by Jon Lackman | 21 February 2008 | Career, Conferences
Karla, completing a dissertation on Czech Surrealism, writes:
I have reached the architecturally unexpected city of Dallas and am trying to get myself into full College Art Association mode. I’ve always enjoyed CAA in the past, but this year it’s more of an effort. It is kind of difficult to enjoy much of anything to the full a week and a half before one hopes to turn in a PhD dissertation … On Tuesday night, those of us on the job market had the opportunity to attend a sort of orientation, so I went. It was pleasant enough, but not as useful as I would have liked (I do not need to be told to check in the mirror for dandruff before going to a job interview) … Today I have attended a couple of panels – one on Etruscan art and one on Japonisme. After all, when else do I get a chance to go to hear about things that have little to do with my own research? Both panels were satisfactorily interesting.
Artist E. Marie writes:
I’m at the College Art Association conference in Dallas right now, in a massive beige hotel that makes me wish I’d brought along my GPS and maybe a sherpa for good measure. I’m not here for the kind of big “social reunion” that these conferences can be; there don’t seem to be any people here whom I know, and this is only my second time at the conference. And I’m not here just to soak up the sometimes great, sometimes brain-killing programming and presentations on the schedule (although I’m pretty excited about the interview with Yoko Ono happening this Friday). I’m actually here for the next big piece of the puzzle, you see. I’m here to get ready to start looking for work … I witnessed a friend of mine interviewing for jobs at a CAA conference a few years ago, and when I ran into him he was so stressed out he couldn’t even manage to talk—and this was at 9 o’clock in the morning. I’m not quite ready for that; hence, “getting ready” to look, rather than “looking.”
Photo curator/historian Leslie K. Brown writes:
This post is in honor of Bruce, who was just on an ARTspace panel at the College Art Association conference with fellow UConners in Dallas, TX (and got even offered a job in the elevator even though he’s not looking and went on to meet the renowned Annie Sprinkle).
