The County Election, 1852
© Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

This timely topic is accompanied by a teaching tool, available to anyone by simply clicking on the picture. Things to think about while perusing the larger images:

• It depicts an election that took place in 1850, in Saline County, Missouri.
• The artist had, in fact, run for a place in the State Legislature during this election.
• There is one African American present in the scene.
• There is one more African American present in the scene than there is a woman.
• In one canvas, there exists the perfect opportunity to discuss and reflect upon the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Just saying.

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Over the past week we've seen trading tickers and Presidential campaign tactics sink to new lows and, I have to be honest with you, both are very distracting. Sort of like a slow-motion train wreck playing in a seven-day loop--you (and here by "you" I totally mean "me") know it's bad to watch, and you know watching is not going to accomplish anything, yet it takes an almost superhuman effort to peel your eyes away. "He said," "She said," "They said," infinity, with ad nauseam commentary from talking heads, many of whom I don't believe capable of feeding my dog let alone telling me what to think. My brain feels like an overstimulated hamster running on its wheel, not knowing or caring why it's running in the first place.

As you yourself may have discovered, such 24/7 drama isn't conducive to writing or speaking English words and arranging them into coherent sentences. So it came as a relief to be jolted back to my senses by a post on MUSEUM-L, a listserv to which I subscribe and recommend to anyone in the museum community. The "$3 million (USD) overhead projector earmark" comment from the Tuesday, October 7, 2008 debate naturally came up on the list, which led to further discussion about the candidates' positions on arts funding in general. This in turn led to a lister posting the enormously helpful link to the Americans for the Arts Action Fund's page entitled ArtsVote2008. In alphabetical order and without further ado:

The Candidates' Positions on the Arts

• Senator John McCain (Republican Party)
• Senator Barack Obama (Democratic Party)

Yea! Political, but pertinent to this community. Before you say anything, I thought about including other political parties' positions on the arts, but didn't for two reasons. (1) I couldn't find them, though I *did* look, and (2) let's be realistic. One of the two Senators above will be the President-elect of the United States on November 5. All that's really up in the air is which of these two candidates best represents your interests. That said, and in case you haven't heard this from any of the other 305+ million US citizens, please exercise your right to vote on November 4.

Image credit: Tom Grill/Photographer's Choice RF / Getty Images

I won't tell you I have "always" liked the work of San Francisco painter John Kraft, but that's only because I wasn't aware of it until late in 2004. At that time, and on the strength of his compositions alone, I featured John as an "Artist You Should Know." He's continued to impress me over the past four years, and not merely because of his art--which, in case it's not abundantly clear, I like. A lot.

John is one of those visual artists who (1) has other interests--he makes music, for example, (2) is generally upbeat, as opposed to the stereotypical tortured artiste, (3) is genuinely happy being a husband and father, and is secure enough in his sense of self to paint about this, (4) loves to think outside the 'promotion' box and use the Internet in innovative ways, and (5) talks about his art, his working methods and the rationale for both in understandable English.

I can't really overstate any of these points, but want to draw your special attention to the last two. John just opened an exhibition of his work at Intel's worldwide corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Now, opening receptions are usually invitation-only events, and this was no exception. However, John filmed a couple of segments for those of us who couldn't be there, posted them on YouTube, and invited his mailing list to watch in (reception) real time and chat live with him via his Facebook page. I liked the results very much. If you have ever (and haven't we all?) stared down an incomprehensible artist's statement or wall text, I'm sure you'll enjoy John's videos as the breath of fresh air that they are.

Fellow Art History fans, the US economic "collapse" comes as no shock to most of us. And when I speak of "us," it's not in reference to art buyers of comfortable means. I'm talking about people who hold, through love of the discipline and years of work and study, the unwavering belief that the visual arts matter to human beings. We're the people who bring this passion to a public that very often doesn't know how important art is in our shared history, but may come to know so because we care.

This is not as lofty as it sounds. Instead, it's more of a love story. One truly *must* love art history to pursue it as a career. The bottom rungs of the salary ladder, where competition is the highest, are notoriously low-paying. Many art museums either aren't hiring or are upsizing remaining job descriptions as other employees retire/are laid off. Community outreach programs are struggling by on shoestring budgets. In public schools, where art history is often one of the first programs to be cut, involved parents volunteer to teach. Art history professors are having their class loads scaled back, even while tuition costs continue to rise. I place no blame on employers--none!--because they work miracles with available funding. My points are merely these: (1) Art history is seen as an expendable luxury in the best of times. When times are tough, it gets really ugly. Which means that (2) the always-tight art history job market has gotten tighter, and we probably haven't seen the worst of it yet.

So, what can we do? Read more...