Department of Art History

Admission is free to students, $8.00 per person for members of sponsoring institutions, and $10.00 per person for others.  Reservations are necessary for a post-conference reception, at an additional charge of $15.00.  For additional information, please call 804/828-2784 or email arthistory@vcu.edu.

Click here to download brochure and registration information

Friday, November 18th, 2011
9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Virginia Historical Society

• PhD Student Samina Iqbal exhibited her work, Utensils, in Erasing Borders 2012: Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora at the Crossing Art Gallery in New York City. She was awarded funding from the School of the Arts to attend the opening reception of the show. In April, Samina presented her paper titled, “Objects of Changing Notion: Adeela Suleman and Contemporary Sculpture in Pakistan” at SASA.
• PhD Student Jeanette Nicewinter began an internship working with the Ancient American Art collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. During the summer she will photograph Moche vessels as part of an ongoing project at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She will spend the remainder of the summer participating in the Yanaorco Archaeological Project Field School in Cajamarca, Peru. To facilitate her research in Peru Jeanette was awarded a Graduate Research Grant through the School of the Arts.  
• Phd Student Kristina Keogh was selected to participate in the NEH Summer Institute, “Leonardo da Vinci: Between Art and Science.” This three-week program will be held in June and July at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI) – Max-Planck-Institut in Florence, Italy and directed by Dr. Francesca Fiorani of the University of Virginia. Kristina will receive a $2,700 stipend to cover the cost of travel, lodging, and living expenses. 
• PhD Student Elizabeth Ann Fuqua returned to her alma mater, James Madison Univeristy, to deliver her paper “Theodor De Bry’s Images of the Americas and their Afterlife” at the 2012 Virginia Forum on March 31, 2012. Based on her presentation Elizabeth plans to collaborate with Lisa Heuvel, Education Specialist at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, on the use of Theodor De Bry’s images in museum displays. Elizabeth was also awarded a VCU University Service Award on April 26, 2012 for her outstanding service and commitment to the Art History Graduate Student Association and the Richmond community. 
• Graduate Student Kristie Couser will continue serving as a Group Leader for Art of Nursing, an interprofessional educational program developed collaboratively by VCU School of Art Education and VCU School of Nursing that aims to strengthen observational and clinical reasoning skills in nursing students. In this role, Kristie facilitates inquiry-based learning activities relevant to medical practice based on student careful visual analysis of works on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Kristie is also currently interning at the VMFA under Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art.
• PhD Student Kerry Lucinda Brown  was named an alternate for The Ittleson Predoctoral Fellowship (2012 – 2014), sponsored by The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery Art in Washington, D.C. The next month, she presented her paper, “Performing the Sacred in Buddhist Art: Dipankara Buddha and the Samyak Mahadana in Nepal,” at the South Asian Studies Association’s (SASA) Sixth Annual Conference at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. This paper was also nominated for publication in SASA’s journal, Exemplar: The Journal of South Asian Studies. Kerry’s participation in this conference was sponsored by a generous travel grant from the Department of Art History at VCU. That same month, Kerry traveled to The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where she presented two lectures on the Art of Newar Buddhism of Nepal. Organized by the UAB Department of Art & Art History, her trip was sponsored by the John S. Jemison Visiting Professorship in the Humanities at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Kerry is also teaching at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) this spring. Her art history class, The Art of India, is a prelude to the upcoming exhibition, Maharaja: The Splendor’s of India’s Great Kings. In May, she will participate in the VMFA’s Conversations in the South Asian galleries for the gallery discussion, “Namaste: Yoga and Indian Art” with yoga instructor, Kim Austin-Peterman from The Space Above Yoga Center in Norfolk, Virginia. This summer, Kerry plans to return to Nepal for a short research trip, while also working towards finishing her dissertation. 
• Undergraduate Students Marley Phillips, Emily Stock and Allie Webster were accepted into the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Museum Leaders in Training College Mentorship Program for the 2012-13 academic year.
• Graduate student Elizabeth Fuqua was awarded a University Service Award for the Spring 2012 semester. The award is presented to students who have provided outstanding service and commitment to university committees, student organizations and/or the Richmond community.
• PhD student Kristina Keogh has been accepted to participate in the National Foundation for the Humanities’ (NEH) Summer Institute Leonardo da Vinci:  Between Art and Science that will take place in Florence, Italy this summer.
• PhD student Jeanette Nicewinter is currently interning with the collection of Ancient American art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Additionally, Jeanette was selected to participate in the Yanaorco Archaeological Project Field School in Peru through the University of Wyoming for this upcoming summer. Jeanette was awarded a Graduate Research Grant through the School of the Arts to facilitate her research in Peru this summer
• Making History:  Twentieth Century African American Art opens March 31, 2012 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  The exhibition and catalogue essay were developed during a Fall 2011 seminar (taught by Dr. Peggy Lindauer) by Graduate Students Andrea Alvarez, Grace Astrove, Kristie Couser, Elizabeth Fuqua, and Meredith Hertel. http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/exhibitions/making-history.aspx
