CAA News Today
2013 Arts Advocacy Day
posted by Christopher Howard — April 24, 2013
The program for this year’s Arts Advocacy Day, which took place April 8–9 in Washington, DC, consisted of advocacy training and a lecture and performances by the renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma on the first day, followed by a morning kickoff event with legislators, a briefing on current legislation, and visits to Capitol Hill on the second day. CAA sent two advocates to represent the organization: Hannah O’Reilly Malyn, CAA development associate, and Anne Collins Goodyear, president of the CAA Board of Directors.
Monday’s advocacy training from the event’s sponsor, Americans for the Arts, followed the same format as it has in previous years, with meetings on current legislative issues facing the arts. Leaders offered compelling statistics to help make the case for arts funding as well as useful tips on how to advocate more effectively. Participants even engaged in role-playing sessions to quickly gain experience for the potential directions their conversations might take.
In the evening, Yo-Yo Ma delivered the twenty-sixth annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, discussing the importance of “Art for Life’s Sake.” His moving speech, which centered on how the arts form an integral part of the human experience, was part of a program that included the cellist’s performances with the dancer Lil Buck, the bagpiper and pianist Cristina Pato, and members of MusiCorps, a group that rehabilitates injured soldiers through learning to play instruments and record their music. Watch the lecture and performances on Americans for the Arts’ YouTube channel; more documentation from the night is also available online.
On Tuesday morning, advocates gathered on Capitol Hill for a kickoff event that featured talks from Louise Slaughter and Leonard Lance, cochairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus. Yo-Yo Ma and Matt Sorum, the drummer for Velvet Revolver who was once a member of Guns ‘n’ Roses, also spoke. In partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors, Americans for the Arts honored Senator Tom Harkin with the 2013 National Award for Congressional Arts Leadership for his distinguished contributions to the field. After the event, teams of advocates gathered by home state and paid visits to the offices of their representatives, asking them to support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), to protect tax deductions for charitable donations, and to introduce fair-market-value tax deductions for artists donating their own works to nonprofit institutions. In addition, advocates proposed the idea of adding the arts to the STEM acronym—converting it into STEAM—and discussed other issues pertaining to the arts in America. CAA’s Hannah O’Reilly Malyn visited the offices of three Democratic representatives from New York: Joseph Crowley, Nydia Velázquez, and Jerrold Nadler.
As a federal employee, Anne Collins Goodyear is ineligible to participate in lobbying activities. (She is currently associate curator of prints and drawings at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.) However, on Tuesday, April 9, she attended a White House briefing that featured remarks from Joan Shigekawa, acting NEA chairman, and Abel López, board chairman of Americans for the Arts. The briefing summarized the goals of the NEA and other White House initiatives in the arts. In an attempt to stave off further budget cuts and to guarantee its ability to award grants in every congressional district, the NEA has requested approximately $155 million from the 2014 federal budget. The agency is clearly dedicated to demonstrating the practical benefits of the arts, stressing that “the arts mean business,” according to Victoria McCullough of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement. McCullough emphasized President Barack Obama’s recognition of the importance of the arts nationally and for education in particular. To this end, Bess Evans of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy spoke about the value of the arts in positioning students as creators, not just consumers.
Jamie Bennett, NEA chief of staff and moderator for the briefing, updated attendees on interagency partnerships. Among these are: (1) a Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD), sponsored by the NEA with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), about which Judy Canales, deputy undersecretary for the department, spoke; and (2) the development of an Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), discussed by Dave Wasshausen, chief of the bureau’s Industry Sector Division. To further its ability to offer positive benefits, the NEA has partnered with the USDA to fund design workshops in rural communities to help encourage creative solutions to design challenges. In an attempt to assess the quantitative benefit of the arts, the NEA has also joined forces with the BEA to conduct an arts and cultural analysis that will enable the bureau to measure the benefit of the arts for the gross domestic product. A joint report is anticipated in 2014.
Act Now – Ask Your Senators to Support the IMLS Office of Museum Services!
posted by CAA — April 18, 2013
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) sent the following email on April 17, 2013.
Act Now – Ask Your Senators to Support the IMLS Office of Museum Services!
