CAA News Today
New Issue of Art Journal
posted by Christopher Howard — Mar 31, 2014
“Sexing Sculpture: New Approaches to Theorizing the Object” is the forum topic in the latest issue of Art Journal, now in the mail to subscribers. The forum was organized by Jillian Hernandez and Susan Richmond and features essays by Rachel Middleman, Nicholas Hartigan and Joan Kee, and Gordon Hall; artist portfolios by Rachel Lachowicz and Lily Cox-Richard; and a conversation between Jennifer Doyle and David Getsy.
Jeanne Dunning’s “Tom Thumb, the New Oedipus,” this issue’s artist’s project, is the winner of the 2013 Art Journal Award. The jury that made the award wrote that the project “creatively and cleverly melds aspects of narrative storytelling, visual research, and textual analysis to cast new light on the enduring value of psychoanalytic models through a close reading of the folk-tale character Tom Thumb. It does so with humor and clarity, and is at once a pleasure to read and a careful prod to the imagination.”
“Queer Formalisms: Jennifer Doyle and David Getsy in Conversation” is available as free content on Art Journal’s website. Also available in full online is Tina Rivers’s review of Are You Experienced? How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art by Ken Johnson and Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s, edited David S. Rubin.
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — Mar 26, 2014
Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.
Cultural Capital Doesn’t Pay the Rent
Two adjunct professors—Miranda Merklein, who teaches English literature and composition, and Jessica Lawless, professor of gender and cultural studies—discuss career challenges, economic realities, and gender for an Inside Higher Ed column called “Adjuncts Interviewing Adjuncts.” (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
Does the Academy Matter?
In mid-February, the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof kicked over an ivy-covered hornet’s nest when he complained that too many professors sequester themselves in the ivory tower amid “a culture that glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience.” The public, he wrote, would benefit from greater access to the wisdom of academics. “So, professors, don’t cloister yourselves like medieval monks—we need you!” (Read more from Foreign Policy.)
Lobbyists Set to Fight Royalty Bill for Artists
Lawyers for Sotheby’s auction house paid an unusual visit to a few lawmakers on Capitol Hill this month and brought along some high-powered lobbying muscle. They had come to complain about a new bill that even some supporters acknowledge faces a difficult road in this divided Congress: a proposal to give visual artists—or their estates—a cut of the profits when their work is resold at public auction. (Read more from the New York Times.)
Using Computer Vision to Increase the Research Potential of Photo Archives
Collaborating with the Frick Art Reference Library, John Resig used TinEye’s MatchEngine image-similarity service and developed software to analyze images of anonymous Italian art in the library’s photo archive. The result was extremely exciting: the program was able to automatically find similar images that weren’t previously known and confirm existing relationships. (Read more from John Resig.)
$1.6-Million Grant Will Better Prepare History PhDs for Range of Careers
The American Historical Association and four universities will split a $1.6-million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation aimed at broadening the career paths of history PhDs. The grant comes as graduate students in history and across the humanities face a bleak job market and as graduate programs are under pressure to improve their students’ employment prospects. (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
The Devil and the Art Dealer
It was the greatest art theft in history: 650,000 works looted from Europe by the Nazis, many of which were never recovered. But last November the world learned that German authorities had found a trove of 1,280 paintings, drawings, and prints worth more than a billion dollars in the Munich apartment of a haunted white-haired recluse. Amid an international uproar, Alex Shoumatoff follows a century-old trail to reveal the crimes—and obsessions—involved. (Read more from Vanity Fair.)
A Market Boom, but Only for Some
For the exhibitors at the twenty-seventh TEFAF Maastricht this month, a fair with its roots in old masters and antiques, the findings of Clare McAndrew’s annual report on the market as a whole—produced to coincide with the fair—were less encouraging than the headline figures suggest. McAndrew found that the fine-art and antiques market is almost back to the boom levels of 2007, but also that modern and contemporary art accounted for 75 percent of the value of the fine-art market, leaving many of TEFAF’s exhibitors in the minority. (Read more from the Art Newspaper.)
If You Can’t Make It to the Lecture
Janis Loewengart Yerington, an artist from Bolinas, California, became a fan of online museum lectures after seeing the touring Vermeer painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. “I enjoyed it so much when it was at the de Young, I followed its progress across the country,” she said. (Read more from the New York Times.)
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — Mar 19, 2014
Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.
