Registration: October 16, 2017–February 7, 2018
Change has been an ongoing topic of conversation in planning the 106th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, February 21-24, 2018. In our meetings with LA-based civic and cultural organizations, the idea of change came up over and over again. From the new museums opening downtown, housing astonishing collections, to the protests in Boyle Heights over gentrification, LA is undergoing a metamorphosis. The parallels to CAA, which is undergoing its own transformation, were hard to ignore. We held close these discussions about changes, both CAA’s and LA’s, in designing the content and experience for the Annual Conference. We look forward to bringing together the national visual arts community once again to connect and learn in the great city of Los Angeles.
Registration for the 106th Annual Conference is open now.
For registration rates and deadlines visit the registration page.
The 2018 Annual Conference will include over 300 themed sessions, covering discussions on medieval tapestry, contemporary issues in Latinx art, and community engagement through the arts, among many other topics. The Annual Conference will include its Annual Artist Interviews, as part of ARTspace, made possible in part with a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. We will announce the speakers of the Artist Interviews in late fall. Past interviewees have included Coco Fusco, Katherine Bradford, Joyce Scott, and Rick Lowe. The schedule for the 2018 Annual Conference is packed with more professional-development workshops than ever, a long list of LA-museums and cultural institutions our attendees can visit for free with their conference badges, and special events like a reception at The Getty, guided tours of Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth at The Broad, and breakfast at LACMA, to name a few.
We are thrilled to welcome Charles Gaines and Wu Hung as our Keynote Speaker and Distinguished Scholar for 2018.
Convocation Keynote Speaker
Charles Gaines is an LA-based artist whose complex grid-work and mapping pulls from conceptual art and the field of philosophy. More on Charles Gaines and his 2015 solo show at the Hammer Museum, Charles Gaines: Gridwork: 1975-1989.
2018 Distinguished Scholar
Wu Hung is the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and East Asian Languages & Civilizations at The University of Chicago. Wu is a scholar of traditional and contemporary Chinese art and a curator. See the 10 artworks to see China differently that Wu Hung chose for CNN.
The remainder of the CAA Awards for Distinction will be announced later in the fall, as well as the inaugural recipient of CAA’s new Excellence in Diversity Award.
Also new this year is the Cultural and Academic Network Hall, an opportunity for museums, colleges, and universities to reserve a booth to promote academic or cultural programs to conference attendees, as well as the general public. It will be a great way for department leadership and alumni offices to connect with past students and faculty and to meet new students and instructors. Participants will be able schedule time in one of the sixteen interview booths that will be created adjacent to the booth area within the Network Hall.
We look forward to seeing you in LA!
