Rachel Dobson, the department’s communications specialist, retires July 1 after more than twenty-five years at UA, twenty-three in art and art history.
After working at Alabama Heritage and the UA Press, Dobson was hired as the art department’s slide curator in 2001 just a few years before the world shifted from analog to digital technology. As teaching resources changed, Dobson stopped making slides and found other ways to be useful. She started an in-house news flyer that branched into an online monthly newsletter and a 16-page magazine (The Loupe) that covers department activities each semester. In 2011, her title officially changed from slide curator to communications specialist and visual resources curator, recognizing her work on the department’s library, website and social media accounts, including a 6,000+ online photo collection on Flickr.com and two book collections totaling more than 2,500, cataloged on LibraryThing.com.
As her job description morphed over the years, Dobson said, she learned many of the skills needed for her work through UA’s staff training courses and by pursuing master’s degrees in art history and library and information studies at UA. “As the world and our work changed, my department and my professors always supported my learning while working. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunities to learn on this campus.”
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, visit our Degree Programs page.