Again this year, museum champion Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is circulating a letter urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide robust funding in FY14 for the Office of Museum Services (OMS) at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
The deadline to sign on to this letter is Wednesday, April 24, 2013.
Ask your Senators to sign the OMS appropriations letter today!
House OMS Letter Sets New Record; Keep Momentum Going in the Senate!
The House version of this year’s OMS appropriations letter has already closed and, while we’re still tabulating the final list of signers, we do know that a new record of at least 95 Representatives signed the letter.
“This year’s record-setting effort in the House of Representatives is a testament to the hard work of museum advocates nationwide,” said Alliance President Ford W. Bell. “But we can’t afford to lose any momentum, so I hope everyone will take one minute to contact their Senators today.”
The Office of Museum Services received $30.8 million in the FY12 appropriations cycle, but was cut to $29.2 million in FY13 as a result of across-the-board cuts known as “sequestration.” While President Obama has proposed increasing its budget in FY14, the Office of Museum Services’ funding will ultimately be decided by Congress, so it is imperative that legislators hear from their constituents.
Thank you for taking action on this important issue!
Please visit www.aam-us.org/advocacy to learn more about Alliance advocacy for museums.
Ask Congress to Defeat Proposals to Eliminate NEH Funding
posted by CAA — April 16, 2013
The National Humanities Alliance (NHA) sent the following email on April 15, 2013.
Ask Congress to Defeat Proposals to Eliminate NEH Funding
Dear Humanities Advocate,
There are multiple proposals to eliminate funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities circulating on Capitol Hill as appropriations hearings begin in the House of Representatives this week.
You can help defeat these proposals and ensure a brighter future for federal humanities funding by urging your elected officials to join a bipartisan effort to preserve the NEH. By signing on to House and Senate Dear Colleague letters, your Members of Congress can demonstrate critical support for NEH funding to the appropriations committee members that hold the agency’s future in their hands.
Click here to send a message to your elected officials today. They are waiting to hear from you.
It is critical that you act now. The deadline for Representatives to sign on to the House letter is Wednesday, and the deadline for Senators to sign on to the Senate letter is Friday.
Stephen Kidd, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Humanities Alliance
National Humanities Alliance Annual Meeting and Humanities Advocacy Day
posted by CAA — March 26, 2013
Anne Collins Goodyear, curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, is the president of the CAA Board of Directors, and Hannah O’Reilly Malyn is CAA development associate.
Anne Collins Goodyear and Hannah O’Reilly Malyn attended a day of meetings and panel discussions presented by the National Humanities Alliance (NHA). This year’s annual event, held on March 18, 2013, in Washington, DC, addressed the practical need for continued support of humanities education and research and the importance of quantifying the benefits of such, as well as highlighting the Clemente Course in the Humanities program, an endeavor that illustrates the impact of humanities learning on people from all walks of life. These discussions helped prepare participants for Humanities Advocacy Day, taking place on Capitol Hill the following day.
CAA is a member of NHA, which advocates federal funding of the humanities. In addition to its annual meeting, NHA organizes Humanities Advocacy Day, which brings critical information to participants and prepares them for congressional visits to support the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Fulbright Program, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and numerous Department of Education programs in the humanities.
The day began with a keynote address by Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, whose talk centered around the question “Are the Humanities Worth It?” and touched on demonstrating the tangible benefits derived from studying the humanities. She discussed the significance of understanding other cultures as we progress toward globalization and a world society, especially the ways in which humanists can help people respond to the social changes brought on by technological advances. Paxson stressed that we must train people not just with the immediately necessary skills for employment, which devalue over time, but also with the creativity to work in a rapidly changing world. She also revealed that, contrary to popular belief, the average lifetime incomes of people with bachelor’s degrees in the humanities are not much lower than those of people with bachelor’s degrees in STEM subjects, and noted that people with humanities degrees are more likely to pursue higher education above the bachelor’s.
