other art magazines, such as Art issues and the New Art Examiner, folded?
EP: X-TRA is sustainable, in large part, because it is collectively edited by a group of about eight artists and writers. We have a powerful group dynamic with lively, contentious discussions. The writing in the publication reflects our sense that the arena of art criticism encompasses a broad and contested territory. At the same time, the collaborative process shields individual editors from burnout.
On a pragmatic level, the publishers have steered our growth along a slow but steady course. We also accomplish a great deal with the generous volunteer efforts of the editorial board and a tiny, efficient paid staff.
Cover of the TK issue of Afterall, with artist information TK.
CH: Afterall is structured like an academic journal, yet its contributors come less from the academic world and more from the amorphous contemporary art scene. By contrast, X-TRA is a newsstand art magazine but often publishes the same kinds of texts as Afterall by the same kind of diverse group of curators, artists, critics, and hybrids of all three. What are the freedoms and constraints of the two formats?
EP: The publishers’ decision to put X-TRA on the newsstand was motivated by a desire to reach a broader audience and increase our subscription base. The editorial board doesn’t tailor the contents to a newsstand context but rather strives to print the most interesting writing on art that we can generate. We don’t consider ourselves to be an academic journal because the readership of X-TRA is not predominantly composed of academics. Our readership is diverse—including artists, writers, curators, and people who look at and buy contemporary art. This broad audience gives us freedom. The expansive structure of the magazine and the breadth of our readership accommodate a wide range of subjects and writing styles.
SA: Like X-TRA, Afterall is distributed on newsstands and seeks that diverse readership. Our formats are actually quite different, though, because we don’t publish reviews or commission artists’ projects. We focus on four to five artists per issue and commission two in-depth essays on each. We also publish broader contextual texts written by art historians, critics, curators, artists, or whoever we feel can contribute an interesting take—our writers often hold academic positions, but I suppose, as you’ve mentioned, they just as often don’t. It may be that the focus and the longer format of the writing, in addition to our sponsorship, make us more like an academic journal than an art magazine.
In terms of freedoms and constraints, I think they primarily have to do with our publishing schedule—because Afterall comes out only three times per year, it is a little more difficult to stay ahead of the curve. At the same time there is great freedom in that, too.
CH: How does X-TRA’s nonprofit status compare to the academic sponsorship of Afterall? And both magazines lack the ad count of larger art glossies. How does an independence from advertisers help (or hurt) your publications?
EP: As far as we can tell, there is no clear economic model for art publishing. We are funded by a combination of grants and donations from private and public institutions and individuals, by advertising, and by subscriptions. A smaller proportion of our budget comes from advertising than some other art magazines, but we aren’t entirely independent of advertisers. We strive to have as diverse a funding base as possible so that we aren’t dependent upon, or beholden to, any single source.
Stacey Allan, associate editor of Afterall
SA: We are also nonprofit. We do receive significant support from two academic institutions and also from a relatively new partnership with the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (MuHKA, the contemporary art museum in Antwerp, Belgium). Foundation grants help out too, most notably the one we received from the Warhol Foundation. But we also rely on the support of our advertisers, and they advertise with us, I believe, specifically to show support.
CH: Speaking of the Warhol Foundation, how have your recent grants from the Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation program for writing on art had an impact on your publications?
SA: The Warhol grant is particularly great because in addition to fiscal support, the foundation brought Afterall together with the other Warhol-funded nonprofit publications—including X-TRA, Cabinet, Art Papers, Bomb Magazine, Esopus, Art Lies, the Brooklyn Rail, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art—for peer-learning sessions in New York. That has been especially valuable because we’ve all been able to share information and see where we are working through some of the same issues, what solutions different magazines have come up with, and so on.
Much of our focus has actually been going into technology and establishing better systems for data management, which isn’t exactly glamorous but relates directly to how we can better reach out to and serve our readers. This allows us to use staff time on more interesting projects like planning a summer film series or researching new artists and writers for the journal.
EP: The grant that we received from the Warhol Foundation has had a tremendous impact on X-TRA. The funds significantly improved our production values. As a result, the physical appearance of the magazine is now on par with the high quality of the writing. We also have been grateful for the opportunity to network with other publications.
