The Alabama State Council on the Arts announces the creation of the Gay Burke Memorial Fellowship in Photographic Arts for individual artists living in Alabama. Applications are open January 2 through March 1, 2019. Apply online at http://www.arts.alabama.gov/grants/howtoapply.aspx. Over four decades, photographer and professor of art Gay Burke developed a distinguished art photography program in The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History, all the while creating her own artwork. Burke died May 1, 2017 after inspiring generations of photographers, artists and educators. Through a generous gift, the Gay Burke Memorial Fellowship in Photographic Arts was established in 2018 to provide Fellowships to Alabama photographers to advance their artistic careers. Applications will be accepted between January 2, 2019 - March 1, 2019. The selected artists will be announced in June 2019 with their fellowship period effective October 1, 2019 - September 30, 2020. $5,000 cash awards are made to individual artists in the photographic arts based on merit of work, career achievement, career potential and service to the state. This fellowship provides awards to recognize artistic excellence as well as professional commitment and maturity and contributes to the further development of the artist and the advancement of his or her professional career. Fellowships are competitive. Quality of work and professionalism as determined by samples of work and narrative are particularly important. Provide samples of the highest quality work completed within the last five years. Eligibility: All Fellowship applicants must be legal residents of Alabama for a minimum of two years prior to the application deadline, and are expected to maintain residency during the grant award year (Oct. 1 -Sept. 30). Artists who have previously been awarded any ASCA Fellowship are eligible to apply for a second Fellowship six years after their first Fellowship. After an artist has received two Fellowships, they are no longer eligible to apply. For more information about all the Fellowships offered by the Alabama State Council on the Arts, go to http://www.arts.alabama.gov/grants/howtoapply.aspx. To read more about Professor Gay Burke, go here: https://art.ua.edu/tag/gay-burke/ Download the flyer.
A Gentlewoman in Verona: UA Graduate Student Researches In Italy
Sometimes there’s no substitute for seeing the object you are studying first hand. For more than three semesters, from a graduate seminar in medieval cathedrals, to intensive thesis research, art history graduate student Rebecca Teague has focused on the sculpture programs of three 12th-century cathedrals in three small towns in northern Italy. She is now writing her master’s thesis on the cathedral facades designed by the sculptor Niccolò in Verona, Piacenza and Ferrara. Teague’s research focuses on what may have shaped the iconography of the programs, especially local influences. “My thesis looks at some of the large-scale political issues going on at the time of the cathedral was built, filtered through a local lens," she said. "Why, for example, was a less common historical figure or saint chosen over one more commonly used? You have to delve into what the local people valued, what the local culture was like at the time. So, not only do sources for some of this imagery come from farther afield, such as the Lateran in Rome, but there are similar examples of the imagery at sites nearby.” Then, during a study-abroad trip with the Department of Art and Art History last May, Teague got to see the cathedrals in context. She was able to visit Rome, Florence and Venice with the student group and served as a teaching assistant to Dr. Tanja Jones, who is also her thesis advisor. After the main part of the trip was over, Teague and Dr. Jones made a side trip to Verona, to view first hand the cathedral doorways at Verona, and nearby Piacenza and Ferrara. Teague made her home base in Verona for four days. Each day she would work on one of the cathedral sculpture programs. She traveled to each town to experience the space, take photos and make notes about details that particularly struck her as she viewed the work up close. To get to Ferrara, for example, she traveled by train, which took a little over an hour. Once there, she explained, “I would spend the rest of the morning taking photos of the cathedral all the way around.” After lunch, she returned to the cathedral square to take more photographs. “I would look at the interior and take photos of the architectural plans that nearly every church displays in the crypt. I would also often take a walk in the area surrounding the church and make notes about nearby buildings. Then I would check to see if the same buildings were around during the time period that the cathedral was being built.” Getting to see the buildings and their sculptures up close, and to explore the town around the cathedrals, some of which existed in the 12th century, helped her understand their reality. She said, “I devoted all my time to the actual experience of the space,” and saved researching sources for when she was back in the US. This fall, with her thesis almost completed, Teague hadn't forgotten about the real-life experience of her research subjects. She still sounded in awe of the scale of the architecture she was able to see: “I got a sense of how weathered they are, how large they are, their sense of power.” Rebecca Teague received the BA in psychology at Auburn University at Montgomery before being accepted in the MA program in art history at The University of Alabama, where she was awarded a teaching assistantship for three years. In 2017, she was awarded a mid-year Academic Merit Scholarship from the Joseph and Carolyn Bolt Endowed Support Fund in Art History. At the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History, she won second place for the Harrison Award for Excellence in Research – Graduate Paper Presentation for her paper, “Nanni di Banco’s St Luke as a Statement Against Albizzi Control.” After defending her thesis, “Carving Politics: Niccolò’s Façades at Piacenza, Ferrara, and Verona Cathedrals,” Teague hopes to graduate in December and take some time off before she continues her studies in Romanesque art in a doctoral program. For information about UA Art and Art History's programs, go to: https://art.ua.edu/academics/. For information about our trip to Spain in 2019, go to: https://art.ua.edu/study-abroad/
UA Grad Students Present Research at Conferences
UA Graduate students in art history Allison Springer and Kelby Cox both presented research papers at the Nineteenth Century Studies conference in Charleston, SC, and the Southern Studies conference at Auburn University at Montgomery, AL, in February 2017. The students were each awarded travel funding from The University of Alabama’s Graduate School in order to attend. At the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History in March 2017, Cox presented her research paper, “Stitching Agency: Enslaved African American Quiltmaking and the Prejudicial South” and Springer presented her research paper, “Commemorating Freedom with Spectacles of Race: Abolitionist Propaganda during the American Civil War.” For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, go here: https://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/art-requirements/.