The keynote address was followed by a panel on making the case for federal humanities funding, which consisted of six individuals: Stephen Kidd, executive director of NHA; Esther Mackintosh, president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils; Ben Kershaw, assistant director of congressional relations at the American Alliance of Museums; Lee White, executive director of the National Coalition for History; Miriam Kazanjian, consultant for the Coalition for International Education; and Mollie Benz Flounlacker, associate vice president for federal relations at the Association for American Universities. Continuing in the same line as Paxson’s talk, the panelists described the different government programs concerned with the humanities and what tactics are most effective in arguing for their continued funding—namely economic impact, the importance of creative thinking skills and well-rounded job candidates, and how the humanities relate to core American values such as citizenship and civic understanding and participation. The overarching message was that to remain competitive in the global economy, America must produce workers who are well rounded, creative, and able to interact effectively with stakeholders abroad. Panelists noted that bipartisan support for the humanities does exist in Congress so long as the emphasis is on the value created for communities and taxpayers.
Over lunch, Karl Eikenbarry, the former US ambassador to Afghanistan, spoke about how the humanities were brought home for him in his work abroad. His anecdotes affirmed the advantages of learning foreign languages and cultures and endorsed the effective use of soft and hard power in diplomatic situations. Cultural diplomacy through touring symphonies, he said, is a reminder of US good will that can mitigate displays of military strength.
In the afternoon, a panel was held on advocacy infrastructure. John Churchill, secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, talked about a demand for new strategies in advocacy, particularly the year-round involvement of advocates at the state and local levels to truly involve elected officials in the humanities in their communities. Churchill introduced the new Phi Beta Kappa’s National Advocacy Initiative, which will pursue this goal through regional events and local member “emissaries” for the humanities. This was followed by presentations by Robert Townsend, deputy director of the American Historical Association, and Carolyn Fuqua, program associate for humanities at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, on recent studies and data regarding the humanities. They discussed the Humanities Indicators project, which compiles data on the humanities as a whole, and noted interesting statistics such as the fact that humanities majors score better than business majors on management program entrance exams.
The day concluded with a presentation on the Clemente Course program. This program offers humanities classes to underserved demographics such as incarcerated adults, people in economically disadvantaged communities, and immigrants. Past participants testified to how these courses, which offer college credit upon completion, changed their lives and their worldviews. Star Perry, a program graduate, spoke about how the program increased her self-value, improved her job prospects, and inspired her children to attend college. Moise Koffi, another graduate, shared how he came to the US as a manual laborer and, because of the Clemente Courses, has completed his PhD and is now an engineer and a professor. Senators Richard Durbin and Elizabeth Warren also gave a few words about the program and the humanities as a whole.
The following day, Malyn represented CAA while visiting the offices of seven members of congress, traveling with a group of New York professionals that included advocates from the Modern Language Association, Cornell University, Columbia University, and Queensborough Community College, City University of New York. (As a federal employee, Goodyear is not eligible to participate in such visits.) Together, the group met with five congressional staffers to discuss the importance of continued humanities funding. Advocates also thanked longtime supporters for their ongoing efforts and encouraged newly elected officials to join the Congressional Humanities Caucus. Malyn also visited the offices of Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) to update them on CAA’s work on fair use (i.e., its task force and conference session) and to distribute copies of CAA’s letter regarding the use of orphan works.
Action Alert: Urge Congress to Support the Humanities
posted by CAA — March 26, 2013
The National Humanities Alliance (NHA) sent the following email on March 26, 2013.
Action Alert: Urge Congress to Support the Humanities
Dear Humanities Advocate,
With the sequester now in effect, the budget of the National Endowment for the Humanities is slated to be cut by approximately $60 million over the next ten years. Title VI potentially stands to lose an additional $36 million from its already decimated budget over the same span. Other federal funding for the humanities will be cut by similarly significant amounts. Now is the time to urge your elected officials to replace the sequester with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that will preserve crucial investments in humanities programs.
Act now to preserve humanities funding. Tell your Member of Congress to replace the sequester with a long-term, balanced approach to deficit reduction.
Click here to write to your representative and senators today!
Sincerely,
Stephen Kidd, Ph.D.
Executive Director
National Humanities Alliance
Sequestration: What It Means for Museums
posted by CAA — March 05, 2013
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) sent the following email on March 5, 2013.