Actual Raises for Faculty
Tenured and tenure-track faculty members at four-year colleges and universities are receiving raises this year that exceed the increase in the cost of living, according to a study that was released by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. The study found that the median increase in base salary is 2.1 percent, and that the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index for the period was 1.5 percent. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
Average Salaries of Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty at Four-Year Colleges, 2013–14
Law, business, and engineering again topped the list of the most lucrative disciplines for professors. But professors of theology and religious vocations saw one of the largest increases in salary, about 8 percent from 2012–13 to 2013–14. Where did the humanities and visual arts rank this year? (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
DIA Grand Bargain Could Prove to Be a Work of Art, but Not a Done Deal
In 1919, with the Detroit Institute of Arts in dire financial straits and Detroit’s economy booming, museum leaders ceded ownership of the art and building to city hall in exchange for annual funding. Nearly a century later, history is preparing to do a somersault. Detroit is now bankrupt, DIA is more financially stable than it has been in decades, and the museum stands on the brink of being spun off into an independent charitable trust that would once again own the collection and building. (Read more from the Detroit Free Press.)
No More Silence of the Scholars
A bill introduced in the New York State Legislature seeks to protect art experts from what it describes as “frivolous” lawsuits. The proposed legislation aims to make it more difficult for owners, auctioneers, and dealers to bring lawsuits against art historians simply because they do not like their opinions. (Read more from the Art Newspaper.)
Museum Object Portfolio Performance
Most of us have some experience teaching with art “in the flesh”—in museums or galleries—rather than our usual fallback of classroom PowerPoint, Offline Image Viewer, which is ARTstor’s presentation technology, or Prezi presentations. And we often send students to a local museum or university gallery to write responses of one sort or another, giving them direct access to the original artwork. But in my undergraduate museum-studies class this semester, I wanted my students to consider the variety of ways that text can be used to introduce, augment, and/or constrain our response to the original object. (Read more from Art History Teaching Resources.)
The Ten Weirdest Artworks Ever
From sexy heels trussed and presented on a silver platter to Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde shark, the Guardian presents a tour through some of the strangest, most shocking surrealist art around. (Read more from the Guardian.)
Hoard d’Oeuvres: Art of the 1 Percent
Art collecting is the most esteemed form of shopping in our culture today. And in today’s digital economy, you can monitor this primal battle of achieving egos as it unfolds in real time, on computer screens. At auction you watch incomparable works of art vanish into exchange value: all that’s solid truly melts into air. The spectacle of yen, dollars, and euros mounting on the screen climaxes in the money shot: the sale price. (Read more from the Baffler.)
The Joys and Perils of Artistic Collaborations
Artists aren’t exactly known for their accommodating, easygoing ways. More often, it’s words such as “egocentric” and “introverted” that spring to mind. In reality, though, few artists work in total isolation, especially once they have achieved a certain level of success. Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst have teams of assistants making their work—yet these assistants can hardly be called collaborators. At the other end of the fame scale, collaboration is crucial for so-called emerging artists, through sharing materials and workspaces and exchanging ideas. (Read more from the Financial Times.)
News from the Art and Academic Worlds
posted by Christopher Howard — Mar 12, 2014
Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.
The No-Fail Secret to Writing a Dissertation
As a former journalist, assistant professor, and seasoned dissertation-writing-workshop coach at New York University, I can promise you there is only one fail-safe method, one secret, one guaranteed trick that you need in order to finish your dissertation: write. (Read more from Vitae.)
Who Knew? Arts Education Fuels the Economy
In public-policy battles, you might hear that arts education is closely linked to greater academic achievement, social and civic engagement, and even job success later in life. But what about the economic value of an arts education? Here even the field’s most eloquent champions have been at a loss for words, or rather numbers. Until now. (Read more from the Chronicle of Higher Education.)
Study Finds Gender Inequality in Art Museum Director’s Salaries
Fewer than 43 percent of art-museum directors are women, yet female directors, on average, are paid less than their male counterparts, according to a joint study from Southern Methodist University’s National Center for Arts Research and the Association of Art Museum Directors. The study also found that female directors at museums with budgets of more than $15 million earn 71 cents for every $1 that male directors earn. (Read more from Art and Seek.)
Arts Are Failing to Widen Access to Jobs
The cultural sector in the United Kingdom is failing to provide equal access to jobs, which is “stifling” the industry’s ability to grow and diversify, according to a new report written by leading skills-development body Creative and Cultural Skills. The report claims that employers are recruiting from too small a pool of applicants, which has resulted in unfair routes into work. (Read more from the Stage.)
