,
32 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
I will attempt to live tweet but I kind of suck at it, so you should come in person if you can!
SEPC, the Students and Emerging Professionals Committee, represents the interests of CAA members in these and transitional categories.
What's an emerging professional? It's a new concept. Distinguished art critic Donald Kuspit discusses how things have changed and how he got started in his own career.
Kuspit notes that his experience was fundamentally different than EPs today. "At the time, art history was a more limited field than it is now."
He adds that we need to complicate the idea of professional. On the one hand, it indicates an expert in a specific area. But the situation has radically changed.
What are you emerging as? Art history as a discipline is in trouble and positions are shrinking.
Galleries are tough to keep afloat, especially in NYC. In both cases a steady income is hard to come by.
Kuspit says, "Art is not significant these days in society except as a commodity...art and money are where it's at." What does it mean to be an arts professional? #caa2019
He notes that academia runs by different rules, but expertise is no longer enough on own.
Rachel Kreiter, chair of SEPC, asks why Kuspit is recommending curatorial or auction careers instead of the professoriate. His perception is that the former two are more plentiful.
Kuspit: if you're going to be a professor, do it in a fully art historical position. Mixed art/history depts are fraught with tension.
Museums are good options. [Personally I think Kuspit is vastly overestimating the availability and underestimating the achievements needed to get a curatorial job]
Kuspit advocates expertise in a very specific area that sets you apart. Kreiter is now pushing back and noting that getting a job in that just isn't practical.
Kuspit clarifies: be the only person who can do what you do. Be in a minority elite, preferably in a broader area with enduring social appeal.
Kuspit: galleries now think of themselves as museums and put on shows that museums couldn't do themselves without large donations.
He adds, "it's a New York point of view" when advocating gallery work and service to the market.
Kreiter: CAA wants to be a forum for ideas, not a meat market for jobs. But, searches and interviews continue to happen. Kuspit replies that moving away from job services is a mistake. Where else would one go?
Julian Adoff, SEPC member and chair elect, asks what CAA can do to improve the situation. Kreiter notes that many people can't afford to attend and Kuspit advocates for financial assistance for professionals from smaller institutions ...
...and panels on the economic realities of being an arts professional/historian.
Apart from auction houses, which pay well, Kuspit mentions NYC based Athena bank loaning money while using art as collateral...with art historian consultants. Also, private collection curators.
Question: what do you think is a bad trend in arts edu? Kuspit advocates for the Bauhaus method - learn everything - rather than purely digital methods.
No sense of community or support for junior professors is also a mistake.
Question: with a course load like 4/4 how do you advance your own work? Kuspit: that's exploitative. Best thing to do is work during summer and ask your dept chair about expectations. He isn't familiar with those conditions.
The audience is now informing Kuspit about contractual obligations.
Phrase of the day regarding business models in higher ed: manipulation by data. Thank you audience member!
Audience member: if jobs are listed in Europe they probably already have someone in mind. Italians are all in France and Germany is the "the capital of nepotism." Brexit is tanking opportunities in the UK, so Switzerland is really the only viable option.
This was in response to Kuspit's assertion that there were more jobs in Europe.
Question: do careers happen in small ticks or large leaps? Kuspit: academic is incremental, but it can happen in larger leaps outside that model.
Opportunities come from things like networking and mentors that respect you.