CH: Let’s take a step back from the magazines and talk about the LA scene. What galleries, artists, and programs are exciting to you? Feel free to be totally opinionated here.
EP: In the last ten years or so, it feels as if Los Angeles has settled into its role as a major center for art production. For example, a sizable number of artists in the 2008 Whitney Biennial—twenty-six by my count—live in the Los Angeles area; several more were educated here. LA’s position on the art-world map no longer seems like a contestable, fleeting phenomenon. My colleague Shana Lutker was commenting that Los Angeles seems to have taken the momentum of the last few years to establish some institutional support for its burgeoning art scene. Local nonprofits such as LA><ART, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), and Telic Arts Exchange seem to have stepped up their programming and are putting a lot of energy in the community that is not market-based. Recent MFA graduates are fueling investment in all kinds of communal activities.
In my opinion, the major museums such as MoCA and the Hammer consistently offer engaging programming. The commercial galleries that cover swathes of Culver City, Chinatown, and Santa Monica, plus many more scattered in between, make for a lively “scene.” I like to keep an eye on organizations and venues such as Smockshop, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, the Institute for Figuring, Materials & Applications, Machine Project, and Outpost for Contemporary Art. Every month brings far more to do and see than I could possibly manage. It’s not such a bad problem to have!
SA: I completely agree with Elizabeth and have a similar list of favorites. I’ve been in Los Angeles for a little less than a year, so I’m still excited by the geography of LA and the way the art scene rests within it. There is so much happening here, but you have to keep your ear to the ground—things are spread far and wide and tend to bubble up quietly, at least compared to the rolling boil of New York where things rise quickly and pop. You have these fantastically odd places with big reputations, such as the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, and Machine Project, that are able to remain vital and interesting and not burn out. I feel LA nurtures that. Studio and living space is less prohibitively expensive and the market doesn’t dominate, so MFA programs are really central. It seems to allow for a lot of experimentation without a high level of fear about financial or professional risks.
CH: Afterall publishes a series of books distributed by MIT Press and schedules frequent symposia and events. And last year it “swallowed up” the journal AS (also known as Andere Sinema, which was found in 1978 and published by MuHKA). Is this the start of an art-media empire?
SA: I don’t know—do you think we should ask Rupert Murdoch to join our board? No, actually you’re just describing partnerships, and no other journals have been consumed. In the same way that Afterall partnered with CalArts six years ago and brought on Tom as an editor, we were able to partner with MuHKA and bring on a new editor, Dieter Roelstraete, who had been editor of AS since 2000. Afterall is now published three times per year instead of two, and MuHKA continues the work it was doing with AS.
CH: X-TRA runs a program that provides free issues of the magazines for students if their schools or departments pay for shipping—what is this program about? And does Afterall offer something similar?
EP: The Academic Distribution Program provides copies of X-TRA to students in art programs around the country at the significantly reduced group rate of $1.50 per issue (including shipping). Making X-TRA’s thoughtful, provocative writing available to students has been a key component of our mission since 1997. We see it as a great way to contribute to the intellectual development of artists and art historians while building future readership for the magazine.
SA: Thanks for not ending us on that note of empire building! Yes, we do offer half-price subscriptions to students, as well as discounts on subscriptions and back issues to CalArts alumni. We also donate annually to the Distribution to Underserved Communities Library Program, which distributes books on contemporary art and culture to rural and inner-city libraries and schools nationwide.
Magazine Websites
Both art magazines operate thriving websites containing full articles, special online content, subscription information, and more. For more details on X-TRA, visit www.x-traonline.org. Afterall’s website can be found at www.afterall.org.
Elizabeth Pulsinelli would like to thank her colleague, Stephen Berens, for his help in responding.
Report on Arts Education and Funding Published
posted by Christopher Howard — Sep 09, 2008
Policymakers have underestimated the critical role of arts learning in supporting a vibrant nonprofit cultural sector, according to a RAND Corporation report just published. The study, written by Laura Zakaras and Julia F. Lowell and entitled Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy, was commissioned by the Wallace Foundation and conducted by RAND.
Despite decades of effort to make high-quality works of art available to Americans, demand for the arts has failed to keep pace with supply. Audiences for classical music, jazz, opera, theater, and the visual arts have declined as a percentage of the population, and the percentage of these audiences age thirty and younger has fallen even more.