Making History: Wikipedia Editing as Pedagogical and Public Intervention
On the first Saturday in February, the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art hosted an Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon in partnership with Project Continua and in tandem with a nationwide initiative organized by Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York. We were thrilled by the turnout and enthusiasm of the participants—who ranged from professors of art history and women’s literature to long-time editors of Wikipedia to novices in both categories—and wrote about several personal interactions and specific changes that made the day memorable and impactful on the museum’s blog. (Read more from Art History Teaching Resources.)
When Is an Artwork Finished?
In nineteenth-century England, Varnishing Day was traditionally the time when artists arrived at an exhibition to put the finishing touches on their works and seal them with a coat of varnish. J. M. W. Turner famously arrived at one such event in 1835, where he proceeded to squeeze lumps of color onto a half-finished canvas and, according to various accounts, work without a break, using his fingers and a palette knife to coax the surface to life. In the end, the painting Turner produced was one of two versions depicting the burning of the Houses of Parliament a few months earlier. (Read more from ARTnews.)
Help Desk: Selling Unconventional Work
I work for a gallery that has become known as a place for artists to take risks. While this is exciting and great, it is also frustrating—especially for the owner of the gallery, who has been in business for around twenty years and whose patience and enthusiasm, and subsequent income, is waning as a result of these artists’ unconventional and less-popular work. How do we use this reputation to our advantage and pitch new work to potential collectors. (Read more from Daily Serving.)
The Price of “Free”
You’ve probably seen the news. Getty Images—not to be confused with the Getty Museum or Getty Research Center—has made millions of its photos free. Well, not exactly. You have to use their embedded code, which includes branding, a bit of surveillance, and other moneymaking potential. When you embed these images, you’re giving Getty access to information about who sees the image on your page and you provide them ad space on your site, a little virtual real estate where they might someday put up billboards. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)
2014 International Travel Grant Recipients Attend the Chicago Conference
posted by Janet Landay, Program Manager, Fair Use Initiative — Mar 10, 2014
This year’s recipients of CAA’s International Travel Grants arrived in Chicago on Sunday, February 9, a few days in advance of the Annual Conference. Although the temperature outside was freezing, the mood among the program’s participants was considerably warmer due to their enthusiasm and friendliness. Funded by a generous grant from the Getty Foundation, the grantees (as pictured above from left to right) included: Katerina Gadjeva (Bulgaria), Freeborn Odiboh (Nigeria), Susana S. Martins (Portugal), Kanwal Khalid (Pakistan); Magdalena Nowak (Poland), Adriana Oprea (Romania), Cezar Bartholomeu (Brazil), Daria Kostina (Russia), Eddie Butindo-Mbaalya (Uganda); Lilianne Lugo Herrera (Cuba), Laris Borić (Croatia), Josefina de la Maza Chevesich (Chile), Fernando Martinez Nespral (Argentina), Portia Malatjie (South Africa), Mahmuda Khnam (Bangladesh), Rael Artel (Estonia); Ahmed Wahby (Egypt), Hugues Heumen Tchana (Cameroon), Heba Nayel Barakat Hassanein (Malaysia), and Eric Appau Asante (Ghana). For some, it was their first visit to the United States; for all, it was their first to Chicago and to a CAA Annual Conference.
Now in its third year, CAA’s International Travel Grant Program aims to bring a more diverse and global perspective to the study of art history by generating international scholarly exchange. Over time, the program will build CAA’s international membership and strengthen its connections to an increasingly global art community. The international travel grant recipients were selected by a jury of CAA members from over one hundred applicants based on the following criteria: all had to be art history professors, artists who teach art history, or museum curators with advanced degrees in art or art history; they had to be from countries not well represented in CAA’s membership; and they had to demonstrate that attending the conference would significantly support or strengthen their work.
With additional support from the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA), several CAA members—including members of its board of directors and International Committee and representatives from NCHA—took part in the visitors’ activities throughout the conference week, serving as hosts and/or participants in a preconference session about international topics in art history. This year graduate students from Chicago-area universities also participated to assist the grant recipients in visiting museums and galleries around town. Through informal conversations, excursions, and meals, these CAA members introduced grantees to colleagues in their fields, advised them about conference activities, and exchanged information about the practice of art history in their countries. For many, the week’s activities marked the beginning of new friendships and scholarly collaborations, to be continued in various countries around the world and at future CAA conferences.