Art History Professor Publishes Groundbreaking Study in Visual Culture
Associate Professor Lucy Curzon has published the first full-length study of the British group Mass-Observation's engagement with visual culture. Mass-Observation and Visual Culture – Depicting Everyday Lives in Britain (Routledge, 2017) critically analyses the role that visual culture played in the early development of the innovative British anthropological research group founded in 1937. In Curzon's new book, she explores the paintings of Graham Bell and William Coldstream; the photographs of Humphrey Spender (brother of Stephen Spender); the paintings, collages and photographs of Julian Trevelyan; and Humphrey Jennings’ photographs and widely recognized Mass-Observation film, Spare Time, among other sources. Her research positions these works as key sources of information with regard to illuminating the complex character of British identity during the Depression era. Curzon is associate professor of art history in the UA Department of Art and Art History. Her research focuses on issues of identity politics as they concern the production of visual culture in twentieth-century Britain. She has previously published work on LGBTQ+ portraiture, as well as articles or chapters on the Ashington Group and Humphrey Spender’s photographs of Blackpool in the 1930s. She regularly presents her work at national and international conferences. She received the PhD in Visual Culture Studies from the University of Rochester in 2006 and holds a doctoral certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies. In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Curzon has organized numerous exhibitions showcasing the work of both regional and nationally recognized artists. She serves as Director of Graduate Studies for Art History and is editor-in-chief of FutureForward, the journal of Integrative Teaching International. For more information about The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History degree programs, go to our website.
Art and Art History Students Present Research at URCA
FLIGHT SIMULATION Senior BFA major Kalypso Homan made a head-spinning presentation at the recent Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference held at UA. Art history majors Nadia DelMedico, Sommer Hallquist and art history minor Reed O’Mara presented their research in posters during a session held in the Heritage Ballroom at Ferguson Student Center on UA campus. Homan explained how her dizzying idea was brought to life: “The aim of this project is to use a HTC Vive headset to bring the viewer on a 3D time-based immersive virtual reality experience. With our research we are exploring the possibility for a realistic flight simulation from the point of view of a bird. This simulation takes the form of a predatory chase. The player will enter the role of the prey fleeing a supernatural force, the goal being to add a sense of speed, urgency and fear to the simulation. The entire experience should be so intense that the player might suspend disbelief for long enough to believe that they are flying, or even flying for their life.” ART HISTORY RESEARCH POSTERS Junior art history major Nadia DelMedico presented original research into extant slave dwellings on the antebellum UA campus. Her poster titled, “Too Close to Home: The History of Slavery on the University of Alabama Campus,” was selected as the third place winner in the Arts & Humanities category of the URCA poster sessions. DelMedico’s poster also won second place in the Harrison Awards for Excellence in Research at the Undergraduate Poster Presentation during the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History at UA’s Bryant Conference Center. Other presenters at the URCA poster session included senior double major in art history and anthropology Sommer Hallquist. Hallquist's poster was titled "Images of Antichrist within Bible moralisée Codex Vindobonensis 2554, Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek." Economics and German major Reed O'Mara presented her art history research poster, "Getting Ahead: The Roles of Headless Saints in the Contest for Coronation Site."
