November 2005 CAA News

NEWS EXPANDED BOSTON CONFERENCE BEGINS ONE Newsletter of the College Art Association Volume 30, Number 6 November 2005 DAY EARLY! SEE PAGE 15 CAA’s Career-Development Programs Career-development programs are a main component of CAA’s Annual Conference. Michael Aurbach, professor of art at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and CAA president from 2002 to 2004, From the Executive describes some of CAA’s career-develop- 2 Director ment activities at the conference and beyond. 4 CAA Offers MFA and PhD Fellowships he 2006 CAA Annual Conference Mentors Needed for CAA in Boston marks the tenth anniver- Conference T sary of the Career Development 5 Participate in Mentoring and Artists’ Portfolio Mentoring Sessions. Sessions These two mentoring sessions provide Good Business is the Best assistance for those seeking positions as 6 Art: Artist in the educators, curators, and visual-arts Marketplace professionals and offer guidance and If Not Teaching, Then criticism to artists on the documentation Photo: Emily J. Gomez 8 and presentation of their work. Richard Heipp (left) of the University of Florida mentors an What? What began as an experiment in 1997 artist member at the 2005 Annual Conference in Atlanta. 9 Did You Know? CAA at the New York conference has since Standards and Guidelines become an invaluable feature of the annual meeting. For those first workshops, approximately four 10 A Career in Art: An Inter- hundred people stood in line during the first few hours of the sign-up period. Since then, mentors view with Chuck Close have served thousands of young artists and scholars. 12 CAA Honors Moira Roth During each mentoring session, experienced professionals review the dossiers of those looking and Trinh T. Minh-ha for jobs in twenty-minute, one-on-one consultations. Participants receive advice about how to present their work in a job interview, strengthen their c.v.s and other written materials, assemble port- 14 CAA Offers Preconference folio images, and learn job-search strategies. For some students and emerging professionals, sim- Workshops for Artists ply hearing that they have a well-organized c.v. can be a great source of comfort during an anxi- Annual Conference ety-filled job search. Many participants claim that the guidance they received led to their first jobs. Update Early-career artists and scholars have expressed a hunger for this kind of practical guidance, 15 Boston Conference Begins which many schools do not provide. In fact, when mentoring sessions were proposed in the mid- One Day Earlier 1990s and initial mentors sought, a few skeptics doubted the need for such activities at the confer- Advocacy Update ence. Some believed that a kind of unwritten Darwinism should operate: candidates who were 18 smart enough to figure out the system deserved teaching positions, and those who could not under- 19 CAA News stand the game were not ready for employment. Given the frequency of this response, it became 22 Affiliated Society News clear that our mentors must be people who are sympathetic to the needs of students and recent 23 Solo Exhibitions by Artist graduates. Members The two mentoring sessions continue to evolve. Knowing that the job market is tight and that many recent graduates seek positions outside academia in related art fields (see article on page 8), 27 Opportunities CAA has mentors in publishing and nonprofit-organization work to 30 Classifieds CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 From the Executive Director How CAA Became Involved in Career Development Conference, explains all aspects of the identify why they are eligible and what uilding on Career Fair and the job-search process to they will give back to the community. the Septem- interviewers and candidates. Third, our In 1997, under the leadership of Michael ber issue of B professional Standards and Guidelines for Aurbach, then chair of CAA’s Professional CAA News on ped- artists, art historians, teachers, and cura- Practices Committee, and with the support agogy, we bring tors, many of which relate to career devel- and encouragement of the Board of you another cluster opment, have been published since the Directors, we began producing career- of articles on the inception of the organization but formally development mentoring sessions at the related topic of Photo: Andrei Ralko since the early 1970s. These documents Annual Conference. These projects even- Susan Ball career develop- remain an indispensable resource for tually grew into the Research and Career ment. those who wish to further their careers Development Department at CAA, led by CAA’s strategic plan for 2005–2010 in the arts. Stacy Miller. identifies workforce issues as a critical More recent programs have furthered Miller’s responsibilities include supervi- area for growth and attention. CAA has our commitment to career development. sion of the Online Career Center, the been involved in career development for In 1993, CAA started its Professional Career Fair at the Annual Conference, some time, and in the coming years we Development