Sequestration: What It Means for Museums
On Friday, March 1, $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts were triggered, a process commonly called “sequestration,” which is now affecting nearly every agency throughout the government. For most agencies that support museums, (including IMLS, NEA, NEH and NSF) this means a five percent cut in their annual funding, including a reduction in grant-making activities for the year ahead.
While Congress may still undo or restructure sequestration, federal agencies are now determining how to absorb these severe cuts. The National Endowment for the Humanities expects to make fewer new awards at lower award amounts. The National Science Foundation is expecting to award 1,000 fewer new research grants.
“The Alliance will continue to fight for federal museum funding in the days and weeks ahead, but we must be sure the current decrease in federal grants is not compounded by a reduction in charitable giving incentives,” said Alliance President Ford W. Bell. “I was pleased to submit testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee last month, but members of Congress also need to hear from their constituents about how charitable giving limitations would affect museums.”
While Congress’s inability to reach agreement on spending issues has complicated and slowed the federal budget process this year, interest is also picking up on comprehensive tax reform. The House committee with jurisdiction over the tax code held a hearing on February 14 on proposals to reform charitable contribution tax incentives, many of which could have a devastating impact on giving to museums and other nonprofits.
Do your legislators know how important charitable giving is to your museum? Tell them right now.
P.S. If you appreciate these Advocacy Alerts, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to support our year-round advocacy efforts.
Register for 2013 Advocacy Days
posted by Christopher Howard — January 22, 2013
CAA encourages you to register and take part in three upcoming events this winter and spring in Washington, DC: Arts Advocacy Day, Humanities Advocacy Day, and Museums Advocacy Day. At each, participants meet their senators and representatives in person to advocate increased federal support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Previous lobbying experience isn’t necessary. Training sessions and practice talks take place the day before the main events—that’s why, for example, Arts Advocacy Day is actually two days, not one. Participants are also prepped on the critical issues and the range of funding requested of Congress to support these federal agencies. It is at these training sessions where you meet—and network with—other advocates from your states. The main sponsoring organization for each event makes congressional appointments for you.
You may have mailed a letter or sent a prewritten email to your congressperson or senator before, but legislators have an algorithm of interest for pressing issues, in which a personal visit tops all other forms of communication. As citizen lobbyists, it’s also important to have a few specific examples about how arts funding has affected you: don’t be afraid to name-drop major cultural institutions—such as your city’s best-known museum or nonprofit art center—in your examples of why the visual arts matter in your state.
If you cannot attend the three advocacy days in person, please send an email or fax to your representatives expressing your concern about continued and increased funding for the visual arts. If you don’t know your representative or senators, you can look them up at www.congress.org.
Museums Advocacy Day
Join fellow advocates in Washington, DC, for Museums Advocacy Day, taking place February 25–26, 2013, and help make the case that museums are essential—as education providers and economic drivers—in every community. If museums are not at the table, they could be on the table. Registration is open through January 25.
Humanities Advocacy Day
Registration for the annual meeting of the National Humanities Alliance (March 18) and Humanities Advocacy Day (March 19) will help you to connect with a growing network of humanities leaders, to communicate the value of the humanities to members of Congress, and to become a year-round advocate for the humanities. The advance deadline for registration is January 31, 2013.
Arts Advocacy Day
The 2012 election made a dramatic impact on Congress, with more than eighty new members taking office this month. The House and Senate will renew the focus on reducing the federal deficit and creating jobs, and it is imperative that arts advocates work together to craft a policy agenda that supports the nonprofit arts sector and arts education. CAA encourages you to register for Arts Advocacy Day, which takes place April 8–9, 2013, in Washington, DC, to help the cause. Register by the advance deadline to participate: March 25, 2013.
Recent CAA Advocacy
posted by Christopher Howard — June 18, 2012
CAA’s advocacy efforts this year addressed a wide range of issues of critical importance to the visual arts, from the necessity of artists to have affordable health-insurance options, to the ethical treatment of animals in works of art, to the ins and outs of copyright law and museum practices. Below is a summary of eleven issues to which CAA has been committed during the past twelve months.