22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History
About the 2017 Symposium Photos: Flickr.com | Facebook.com 2017 Graduate Student Presentations and Keynote Speaker Ariana Panbechi, George Washington University, “Projections of Prestige: Aristocratic Portraiture of Qajar Iran” Isabel Lee-Rosson, University of North Texas, “American Diplomacy and Lebanese Art, ca. 1970: Contextualizing Paul Guiragossian’s Exhibitions in the United States” Mariana Gómez, University of South Florida, “Safe Conduct Pass (Paiza): Apotropaia and Human Representation in Islamic Art” Erin Hein, Case Western Reserve University, “Uncovering Roman Activity at the Aquae Apollinares through The Vicarello Goblet” Margaret Hankel, University of Georgia, “The Photographer as Author: Albert Renger-Patzsch and Die Welt ist schön” Rebecca Teague, The University of Alabama, “Nanni di Banco’s St Luke as a Statement Against Albizzi Control” Kelby M. Cox, The University of Alabama, “Stitching Agency: Enslaved African American Quiltmaking and the Prejudicial South” Carmen Gonzalez Fraile, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Photographs of the Children’s March and Their Afterlives” Allison Springer, The University of Alabama, “Commemorating Freedom with Spectacles of Race: Abolitionist Propaganda during the American Civil War” Keynote Lecture: Dr. Kristin Schwain, University of Missouri, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club” Undergraduate Poster Sessions Alea Bondarenko, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “The Queen’s Stepwell at Patan, Gujarat” Nadia DelMedico, The University of Alabama, “Too Close to Home: The History of Slavery on The University of Alabama’s Campus” Sarah Faulkner, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “The Crux of Cultural Crossroads: Indigenous Elements in the Mahabat Maqbara” Sommer Hallquist, The University of Alabama, “Images of Antichrist within Bible moralisée Codex Vindobonensis 2554, Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek” Riley E. B. Kliethermes, University of Tennessee, “Artemisia Gentileschi: Criticisms of the Feminist Perspective” Victoria Klouda, University of Tennessee, “The Luttrell Psalter: Medieval Marginalia and Viewer Visual Literacy” Reed O’Mara, The University of Alabama, “Getting Ahead: The Roles of Headless Saints in the Contest for Coronation Site” Rachel Polaniec, Case Western Reserve University, “To Engage, Educate, and Entertain: Living History Museums and the Visitor Experience” Chandler Roberts, Marian University, “The Uncreated Image: The Omission of Authentic Birth in Art” Jessica Shieh, The University of Alabama, “The Lasting Significance of Springtime: Julian Onderdonk’s Dynamic Legacy as an American Impressionist” More about the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History Program for the 2017 symposium: PDF | Issuu.com Past Symposia
UA Art and Art History Hosts 22nd Graduate Symposium
Graduate students from UA and around the country will present their research at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History at The University of Alabama on March 3, 2017. Art history grad students from UA, UAB and from institutions including George Washington University, Case Western Reserve and the University of Georgia, will present papers at UA's Bryant Conference Center. In addition, this year, undergraduate students in art history have been invited to present research in a poster session. After prizes for Best Paper and Best Poster are awarded, Dr. Kristin Schwain, Associate Professor of American Art at the University of Missouri, will give the keynote address at 3:45 p.m. Schwain's talk is titled, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club.” This year’s symposium is generously supported by the College of Continuing Studies; Robert Olin, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Tricia McElroy, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Roger Sidje, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; The University of Alabama Graduate School; The Kirby Endowment (Department of Art and Art History), the Department of American Studies, and Harrison Galleries LLC. Download this year's program here (PDF). Issuu.com version here. Photos: Flickr.com | Facebook.com | List of presenters and award winners Now in its 22nd year, the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History provides a forum for the presentation of graduate student research drawn from all areas of art history. The symposium also features a keynote lecture by a leading scholar of art history. Previous speakers have included Paul Barolsky (Italian Renaissance art), Allison Kettering (Dutch Baroque art), Michael Yonan (18th-19th century European art), and Graham Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. The symposium alternates campuses each year. The Master of Arts degree in art history is offered jointly by The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The MA degree in art history prepares students for further academic study at the doctoral level or for professional careers in teaching, museums, galleries and other arts-related fields. Students may enroll on either campus and must take at least 6 hours of course work on the other campus. Contact: Dr. Lucy Curzon, Director of Graduate Studies, lcurzon@ua.edu, (205) 348-6458.
