Cast bronze sculptures by students of Professor Craig Wedderspoon were unveiled in downtown Monroeville, Ala., in April, as part of the Literary Capital Sculpture Trail. Monroeville, the birthplace of author Harper Lee, and the home of the Alabama Writers Symposium for the past two decades, has been designated the Literary Capital of Alabama. The sculpture trail, made up of 14 cast bronze works, celebrates ten writers who have put Monroeville on the literary map, including Harper Lee, Truman Capote, journalist Cynthia Tucker, and novelist Mark Childress. Although not an official Bicentennial event, the sculpture trail and its unveiling was planned to coincide with the 200th anniversary celebrations. The artists were studio art major Hunter Abdo, senior anthropology major Alysa Boyd, sophomore studio art major Zane Boyd, senior BFA major in sculpture and anthropology major Amber Daum, graduate student in creative writing and geography Josh Dugat, Jenn Gault (BFA 2018), special student Jim Harrison III, senior art history major and studio art minor Morgan Harrison, Pat Hoban (MFA 2019), senior studio art major Jonathan Lanier, senior studio art major Hannah Lincoln, BFA major in sculpture Ringo Lisko and senior studio art major Alyson Smith. For a slideshow of all the sculptures, click on this page: http://monroevillemainstreet.com/Literary-Capital-Bronze-Sculpture-Trail For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit our website: https://art.ua.edu/academics/or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.
UA Students Tune Photo Skills, Learn History, to Prepare for Black Belt Artist Trip
"Before we started, I knew next to nothing about the Black Belt region," admitted Kasandra Boor, a psych major and studio art minor. Boor, with five other students and associate professor of photography Chris Jordan, has been preparing this week for a research trip to Camden, Ala., where the group will photograph and interview artists who live in the Black Belt. The class has spent this week training and studying in preparation for work in the field next week, where they will take portrait photographs of artists, many of whom grew up in the region. The students will also interview and taking oral histories of the artists. Students have been reviewing photography basics and learning techniques of studio lighting and other skills they will put into practice next week. They have practiced by taking portrait photos of two art faculty members, learning to set up lighting equipment, build a photo and use artificial and natural light. They've also been learning more about the Black Belt region itself, reading about some of its history, as well as researching the artists they will be photographing and interviewing. "What I enjoyed most about this week is our discussions about how to respect cultural differences and agency. Basically, it is how to best tell accurate stories and respect how you are presenting information about others. I am very excited to keep learning throughout the next two weeks!” said Boor. This is the second group of students Jordan has brought to the area this year. These students range in experience from experienced photographers to novices, and not all are art majors. “I’m thrilled to be working with a group of students with a wide range of backgrounds,” Jordan said. The students are Kasandra Boor, psychology major, studio art minor; Aleiah Briggs, studio art major; Sarah Cheshire, MFA student in creative writing; Sam MacDonald, BFA major in photography and digital media; Gordon MacNeil, retired UA professor of social work; and Maddy O’Connor, studio art major. Maddy O'Connor, who lives in Florida, said she is looking forward to the adventure. "I have learned so much over this past week, and I feel prepared for the week to come. I have never visited the Black Belt region before, and I’ve always wanted to explore it. I feel like this will be such a positive learning experience for me, and I can’t wait to meet all of the local artists." Follow the Black Belt Artist Project on Instagram or Facebook and check out our growing photo page: https://art.ua.edu/news/black-belt-artist-project-daily-photos/ The Black Belt Artist Project is a collaborative initiative between the UA department of art and art history, the non-profit Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center and Canon Solutions America. A book, exhibition and archive of the materials will be produced from the oral histories recorded and portraits created by the students. Photo captions and credits: (top) Students practice portrait photos on Dr. Lucy Curzon in her Garland Hall office. [1-LUCY-CURZON.jpg] (middle) Students practice portrait photos on Associate Professor Bill Dooley in his Woods Hall studio. [2-BILL-DOOLEY.jpg] (bottom) Associate Professor Chris Jordan and students load photographic equipment into the car before their trip to Wilcox County, Ala. [4-1MonLOADING.jpeg] For more information about the Black Belt Artist Project, contact Associate Professor Chris Jordan at (205) 348-1217 or Rachel Dobson, communications specialist, at (205) 348-1893. For information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit our website: https://art.ua.edu/academics/or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.
UA Art Historians to Host National Graduate Student Conference
The Department of Art and Art History is pleased to host the 24th Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History on March 1, 2019, in the Bryant Conference Center on UA campus. Dr. Catherine Zuromskis, associate professor of fine art at RIT, will present the keynote address at 4:15 p.m., titled, “Feeling History: Evidence, Affect, and the Visual Culture of the Kennedy Assassination.” The symposium, a shared production of the departments of art and art history at The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will take place this year at the Bryant Conference Center on UA’s campus. Students from colleges and universities around the country will participate in the conference, as graduate research presenters and in undergraduate research poster presentations. Along with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and UA, schools represented are Columbus State University (Columbus, Ga.), Florida State University (Tallahassee), Savannah College of Art and Design, University of Kentucky (Lexington), University of Missouri (Columbia), University of Montevallo (Montevallo, Ala.), University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minn.) and University of West Florida (Pensacola). This year’s symposium is generously supported by The Graduate School; Dr. Robert Olin, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences; Dr. Tricia McElroy, Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences; Blount Scholars Program; New College; Department of Art and Art History; College of Continuing Studies; Harrison Galleries, LLC; Department of Modern Languages & Classics; and the Department of American Studies, of The University of Alabama. About the symposium: 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. In addition to presentations from graduate students from multiple institutions, the symposium also features poster presentations from undergraduate researchers. 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, now director of 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 Joint Program offered the first, and still the only, graduate degree in art history in the state of Alabama. For more information, contact: Dr. Lucy Curzon, lcurzon@ua.edu, (205) 348-6458.
Gay Burke Memorial Fellowship in Photographic Arts
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 just 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 has written 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.” Last May, Teague got a chance to see the cathedrals up close and in context during a study-abroad trip with the Department of Art and Art History. She was able to visit Rome, Florence and Venice with the group and served as a teaching assistant to Dr. Tanja Jones, who is also Teague’s thesis advisor. After the main part of the trip was over, Teague and Jones made a side trip to Verona to view in person the sculptured doorways of the cathedrals 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 Teague visualize what they were like 900 years ago. 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, Teague 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 will graduate in December and take time off before she continues her studies in a doctoral program. [fall18] 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