Fellowship Program, which mentoring sessions offered at the confer- will build on current programs as we add has since awarded seventy-eight fellow- ence and throughout the year, and the fel- new ones. ship to graduate students. This program— lowship program. She is the staff liaison to CAA has long been seen and is still funded by an endowment established with the Professional Practices Committee and, viewed by many primarily as a learned Challenge Grants from the National with Rebecca Cederholm, CAA director of society. CAA is also a professional organi- Endowment for the Arts and the National governance and advocacy, to the Student zation, offering services to members at all Endowment for the Humanities, generous and Emerging Professionals Committee. stages of their careers. Three of these serv- matching gifts, and additional two- to six- Miller also represents CAA on the ices are most visible: first, our job list- year foundation gifts—grew out of our Coalition on the Academic Workforce, a ings—originally called Positions Listings, first strategic plan, begun in 1987. CAA group of humanities organizations that then Careers, and now the Online Career recognized a need to support advanced monitors issues affecting contingency fac- Center—have been a major reason for graduate students during the crucial years ulty (e.g., part-time, non–tenure-track, and many to join CAA. Second, our after finishing their terminal degrees. graduate-student faculty). Miller’s depart- Orientation session, held on Tuesday These two-year fellowships, to graduate ment will also conduct research on the nights before the start of the Annual students in the final year of their MFA and fields of art and art history. PhD programs, present a cash award to CAA’s professional Standards and Volume 30, Number 6 fellows in the first year and another pay- Guidelines are one of the most valuable ment in the second year to the institution features of CAA; the frequency of visits to CAA News is published six times per year by the that hires them. In addition to the financial this section of our website affirm this. The College Art Association, 275 Seventh Avenue, gift, CAA provides career advice and men- most frequently consulted guidelines are 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001; www.collegeart.org. toring to the fellows through support to those concerning tenure and promotion for attend the Annual Conference, where each visual artists. CAA’s statement in support Editor-in-Chief Susan Ball fellow is paired with a mentor who gives of the MFA as a terminal degree for teach- Editor Christopher Howard advice and assistance at the conference ing visual art in colleges and universities Designer Steve Lafreniere and informal job advice throughout the is also often used. Material for inclusion should be sent via e-mail to fellowship term. CAA also serves as a clearinghouse for Christopher Howard at [email protected]. The fellowship program was established information about other career-develop- Photographs and slides may be submitted to the to address a “pipeline” issue: students ment options, through notices and links on above street and e-mail addresses for considera- tion; they cannot be returned. All advertising and from underrepresented constituencies are our website, regular sessions at the Annual submission guidelines can be found at more likely to enter the arts professions if Conference on careers other than teaching, www.collegeart.org/news. they have mentors offering encouragement and articles in CAA News. and support. These fellowships have —Susan Ball, CAA executive director, Copyright © 2005 College Art Association focused on achieving cultural diversity in [email protected] Founded in 1911, the College Art Association pro- our fields by supporting emerging profes- motes excellence in scholarship and teaching in sionals who have been marginalized the history and criticism of the visual arts and in because of race, class, and/or sexual orien- creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art. tation. Unlike most other graduate-student fellowships, ours requires that applicants 2 CAA NEWS NOVEMBER 2005 CAA’s Career-Development some more than two hundred miles—to workshops, students get a better sense of Programs hear CAA Board members give brief pre- how universities conduct searches, how sentations about careers in teaching, art CAA’s Annual Conference works, the per- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 conservation, visual resources, publishing, sonal costs associated with a search, and museum administration, curatorial work, some general ways to approach confer- complement the academic specialists. publishing, public relations in the arts, art ence and campus interviews. While it is As we hear in our town meetings and and law, and nonprofit organizations. impossible to demystify the entire world surveys, career development is a main rea- CAA is working hard to see that these of job-hunting in three hours, students gain son why members join the organization.

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