A highlight of this year’s program was the full-day preconference about International Topics in Art History held on Tuesday, February 11, 2014. Each of the grant recipients gave presentations about their work, addressing topics such as art and national identity, international issues in contemporary art, cross-cultural influences on artistic styles, and curriculum reassessments of art historical training. The talks featured a wide range of art, from Renaissance arches to Islamic-Hispanic domestic architecture, from communist-era paintings in Poland and Russia to contemporary art in Estonia, South Africa, and Malaysia. Following the presentations, Rick Asher, professor of art history at the University of Minnesota, led a lively discussion that further explored these topics and related issues about how art history is practiced in different parts of the world. Joining him were Professors Mark Cheetham (University of Toronto), Jennifer Milam (University of Sydney), Steven Nelson (UCLA), and museum curator Joanne Pillsbury (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
“The diversity of the grantees was astonishing, and their respective self-introductions brought very much to the meeting. It was clear that nobody had had such opportunities of meeting colleagues from so many distant cultures and countries as we did that day.”
–Eva Forgacs, professor of Russian and Central European art history and a host for this year’s program
Later in the week, grantees attended a session sponsored by CAA’s International Committee entitled Topics in Global Art History: Historical Connections. The first in a series of sessions on global art history, this year’s panel included presentations by two former grant recipients, Shao-Chien Tseng (Taiwan) and Trinidad Perez (Ecuador). The goal going forward is to solicit proposals for papers from former grantees to reinforce connections between them and CAA members.
CAA’s International Committee remained centrally involved in planning this year’s travel grant program. We are particularly grateful to Ann Albritton, outgoing chair of the committee, for her enthusiastic support. In addition to co-organizing the session on Topics in Global Art History (with committee member Gwen Farrelly), Ann offered guidance on program plans, lined up several hosts, and served as an energetic host herself.
At the close of the week’s activities, grant recipients and hosts met again to report on what they had learned and how it will impact their work in the future. Several discussed preliminary plans to co-organize meetings, guest curate exhibitions, and/or arrange guest lectures at each other’s universities. Their experiences were well-summarized by Laris Borić, who wrote after he returned home:
Personally I was deeply impacted by the enthusiasm and dedication of some of the speakers at the conference, CAA staff and my fellow grant recipients. As I have already said in one of the debates, awareness that we all share a common passion and dedication towards research and teaching made me feel I belong to a common tribe or nation made of art historians wherever they come from.
–Laris Borić, professor of Renaissance art and architecture and grant recipient from Croatia
Image Captions
First: 2014 CAA International Travel Grant Recipients (left to right): Katerina Gadjeva (Bulgaria), Freeborn Odiboh (Nigeria), Susana S. Martins (Portugal), Kanwal Khalid (Pakistan); Magdalena Nowak (Poland), Adriana Oprea (Romania), Cezar Bartholomeu (Brazil), Daria Kostina (Russia), Eddie Butindo-Mbaalya (Uganda); Lilianne Lugo Herrera (Cuba), Laris Borić (Croatia), Josefina de la Maza Chevesich (Chile), Fernando Martinez Nespral (Argentina), Portia Malatjie (South Africa), Mahmuda Khnam (Bangladesh), Rael Artel (Estonia); Ahmed Wahby (Egypt), Hugues Heumen Tchana (Cameroon), Heba Nayel Barakat Hassanein (Malaysia), Eric Appau Asante (Ghana) (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Second: Joanne Pillsbury and Eric Asante (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Third: Fernando Martinez Nespral and Mahmuda Khnam (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Fourth: Deborah Marrow from the Getty Foundation talks with grant recipients at a reception following the preconference (left to right): Eddie Butindo-Mbaalya, Cesar Bartholomeu, Hugues Heumen Tchana, Freeborn Odiboh, Eric Appau Asante (photograph by Bradley Marks).
Affiliated Society News for March 2014
posted by CAA — Mar 09, 2014
American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC) is being celebrated by Maney Publications as its Journal of the Month. All access restrictions on three years’ worth of journal content are being lifted until February 15, 2014. Go to http://www.maneyonline.com/page/jotm/jac to learn more. You will find:
- Commentaries on the conservation of textiles, archaeological artifacts, and electronic media, as well as a commentary on sustainability and a review of the archive
- Video interviews with Michele Derrick (editor-in-chief) and Pamela Hatchfield (AIC board president)
- “Best of the Archive”: ten articles handpicked by the editor that are free to download
- 20 percent discount on institutional subscriptions
Foundations in Art: Theory and Education
The Herron School of Art and Design, part of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), will host “Tectonic Shifts,” the thirty-fifth biennial national conference of Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE) in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 25–28, 2015. As the title of the conference, “Tectonic Shifts” suggests, participants will be examining how the forces of change are shaping the foundations landscape. FATE is interested in hearing from foundations faculty and programs that are breaking new ground with their teaching practices. The Herron School of Art and Design looks forward to being the conference host and introducing attendees to its great city.