Online Catalog Features UA Art Resources
Image Resource Center student assistant Delilah Marshall recently catalogued her 915th item in The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History's online catalog at LibraryThing.com, a crowd-sourced organizational tool. Marshall has spent the last two years building an online catalog to make departmental educational resources more accessible to art and art history faculty and students. Along with research and image search services, the Image Resource Center offers DVDs and videos, as well as books and journals to faculty, instructors and grad students in the Department of Art and Art History for check out. Undergrads must have a faculty or instructor sponsor in order to check out IRC materials. For old-school users, our Excel database of DVD and videos is attached here. To access DVDs, videos, books and journals of the IRC, go to LibraryThing.com, create an account (free) and search through more than 700 titles at our online catalog: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/UA-ImageResources. If you have questions or need help, contact Visual Resources Curator Rachel Dobson, 348-1893 or rachel.dobson@ua.edu.
20th Graduate Symposium in Art History Lecture: Images of Jim Crow
Image Credits
Twentieth Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History Friday, March 6, The University of Alabama Sessions 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Ferguson Student Center, Anderson Society Room 313 Keynote Lecture 3:30 p.m., Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library 205 The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History is pleased announce its Twentieth Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History on March 6, 2015. The symposium will feature seven graduate student speakers from the Joint Program for the M.A. in Art History of UA and UAB and from around the region. They will present their research in the Anderson Society Room of the Ferguson Center from 9-3 (see schedule below). In conjunction with the symposium, the Department has invited keynote speaker Barbara Mooney, associate professor of American art and architecture at the University of Iowa and a leading scholar in race and architecture, as well as a distinguished teacher. Dr. Mooney will present "From Jumping Jack to Jump Jim Crow: The Origins of a Pernicious Southern Stereotype?" on the origins and evolution of racist imagery at 3:30 in Gorgas Library 205 with a reception following. Mooney is the author of Prodigy Houses of Virginia: Architecture and the Native Elite (University of Virginia Press, 2008). The public is invited to attend the sessions and the keynote lecture. The 2015 symposium is generously supported by the UA Department of Art and Art History, the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School, the Department of American Studies and Harrison Galleries, Tuscaloosa. Barbara Mooney’s keynote lecture has received funding from the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, Associate Dean Roger Sidje and the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama. The Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History, sponsored and shared by the departments of art and art history at The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama at Birmingham, alternates campuses each year. The symposium was begun in 1995 by faculty on both campuses to bring their students together to hear and be heard by eminent scholars working in the field of art history. Renowned scholars such as Paul Barolsky in the field of Italian Renaissance art, Allison Kettering in the field of Dutch Baroque art, and young, up-and-coming scholars like Michael Yonan, Krista Thompson, and Graham Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art, have been keynote speakers. The Joint Program for the M.A. in Art History began in 1987 between The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The program combines resources from each school and from their communities to provide a stronger program than either could offer alone. The Joint Program offered the first, and still the only, graduate degree in art history in the state of Alabama. Image credit: Scrapbook image, late 19th century, Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, no. 70x1.7, Winterthur Library, Winterthur, Delaware. For further information, contact Rachel Dobson, communications specialist, 205/348-1893, rachel.dobson@ua.edu. The symposium webpage is here: http://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/graduate-symposium/ ### Symposium Program 9:00-9:30 coffee: Anderson Room, Ferguson Ctr. (302) Session 1 9:30-11:15 Anderson Society Room (313) Welcome and introductory comments Caitlin Huber (UA) "Reinterpreting Alabama’s Greek Revival: The Battle House and Architecture’s Effect on Religion, Race Relations and Slavery Justification" Celeste Paxton (UAB) "Identity, Territorial Demarcation and Self-Defense at Chaturbhujnath Nala" Shane Harless (Tulane) "The Donna Regina Passion Frescoes: A Portrayal of the Interior Altars of Invisible Women" 11:15 to 11:30 coffee break: Anderson Room (302) Session 2 11:30-12:30: Anderson Society Room (313) Lauren Walter (Florida) "The Ambiguity of the Pink Dress in Later Nineteenth-Century French Painting" Amy Williamson (UAB) "‘The Ladies’ Who Founded MoMA: How Three Female Art Collectors Created One of the World’s Leading Museums" 12:30 to 1:30 lunch: Anderson Room (302) Session 3 1:30-3:00: Anderson Society Room (313) Kelly Allen (UAB) "O’Keeffe’s Skyscraper Series as a Symbol of Power and Social Independence" Rachel Fesperman (FSU) "The Devil Behind: Castrated Sodomy and the Sexuality of Uncanny Violence in Man Ray’s Monument à D.A.F. de Sade" Megan Moore (UA) "The Forgotten Beats: Photographing a Generation" Keynote address 3:30: Gorgas Library 205 Dr. Barbara Burlison Mooney, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Iowa "From Jumping Jack to Jump Jim Crow: The Origins of a Pernicious Southern Stereotype?" Reception following