“For decades, public funding of the arts has focused on building supply and expanding access to the arts, but it has neglected the cultivation of audiences capable of appreciating the arts,” said the coauthor Laura Zakaras, an arts researcher at RAND. “If we are not teaching the young how to engage with works of art, they are not likely to become involved in the arts as adults.”
Calling on evidence that experiencing and studying the arts in childhood increase the likelihood of arts participation later in life, the study recommends policymakers in both the arts and education to devote greater attention to cultivating demand for the arts by supporting more and better arts education.
At the public school level, researchers note, arts content standards have been almost universally mandated by the states and are broadening teaching practices, but state, local, and district policies are not providing the resources or time in the school day to implement these standards. In fact, there is evidence that high-stakes standardized testing has led to reduced class time for the arts and humanities in the past five years, according to the study. Arts organizations and colleges have been helpful in complementing school-based arts education, but it is not enough to fill the void.
Analyzing grant-making data, researchers show that state arts agencies, which have historically focused on providing grants to arts organizations, have directed less than 10 percent of their grants over the last twenty years toward activities that target arts learning. In most states, grants are not part of a comprehensive strategy to promote youth or adult arts learning.
However, some state arts agencies are bucking this trend. Rhode Island and New Jersey, for example, have forged relationships with their state departments of education, other state agencies, and members of the arts community to develop comprehensive statewide plans for improving arts education in public schools.
In New Jersey, the state’s arts agency helped develop a survey of arts education that has raised awareness of the inadequacy of its provision in the schools. Concerned residents are now pushing for the adoption of a number of new policies, including inclusion of per-pupil arts spending in New Jersey’s Comparative Spending Guide for public schools. In Rhode Island, the state arts agency was instrumental in successful efforts to adopt a standards-based high school graduation requirement in the arts.
Based on these findings, the authors recommend that state arts agencies and policymakers gauge how well their states are doing by conducting surveys of arts education; developing specific high school graduation requirements in the arts; recognizing and publicizing arts learning programs considered exceptional by experts in the field; and advocating for changes in state policy that increase the amount and breadth of arts learning opportunities. According to the authors, a healthy demand for the arts is critical to a vibrant nonprofit arts sector. Policies that focus on supporting the supply of the arts and broadening access to the arts are not sufficient for building that demand.
September CAA News Published
posted by Christopher Howard — Aug 28, 2008
The September CAA News has just been published. With the newsletter back in print, individual and institutional members will receive a copy in the mail next month; the newsletter is also available immediately as a PDF download.
The September issue celebrates the tenth anniversary of caa.reviews, the online journal that launched in fall 1998. Also, in preparation for the 2009 Annual Conference, the issue contains an article on the hottest contemporary art galleries downtown in Los Angeles, including those in Chinatown.
A number of important deadlines for participation in CAA activities also appear: calls for nominations for editor-in-chief of Art Journal and reviews editor of The Art Bulletin (September 15); for conference travel grants (September 26); for applications for graduate-student fellowships (October 1); and more.
The deadline for submissions to the November issue is September 10; please send them to Christopher Howard, CAA managing editor. If you wish to receive CAA News in electronic format only, please contact CAA Member Services.
Spring Meiss Winners
posted by Christopher Howard — Jul 30, 2008
CAA has awarded five Millard Meiss Publication Grants for spring 2008. Thanks to the generous bequest of the late Prof. Millard Meiss, these grants are given twice annually to publishers to support the publication of scholarly books in art history and related fields.
The grantees are:
- Molly Aitken, The Intelligence of Tradition: Form and Meaning in Mewar Painting (Yale University Press)
- Elissa Auther, String, Felt, Thread, and the Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art, 1961–1979 (University of Minnesota Press)
- Marin F. Hanson and Patricia Cox Crews, eds., American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870–1940: A Catalog from the International Quilt Study Center (University of Nebraska Press)
- Richard King, ed., Art and the Artist in Cultural Revolution China (University of British Columbia Press)
- Judith Ostrowitz, Interventions: Native American Art for Far-Flung Territories, (University of Washington Press)
Books eligible for a Meiss grant must already be under contract with a publisher on a subject in the arts or art history. Authors must be current CAA members. Application criteria and guidelines are available online or from nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadlines: March 15 and October 1 of every year