Glass Art Society
The forty-third annual conference of the Glass Art Society (GAS), titled “Strengthening Community, Collaboration, Forging New Bonds,” will be held March 19–22, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. The Windy City is second to none when it comes to a thriving, diverse cultural scene: it is home to renowned architecture, public art displays, galleries, museums, and colleges, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Millennium Park. GAS will hosts its conference at well-known venues such as the historic Palmer House Hotel and the Chicago Cultural Center, both centrally located in the heart of downtown. GAS will partner with a new addition to Chicago’s flourishing art scene, Ignite Glass Studios, located in the West Loop neighborhood. Hot glass, flame working, and cold working will be showcased in this state-of-the-art learning center. The second demo site is West Supply, a unique facility that joins glass production with a foundry, which casts concrete and metals for many notable collections in the high-end design, interiors, and gallery markets.
View the complete list of presentations. GAS will also be hosting special conference events such as the preconference reception, live and silent auction, Goblet Grab, gallery hop, an international student exhibition, and a closing night party. For additional information about the conference schedule and to register, visit the website.
Italian Art Society
The Italian Art Society (IAS) is delighted to announce the selection of the fifth annual IAS/Kress Lecturer in Italy: Jean Cadogan, professor of fine arts at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, who will speak on “‘Maravigliose istorie:’ The Mural Decoration of the Camposanto in Pisa.” Cadogan will share her intriguing work on the multiphase, comprehensive program of painting on the walls of the Camposanto in a presentation on May 27, 2014, in Pisa. IAS is happy to establish a link with a respected Italian university, as the lecture will take place in the Gipsoteca of the Università di Pisa. Mark your calendars to visit Pisa if you are in Italy in late May! More details to follow on the IAS website. In addition, please look at the organization’s website for details about the five IAS-sponsored sessions and a reception that IAS hopes to host at the upcoming Renaissance Society of America meeting in New York on March 27–29, 2014.
Leonardo Education and Art Forum
The chair of Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF), Adrienne Klein of the Graduate Center, City University of New York, has announced the election of two new chairs-elect. Klein will be immediately succeeded by David Familian, who is artistic director of the Beall Center for Art and Technology at the University of California, Irvine. Familian will then be succeeded in 2015 by the newly elected Suzanne Anker and in 2016 by J. D. Talasek.
Anker is a visual artist and theorist working at the intersection of art and biology in a variety of media ranging from digital sculpture and installation to large-scale photography to plants grown by LED lights. She is chair of the Fine Arts Department in the School of Visual Arts in New York. Talasek is director of cultural programs of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, which explores the intersections of science, medicine, technology, and visual culture. For the past three years, Talasek has organized and moderated DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous events in Washington, DC, in collaboration with Leonardo/ISAST.
Midwest Art History Society
The Midwest Art History Society (MAHS) will hold its forty-first annual conference in Saint Louis, Missouri, from April 3 to 5, 2014. In addition to more than twenty scholarly sessions, conference activities will include a special viewing of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis and a curator-led tour of Impressionist France at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Axel Ruger, director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, will offer the keynote address. For more information about the conference and access to online registration forms, please visit the MAHS website.
National Council of Arts Administrators
The forty-second annual meeting of the National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA) convenes September 23–26, 2014, in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by Vanderbilt University.
Yes is a world
and in this world of yes…e.e. Cummings
(creativity in the expanding field)
The world is the new studio. Artists are involved in an ever-expanding production involving constituents beyond the art world and marketplace. As educational institutions, how do we respond to this massive shift in artistic attitude? Is there a balance between standard nineteenth- and twentieth-century production and the new twenty-first-century practice centered on global and social interconnectedness? This conference will investigate art’s expanding field by exploring the influences of globalization, art education, and integrated practice. Participants will consider their role as educators of creativity, how they influence our institutions, and their effect on local and world communities. Speakers include: Richard Lloyd, author of Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Post Industrial City; David Owens, author of Creative People Must Be Stopped! Six Ways We Stop Innovation (without Even Trying); and Steven Tepper, author of Not Here, Not Now, Not That! Protest over Art and Culture in America.Visit the NCAA website to learn more about this conference and to join the organization.