In June 2011, CAA filed an amicus brief in the case of Golan v. Holder, which the United States Supreme Court began hearing in October. The issue raised in Golan v. Holder is whether Congress, after enacting the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 1994, could legally remove tens of thousands—if not millions—of foreign works from the public domain and bring them back into copyright. Consistent with the First Amendment, the brief argued that those works should remain freely available. On January 18, 2012, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s previous decision, 6–2. In short, foreign works formerly in the public domain in the US can have their copyrighted status reinstated.
In December 2011, CAA signed onto a statement from the Association of Art Museum Directors that opposed the pending sale of a fifty percent stake in the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern American and European Art at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Since 2005 the school had been attempting to sell the collection, donated by Georgia O’Keeffe (who specified that it never be sold or broken up). “Such an action,” stated the letter, “would violate a core professional standard of AAMD and of the museum field, which prohibit[s] the use of funds from the sale of works of art for purposes other than building an institution’s collection.” Nevertheless, the Tennessee Supreme court did not block the sale to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, on April 25, 2012. The university and museum will share the collection on a three-year rotating basis, with the museum helping to conserve the collection.
CAA board and staff members represented the organization at two events this spring in Washington, DC: Anne Collins Goodyear, then-incoming board president, and Linda Downs, CAA executive director and chief executive officer, attended Humanities Advocacy Day in March; and Judith Thorpe, an outgoing board member, and Helen Bayer, CAA marketing and communications associate, went to Arts Advocacy Day in April. The goal of both days was to support continued federal funding through the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, and to articulate to Congress the vital importance of the humanities and the arts in higher education. The National Humanities Alliance’s annual meeting coincided with Humanities Advocacy Day. Goodyear and Downs have offered a summary of this important event.
At the request of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), CAA investigated the use of homing pigeons in Jon Rubin’s interactive artwork, Thinking about Flying (2012), on view this year at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado. The piece invites museum visitors to take home a bird, placed in a cardboard box, for a day before releasing it, so that it may fly back to the museum. CAA confirmed the humanitarian treatment of the birds by the artist and museum and notified PETA of the findings.
In April, CAA investigated the complaint raised by several artists who lent work to the 2010 World Festival of Black Artists and Cultures in Senegal that was not returned due to a dispute with an art shipper in Dakar. CAA determined that the situation did not need the organization’s assistance.
Michael Fahlund, CAA deputy director, testified on behalf of the organization at an oversight hearing convened by New York City’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations on January 25, 2012, regarding increasing access to affordable health insurance for artists. Even though CAA is an international organization, its office is in the state of New York; presently the healthcare industry is regulated state by state. Fahlund proposed that CAA be given “employer status” in relation to its members living in New York State in order to provide health-insurance options for them. The committee’s discussions are ongoing.
CAA monitored a federal bill, the Research Works Act (H.R. 3699), that was introduced in the US House of Representatives on December 16, 2011, by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and cosponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)— chairman and member, respectively, of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The legislation would prohibit federal agencies from mandating free access to scholarly articles submitted to a scientific or scholarly publication without the consent of the publisher. This act primarily addresses science and technology publications but, if enacted, could affect art and humanities publications as well. Many learned societies who are publishers oppose the legislation, and CAA board members have begun discussing the issue and are paying close attention to the legislation’s development.
Representing CAA, Fahlund contributed his expertise to a National Coalition Against Censorship committee that developed Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy, published in May. The document offers guidance for institutions to turn controversial situations into learning experiences for their public. The committee comprised representatives from the American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Art Museum Curators, Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Washington, and the New School. CAA’s Museum Committee is reviewing the guideline and will present it for adoption at the CAA board meeting on October 28, 2012.
Fahlund also worked with a liability insurance broker, Herbert L. Jamison and Co. LLC, and Philadelphia Insurance Companies, and with two CAA members, Barbara Buhler Lynes and Nancy Mowll Mathews, to establish comprehensive, affordable liability insurance for art historians and artists who authenticate works of art. Such insurance would help defend against a damaging financial loss that could occur from alleged mistakes or negligence. CAA does not administer the insurance but acts as a referral to the insurance company; in a brief article from this past January, Fahlund offers helpful loss-prevention tips for the art professional to avoid potential workplace liabilities.
