FACULTY NEWS
Professor Caspar Meyer published an article, “Rhythm and Possibility: Making Space for Ancient Futures,” in the inaugural issue of the journal Possibility Studies & Society.
Benjamin Wigfall and Communications Village, an exhibition curated by associate professor Drew Thompson for the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY-New Paltz, has earned the Dorsky a 2023 Museum Association of New York (MANY) Award of Distinction. The exhibition will be on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art June 17–September 10, 2023.
In March 2020, associate professor Ittai Wenryb, art historian Caroline Fowler, and Michelle Komie (Princeton University Press) co-founded a book series that presents accessible introductions to art history that provide “an understanding of objects as they were formed through making, deterioration, care, and remaking.” The first volume is now available through Princeton University Press with an introduction contributed by alum Sequoia Miller (MA, ’12).
STAFF NEWS
Director of DH/DX Jesse Merandy, digital humanities educational technologist Julie Fuller, and associate curator Emma Cormack attended the 2023 MuseWeb conference at George Mason University. They shared their work with online exhibitions and digital interactives, including Shaped by the Loom and Majolica Mania.
Julie Fuller, Digital Humanities educational technologist, successfully defended her dissertation “Muscling Through: Popular Representations of Athletic Women in Victorian Fiction and Visual Culture” on April 10. Congratulations, Julie!
Director of Public Humanities and Research Andrew Kircher’s project, The Gif, is featured in Southwest Contemporary. The creative and scientific immersive installation is on view at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College until June 18. It combines art, storytelling, and music with co-creator Natalie Gosnell’s contemporary astrophysics research as a backdrop. Other collaborators on the project include Janani Balasubramanian, Katie Hodge, and Tina-Hanaé Miller.
STUDENT NEWS
Sydney Maresca (MA ’24) is designing the costumes for the upcoming Broadway production of The Cottage by Sandy Rustin, directed by Jason Alexander (Seinfeld). The new comedy, set in 1923 England, will feature Eric McCormack, Laura Bell Bundy, Lilli Cooper, Alex Moffat, Nehal Joshi, and Dana Steingold in Sydney Maresca’s richly researched and lusciously detailed period costumes. Performances start July 7 at the Helen Hayes Theater. More info here: https://thecottageonbroadway.com/
Amanda Thompson (MA ’16, PhD candidate) was awarded a Craft Research Fund Project Grant by the Center for Craft to support her dissertation “Florida Native Seminole and Miccosukee Patchwork in a Settler Colonial Context.” The research considers patchwork in the intercultural contexts of tourism, development, and appropriation to understand craft as a site of Native agency and colonial settler negotiation.
ALUMNI NEWS
Anne Eschapasse (MA ’99) was appointed president and CEO of McCord Steward Museum in Montréal. Congratulations, Anne!
Sequoia Miller (MA ’12) curated Outside the Palace of Me, a major exhibition of new work by Canadian visual artist and performer Shary Boyle at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Outside the Palace is organized by the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, where Miller is chief curator and deputy director. Broadwayworld.com calls it a “gripping assembly of provocative and timely works.” The exhibition is on view March 4–June 4. The book Outside the Palace of Me, published by the Art Canada Institute accompanies the exhibition.
Rachael Schwabe (MA ’20) led a series of seminars for lifelong learners at the Museum of Arts and Design around topics in craft history, including studio crafts, subversive craft, and sloppy craft.
Samuel Snodgrass (MA ’22) gave a lecture to the Emeritus Institute at Saddleback College on April 14 as part of their Dorothy Marie Lowry Distinguished Guest Lecture Series. His presentation covered global approaches to fashion history, focusing on two case studies in cultural authentication. The first case study looked at pelete bite textiles, cut-thread cloth, made by the Kalabari Ijo people; the second examined the dress of King Ibrahim Njoya (1860-1933) of the Bamum Kingdom.
Nadia Westenburg (MA ’17) presented at the College Art Association Annual Conference on February 17, 2023. Her paper “Depictions of Blackfeet in Great Northern Railway’s Promotional Materials for Glacier National Park” was part of a panel session entitled “The Art of Nation Building: An Examination of the Representation of the US National Parks.”