Public Art Dialogue
Established in 2009, the Public Art Dialogue (PAD) award for achievement in the field of public art is given annually to an individual whose contributions have greatly influenced public art practice. Awardees are chosen from nominations made by PAD members. Award winners receive a three-year PAD membership, which includes a subscription to the journal and all other membership benefits. Each year, the recipient accepts the award at a ceremony during the CAA Annual Conference, at which he or she makes a special presentation open to the public. Nominations for the 2015 award are due on May 1, 2014. Past winners have been Suzanne Lacy, Mary Jane Jacob, Anne Pasternak, Ben Rubin, and Penny Balkin Bach. Jack Becker is the 2014 recipient. For more information see http://publicartdialogue.org/award.
Society for Photographic Education
Each spring, Society for Photographic Education (SPE) hosts a conference for the presentation of artistic work and research to a community of peers. “Atmospheres: Climate, Equity and Community in Photography,” SPE’s fifty-second national conference, will be held from March 12–15, 2015, in New Orleans, Louisiana. SPE is accepting proposals for the 2015 conference from March 6 to June 1, 2014. Topics are not required to be theme based and may include (but are not limited to): imagemaking, history, contemporary theory and criticism, new technologies, effects of media and culture, educational issues, and funding. SPE membership is required to submit and proposals are peer reviewed. The presentation formats are:
- Graduate Student: short presentation of your own artistic work and a brief introduction to your graduate program
- Imagemaker: presentation of your own artistic work (photography, film, video, performance and installation, multidisciplinary approaches)
- Lecture: presentation of a historical topic, theory, or another artist’s work
- Panel: group led by a moderator to discuss a chosen topic
- Teaching: presentations, workshops, demos that address educational issues, including teaching resources and strategies; curricula to serve diverse artists and changing student populations; seeking promotion and tenure; avoiding burnout, and professional exchange
Visit the SPE website for information on SPE membership and full proposal guidelines
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women
The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women (SSEMW) held its annual meeting at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in October 2013. The results of the election of new officers were announced. Megan Matchinske, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, stepped into the office of president, which was vacated by Jane Couchman, emerita of the Department of French and Women’s Studies at York University in Glendon, Canada. A full list of the new officers will be available shortly on the SSEMW website.
An excerpt from Jane Couchman’s letter to the society’s membership at the close of her term as president in 2013:
The highlights of this year were our meetings at SCSC in San Juan, and especially the talk given jointly by Susan Amussen and Allyson Poska, “Shifting the Frame: Trans-imperial approaches to Gender in the Atlantic World,” a topic chosen to mark our presence in Puerto Rico. The large and enthusiastic audience found their gendered, collaborative, transnational, transatlantic approach relevant and exciting. Susan and Allyson modeled the best of the kind of scholarship that SSEMW encourages, and that we hope to offer to early modern scholarship more generally. The Society’s principal work is very visible and we can all be proud of it: Co-sponsored Sessions (17 panels at 6 different conferences in 2013), the Annual Meeting, Reception and Plenary talk, Travel grants to graduate students (5 each year), the slate of Nominations, the Awards for scholarly work (http://ssemw.org/2013-award-winners/), the SSEMW website and Listserv, our support for Early Modern Women, an Interdisciplinary Journal, our collaboration with Attending to Early Modern Women.
Society of Architectural Historians
Registration is open for the Society of Architectural Historians’ annual conference (#SAH2014), taking place April 9–13, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Austin in Austin, Texas. The conference offers thirty-five paper sessions along with public programming that includes twenty-one guided architectural tours and the SAH Austin Seminar, “Austin and the Place of Historic Architecture in Rapidly Growing Cities.” Please visit sah.org/2014 for more information on the conference, including a complete schedule of events and how to register.
The call for papers for the 2015 conference in Chicago (April 15–19) opens on April 16, 2014. For abstract submission instructions, visit sah.org/2015.
Registration is open for the Croatia Study Tour, a land-and-cruise program tailored for architecture professionals and enthusiasts that will take place August 18–29, 2014. This customized tour from Sarajevo to Venice along the Adriatic Coast, developed by Boris Srdar, will include visits to UNESCO World Heritage sites, exclusive access to landmark buildings as well as those off the beaten path, and admission to the Venice Biennale on August 30. A fellowship is available for this program. To register, visit sah.org/study-tours.
Buildings of Vermont, the latest volume in the Buildings of the United States series, is now available.
Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture
Following elections in January, the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA) has updated its by-laws and added two new officers: Tamara Jhashi is now SHERA’s listserv administrator, a role she has filled since 2004, and Ksenya Gurshtein is web news editor. Joining SHERA’s board as members-at-large are Anna Novakov, Andrea Rusnock, and Nicolas Iljine, as well as one returning member, Eva Forgacs.
