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Art Historian Presents Grant-Winning VR Project

In May, Dr. Jennifer Feltman presented her project, “Experiencing Gothic: A VR Cathedral for Middle Schoolers,” at the 2020-21 Whiting Foundation Fellows Convening Meeting in New York City via Zoom.

Screenshots of a Zoom meeting
Feltman’s Zoom background is a photo she took from the top of the north tower of the west façade of the Cathedral of Reims, the medieval cathedral that will be in the VR game.

Feltman was awarded a 2020-21 Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Seed Grant to partner with teachers and digital media experts to build a virtual reality experience of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame at Reims in France and incorporate it into seventh- and eighth-grade media arts classes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Feltman is one of 14 grantees in the 2020-21 Whiting Public Engagement Program, a distinctive national grant founded to champion the public humanities in all its forms and to highlight the roles scholars play in using the humanities to advance communities around the country. Her application to the Whiting Foundation was sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art.

For information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, visit our Degree Programs page.