CAA News I College Art Association I posted May 18, 2018
CAA NEWS TODAY
An Interview with Jim Hopfensperger, the new President of CAA
Jim Hopfensperger is CAA’s President for the 2018-22 term. As a professor and artist with a wealth of experience, we asked Jim to share a few observations on CAA and the field at large. CAA Media and Content Manager Joelle Te Paske spoke both him earlier this month.
JT: How are you?
JH: Very well, Joelle. Thank you for taking the time to visit.
JT: Where did you grow up?
JH: My spouse, Jane, and I were raised in the upper Midwest. While career choices took us to Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, we returned “home” to Michigan in 2020 to be near aging family members.
JT: What did you study?
JH: I was educated as a craftsperson, working primarily in non-ferrous metals such as silver, gold, brass, and bronze. In the early 1990s I was presented an opportunity to work in a Massachusetts furniture studio while on a sabbatical leave from my faculty position at Penn State. Within a few weeks I was totally hooked. Gifting my metal working tools to a younger artist, I decided to move forward as a furniture maker.
JT: What drew you to the work you do now?
JH: Creating well-designed art objects, one-at-a-time and by hand, reaffirms what it means to be human. Thinking with my hands, my eyes, and my mind to construct useful articles makes me feel whole. While these might simply be signs of a kinesthetic learner, it also seems possible that—for better and for worse—my sense of self is hopelessly anchored in making things. The non-existent term “neuroceutical therapy” comes to mind.
JT: What is exciting to you as the incoming CAA president?
JH: The forces of change are in motion all around us. It is a truly exhilarating time to be in the business of living!
A raft of research suggests that healthy organizations prosper when focusing efforts along two key pathways: 1) identifying and strengthening essential core competencies and 2) systematically exploring future capacities. This means sustaining CAA’s outstanding programs and services while simultaneously identifying the organization’s next purposes. Full attention to both matters seems essential if we are to extend a highly distinguished history of advocacy for artists, art historians, scholars, curators, critics, designers, collectors, and educators. I am grateful for this opportunity and excited about the work ahead.
JT: What work has been done over the past few years that you would like to build on? What would you like to see happening at CAA in the next year? How about in the next ten?
JH: Clearly, CAA remains an eminent learned society. At the same time it is increasingly fulfilling its potential as a professional association that serves members across educational, curatorial, scholarly, and creative pursuits. In the short term I am confident CAA will continue to produce top-notch publications and deliver excellent programming; over the long term it seems important to offer additional services to support members in their professional lives.
Eventually, a pivot toward a few key constituencies makes strategic sense. These include 1) the burgeoning ranks of contingent employees upon whom educational and cultural institutions have become increasingly reliant; 2) the large number of design and new/emerging media practitioners graduating from art and design programs; and 3) the community of international scholars, artists, and designers steadily advancing global perspectives. I look forward to working with CAA members, staff, board, and other stakeholders to map a future wherein these colleagues will be well served.
JT: What has been a memorable professional moment for you at a CAA Annual Conference?
JH: I am deeply invested in the fellowship aspects of CAA. My fondest memory involves mentoring in the Professional Development Workshops at the Annual Conference in 2000. One my mentees was—as I—trained as a metalsmith. We worked closely after that conference to identify strategies for achieving his professional goals, and he eventually accepted a splendid academic position. In return for my service, and for each of the past eighteen years uninterrupted, he has gifted to me a hand crafted metal ornament to hang on our family holiday tree. Simply precious! (And if you are reading this Professor James Thurman, a wholehearted “Thank You!” is long overdue.)
JT: What would you say is the number one challenge facing higher education?
JH: Excellent question. My two cents: While adapting to the startling but inevitable pace of cultural and technological change is an operational necessity, communicating the value of an educated populace appears to be the most pressing and immediate challenge. In short, making the case for the causal relationship between educational opportunities and an ethical, moral, and empathetic society is job one.
Without this mission it is not difficult to imagine economic ‘values’ filling any voids. The logical yet dispiriting outcome might then resemble Oscar Wilde’s timeless quip about the cynic being a person ‘who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.‘
JT: Do you have a favorite artwork? Exhibition?
JH: I have a keen interest in numerous forms of applied design—dynamic and surprising buildings, objects, communications, products, and processes. However, and for reasons I am not fully able to explain, among my very favorite artworks is Claude Monet’s Four Trees in the Met’s collection. This quiet little companion and I visit perhaps once every 12 to 24 months. Invariably, I leave our encounters refreshed and restored.
JT: Favorite book?
JH: Much of my reading over the past decade can be described as a search for serviceable maps of the human mind, followed by rubbernecking at accidents caused by irrational behaviors.
Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow is a fine example of the former, the type of mind mapping I find highly addictive. Kahneman provides useful lenses for understanding the extraordinary capabilities of humans while simultaneously identifying a robust menu of pesky faults and vexing biases revealed via our thoughts and actions.
In a related way, observations on decision-making in everyday life are equally intriguing. Charles Duhiggs’s The Power of Habit, Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational, and Keith Payne’s The Broken Ladder successfully illustrate complexities and contradictions wherein supposedly rational thoughts and human actions intersect, often to hilarious and/or tragic effect—endlessly fascinating stuff!