At CAA’s Annual Conference in Chicago, Eva Forgacs served as host to visitors from Eastern Europe and Russia who were part of CAA’s International Travel Grant Program. Along with the visitors, Forgacs participated in a full-day preconference program organized by the CAA International Committee about international issues in art history, as well as other events throughout the conference itself.
SHERA is delighted to welcome three new institutional members: the Kolodzei Art Foundation, which promotes the contemporary art of Russia and the former Soviet Union through exhibitions and grants; the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts, the largest private collection of Russian icons in North America; and the M. T. Abraham Foundation, a collection of Russian and European modern art.
Southeastern College Art Conference
The Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) will meet October 8–11, 2014, in Sarasota, Florida, hosted by the Ringling College of Art and Design. Submissions for the annual juried exhibition is April 1, 2014. The deadline for the call for papers is April 20, 2014. For more information, visit SECAC’s conference page.
Future conferences will be held: October 21–24, 2015 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); October 19–22, 2016 Virginia Tech (Roanoke, Virginia); 2017 (dates TBA) Columbus College of Art and Design (Columbus, Ohio).
SECAC has introduced a new award, the William R. Levin Award for Research in the History of Art. Thanks to the generosity of William R. Levin, professor emeritus at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, SECAC will offer an award of an annual total of $5000 to one or more art historians who are members of the organization. Levin has been a member of SECAC since 1987; served on the Board of Directors; published in the scholarly journal, Southeastern College Art Conference Review; received the SECAC Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication in 2004; and has been recognized with two of the organization’s highest honors, the Excellence in Teaching Award and the Exemplary Achievement Award. Deadline for applicants: March 1, 2014.
The deadline for a $5,000 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship is August 1, 2014.
Visual Resources Association
The Visual Resources Association’s thirty-second annual conference will be held March 12–15, 2014, at the historic Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Take a moment to view the full schedule. Selected highlights are:
- Sessions and case studies covering topics such as collaborative practices amongst traditional and nontraditional disciplines within archival and special collections, international copyright and resources, broadening professional roles, management of moving image collections, basic and advanced (RDF and LOD) cataloging procedures, DAM implementation, expanding VRA Core 4 capabilities, personal digital archiving
- Opening speaker, Philip Yenawine, cofounding director of Visual Thinking Strategies
- Tours of Harley-Davidson Museum and Design Archive and Lakefront Brewery
- Networking opportunities provided by Birds of a Feather Lunches throughout the conference and the Sponsors’ Meet and Greet and Poster Presentations
- Members and Awards Dinner
- Informative workshops (many free for conference registrants)
- Unwind with colleagues at the Drink ‘n’ Draw with Stephanie Barenz (Pfister Hotel’s artist in residence).
- Closing speaker Matthew Israel, director of the Art Genome Project at Artsy
The online conference schedule allows for sign up/log in via SCHED to connect with social-media sites, create custom schedules, and share interests with fellow attendees. Search for “vra32.sched.org“ on your mobile device to download the schedule.
Apply for a Publishing Grant from the Millard Meiss Publication Fund
posted by CAA — Feb 27, 2014
CAA is accepting applications for spring 2014 grants through the Millard Meiss Publication Fund. Thanks to a generous bequest by the late art historian Millard Meiss, the twice-yearly program supports book-length scholarly manuscripts in any period of the history of art, visual studies, and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher on their merits but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy.
The publisher, rather than the author, must submit the application to CAA. Awards are made at the discretion of the jury and vary according to merit, need, and number of applications. Awardees are announced six to eight weeks after the deadline. For the complete guidelines, application forms, and a grant description, please visit the Meiss section of the CAA website or send an email to nyoffice@collegeart.org. Deadline: March 15, 2014.
Image Caption
Bibiana K. Obler’s book Intimate Collaborations: Kandinsky and Münter, Arp and Taeuber won a Meiss grant in fall 2012.
Institutional News
posted by CAA — Feb 17, 2014
Read about the latest news from institutional members.
Institutional News is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
February 2014
The Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Frick Collection, whose institutional libraries formed the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC), have been awarded a $340,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to initiate a program of web archiving for specialist art-historical resources. The two-year program will follow a 2012 pilot study, Reframing Collections for the Digital Age, also funded by the Mellon Foundation.
The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville has accepted a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support an upcoming exhibition, Joseph Cornell and Surrealism, organized by the museum and the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France.