Last month CAA signed onto a letter from the Association of Art Museum Directors sent to Congress, urging legislators to pass the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (S. 2212), a proposed law that would shield a loaned work of art from a non-US collection from being seized by anyone with a claim to legal ownership while the art is on display in the country. According to the letter, the US has “long provided the crucial legal protection that helps make loans from foreign museums possible” through the Department of State, until a 2004–8 lawsuit involving heirs of Kasimir Malevich and the City of Amsterdam weakened those protections. The House passed the bill (H.R. 4086), which the Senate is now debating.
As a member of the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, a group that addresses workforce issues in higher education, CAA helped to prepare and administer a 2010 survey on contingent-faculty issues. The results have been tabulated and will be distributed soon. More than one thousand CAA members filled out the survey. [June 20 update: the survey results have been published.]
Founded as an advocate for the visual arts in higher education, CAA actively engages matters of public policy, litigation, and activism at the local, state, federal, and international levels. For further information, visit the Advocacy section of the website. If you have questions or have advocacy issues you would like to bring to the attention of the CAA board, please contact Anne Collins Goodyear, CAA president, and Linda Downs, CAA executive director and chief executive officer, at info@collegeart.org.
Senate Committee Approves IMLS Funding; Congress Needs to Hear from You
posted by CAA — June 15, 2012
The American Association of Museums (AAM) sent the following email on June 15, 2012.
Senate Committee Approves IMLS Funding; Congress Needs to Hear from You
This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill to fund the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). While the bill would sustain the current $30.8 million for the Office of Museum Services for FY13, this is just the first step in the appropriations process.
The bill faces an uncertain future because it includes funding for implementation of the health care reforms enacted in 2010. In a preview of the difficult budgetary decisions to come, Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Richard Shelby said, “In this grave fiscal climate we should not fund programs we know are going to force our country deeper into debt…. We should not mortgage our children’s future for non-essential, unproven programs.”
AAM President Ford W. Bell urged continued advocacy. “At a time when every federal program is being scrutinized, Members of Congress need to hear from constituents about how IMLS funds are essential to museums and how successful they are in serving our communities,” he said. “Participating in ‘Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum Week’ is a great opportunity to demonstrate our value.”
The bill would provide $158.8 billion in discretionary funding, a $2 billion increase over FY12 levels, which is in line with President Obama’s FY13 budget request. The bill also includes $549 million (level funding) for the Race to the Top initiative, President Obama’s signature competitive grant program, which rewards states for making changes in elementary and secondary education.
Let your Members of Congress know how important funding for the Office of Museum Services is to you!
Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum.
Visit www.speakupformuseums.org to learn more about AAM’s Advocacy for Museums.
Letter of Support for the Council of American Overseas Research Centers
posted by CAA — May 31, 2012
May 31, 2012
Dr. Mary Ellen Lane
Executive Director
Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)
PO Box 37012, MRC 178
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Dear Dr. Lane,
We are writing in support of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers’ (CAORC) proposal to the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to continue the work and operations of overseas research centers and of CAORC itself.
Our organization’s particular experience was with The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII), without whose help we would not have been able to bring Salam Atta Sabri, the Director of Iraq’s Museum of Modern Art to the College Art Association’s Annual Conference in Los Angeles this past February. Mr. Atta Sabri was the recipient of a highly competitive and distinguished grant to participate in an international meeting of art historians, curators, and artists during the conference. From the outset, Beth Kangas, director of TAARII, and Nada Shabout, professor of art history at the University of North Texas, offered support in any way possible, including help obtaining a visa, help arranging travel, and advancing funds for the entire trip, because Dr. Sabri was not permitted to receive American dollars in Iraq. CAA could not have accomplished this work without TAARII’s active support. (Additionally, TAARII then arranged a speaking tour for Mr. Sabri to several universities in the United States, enriching his visit here substantially.)
As the scholarly world becomes increasingly global, organizations such as TAARII, and all the groups supported by CAORC, become ever more important. We fully endorse the CAORC proposal to continue the work and operations of overseas research centers and CAORC itself.
Sincerely,
Anne Collins Goodyear
President
Linda Downs
Executive Director