The J. Paul Getty Trust, based in Los Angeles, California, and the British Museum in London, England, have announce a three-year collaboration with the National Cultural Fund and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under the aegis of the Indian government’s Ministry of Culture, to build the capacities of ASI’s site-museum and site-management professionals. Nearly one hundred ASI professionals—among them archaeologists, site-museum professionals, site managers, directors, and caretakers—will participate in workshops, trainings, conferences, and working-group meetings in India, Los Angeles, London, and other Asian sites to help reimagine Indian site-museums with enhanced narratives, better collection management, and conservation.
The Herron School of Art and Design, part of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, has received a $2 million gift from Cindy Simon Skjodt, a philanthropist and advocate for mental health, to endow a chair for the school’s program in art therapy.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania has met the goal of a major five-year initiative, the Lenfest Challenge, having raised a total of $54 million to endow twenty-nine staff positions in its curatorial, conservation, library, archive, education, publishing, and digital-technology departments. H. F. (Gerry) Lenfest, chairman emeritus of the museum’s board of trustees, and his wife, Marguerite, offered a $27 million grant in September 2008, challenging donors to match this gift on a one-to-one basis to endow and name these positions.
The University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles and the Pacific Asia Museum of Pasadena, one of the few American museums dedicated to the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands, have announced a new partnership that will preserve the museum’s 1924 Chinese Qing Dynasty–inspired mansion in downtown Pasadena as an art museum. The partnership will also enhance the scholarship of the creative faculty and students at USC’s six arts schools and those in the departments of art history, East Asian language and cultures, religion, and archaeology. In addition, the alliance will provide a foundation for a renewed museum-studies and curatorial-training program at USC.
The University of Texas at Dallas has announced the new home for the Arts and Technology (ATEC) program: the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building. This new 155,000-square-foot facility will host programs and promote advancements in visual art, emerging media technology, and multimedia communications.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, has received a $9.6 million bequest from the estate of Charles H. Schwartz to establish an endowment to expand and enhance the museum’s collection of English and European works of art from the eighteenth century.
Exhibitions Curated by CAA Members
posted by CAA — Feb 15, 2014
Check out details on recent shows organized by CAA members who are also curators.
Exhibitions Curated by CAA Members is published every two months: in February, April, June, August, October, and December. To learn more about submitting a listing, please follow the instructions on the main Member News page.
February 2014
Joe Fig, Chuck Close: Summer 2004 #1, 2007, Cibachrome print, 16 x 20 in. (artwork © Joe Fig)Susan Ball. Inside the Artists’ Studios: Small-Scale Views. Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, December 14, 2013–March 16, 2014.
Tabitha Barber and Stacy Boldrick. Art under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm. Tate Britain, London, England, October 2, 2013–January 5, 2014.
Alison Saar, Blue Plate Special, 1993, etching, lithograph, and chine collé, 29 x 28¾ in. (artwork © Alison Saar) Tyrus Clutter. [in]justice: art and atrocity in the 20th century. Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, Florida, February 8–May 11, 2014.
Laura Knott. 5000 Moving Parts. MIT Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 21, 2013–November 20, 2014.
Art Journal Editorial Board Seeks Two Members
posted by Alyssa Pavley — Feb 13, 2014
CAA invites nominations and self-nominations for two individuals to serve on the Art Journal Editorial Board for a four-year term, July 1, 2014–June 30, 2018. Candidates may be artists, art historians, art critics, art educators, curators, or other professionals in the visual arts; institutional affiliation is not required. Art Journal, published quarterly by CAA, is devoted to twentieth- and twenty-first-century art and visual culture.
The editorial board advises the Art Journal editor-in-chief and assists him or her in seeking authors, articles, artists’ projects, and other content. The group also guides the journal’s editorial program and may propose new initiatives for it, performs peer review and recommends peer reviewers, and may support fundraising efforts on the journal’s behalf. Members also assist the editor-in-chief to keep abreast of trends and issues in the field by attending and reporting on sessions at the CAA Annual Conference and at other academic conferences, symposia, and events.
The Art Journal Editorial Board meets three times a year: twice in New York in the spring and fall and once at the CAA Annual Conference in February. CAA reimburses members for travel and lodging expenses for the two New York meetings in accordance with its travel policy, but members pay these expenses to attend the conference. Members of all editorial boards volunteer their services to CAA without compensation.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on the editorial board of a competitive journal or on another CAA editorial board or committee. Members may not publish their own work in the journal during the term of service. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a name; self-nominations are also welcome. Please send a statement describing your interest in and qualifications for appointment, a CV, and your contact information to: Chair, Art Journal Editorial Board, College Art Association, 50 Broadway, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10004; or email the documents to Alyssa Pavley, CAA editorial assistant. Deadline: April 15, 2014.