• Graduate student Kristie Couser was selected to receive the Spring 2012 Bruce Koplin Award in Museum Studies.
• Graduate student Erica  Borey began an internship at the Lewis Ginter Botantical Gardens working with the Imperial Reichenbachia orchid print collection.  She will batalogue and address conservation concerns for all 188 prints.  Look for some images in the coming weeks at www.lewisginter.org
• Graduate Student, Alicia McCarty received the Assistant Curator of Collections position at Agecoft Hall.
• Undergraduate Art History student, James Shaeffer has been accepted into the Curatorial Studies Residency Program at the Node Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin, Germany. James is a Spring 2012 graduation candidate for a dual degree in Art History and Sculpture.
• PhD student Kerry Lucinda Brown will travel to Nepal in February to further her dissertation research. In addition, Kerry will present her paper, “Likeness and Presence: Manifesting the Sacred in Newar Art” at the 42nd Annual Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art organized by the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland and co-sponsored by National Gallery’s Center for Advanced Story in the Visual Arts in Washington, D.C.,  March 30 – 31, 2012. 
• PhD student Kristina Keogh recevied a Graduate Student Research Grant from the School of the Arts to conduct research on the presentation of the incorruptible body in sixteenth and seventeeth century in Italy.  She will travel to Rome, Bologna and Florence this winter.
• PhD student Sara Moriarty recevied a Graduate Student Research Grant from the School of the Arts to research Kunstmuseum Solothurn for several weeks this spring. 
• Graduate student Kaitlan Linnea Smith was selected for the Bobby Chandler Internship at the Virginia Historical Society.  She will be giving tours through the Story of Virginia Exhibit to school aged children and will receive a stipend for her work. 
• Graduate student Marina Mellado received a VCUarts Graduate Student Travel Grant to attend the symposium on Colonial Latin American Art “Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World” held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), December 2-5, 2011
• Graduate student Kristie Couser is currently interning at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts under Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art. This fall Kristie began serving as a College Advisor to teenagers participating in the VMFA Museum Leaders in Training program.
• Undergradute student, Dennis Williams along with several students received a 2012 Undergraduate Research Grant (Faculty mentor:  Dr. Charles Brownell).  The Leigh Street Armory Project – Uncovery and Revitalization located at the corner of St. Peter and Leigh Streets, the Leigh Street Armory is one of only three such armories ever built in the U.S. for African Americans. Erected in 1895, it was an emblem of African American independence and community. The students will 1) provide scholarly documentation outlining the historical importance of this building and the African American militias, 2) document the style of armories and their important place in the architectural record, 3) conduct interviews of community members and local historians, and 4) formulate a design packet illustrating the potential use of the structure as an African American military museum and community art center/garden. A community forum will present a proposal for reuse of the building, a documentary of its history, and a theatrical production.
• Professor Dr. Babatunde Lawal delieverd the keynote address at the Congresso De Cultura e Religiao Yorurba at the Universidade Federal De Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, in Brazil, December 1, 2011.
• PhD Student Elilzabeth Ann Fuqua was selected to receive the Virginia Association of Museums (VAM)/American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) scholarship to attend the American Association for State and Local History conference in Richmond, VA , September 14-17, 2011.
• PhD Student Elilzabeth Ann Fuqua will be presenting her paper “Theodor DeBry’s Images of the Americas and their Afterlife” at the 2012 Virginia Forum “Greater Virginias”. This event will be held at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, March 29-31, 2012
• PhD Student Kerry Lucinda Brown was invited to present at the Graduate Student Workshop, “Buddhist Art: Objects and Contexts” at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis, Missouri on November 10 – 11, 2011. Organized in conjunction with the museum exhibition, Reflections of the Buddha, this workshop challenges participants to reflect on the diverse concepts of “context” in the study of Buddhist art. 
• Robert Hobbs, Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair in American Art, along with Jean Crutchfield curated the large-scale exhibition, Tavares Strachan: seen/unseen which opened at an undisclosed New York City location (September 19-October 20, 2011). http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=ai45xyhab&v=001HyWuGvOOR8iCfXvICO47uaqsnedJl2XVtw2Iyx3Bd5SLMsNR0C54zvl2zhucop38FTwmpeO-bmm5CZQvg2o1tudE8H4ZIK2g6aA-Q-WFHdlyQwe8KP228g%3D%3D
• Undergraduate Student, Richard Tyler King will be presenting his paper “Chronicling Urbanism In-Between:  There/Here” at the second International Conference on the Constructed Environment, October 29-30, 2011
  http://constructedenvironment.com/conference-2011/
• PhD Student, Samina Iqbal will be presenting her work in the upcoming exhibition “Iaac Erasing Borders 2011:  Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora” at the Jorgensen Galler, Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
  http://www.iaac.us/erasing_borders_2011/index.htm
• Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Dina Bangdel will be presenting her paper “Pilgrimage to Gosainkunda:  Experiencing a Syncretic Space” at the International Symposium Himalayan Odyssy organized by the Indian Cultural Center, Embassy of India in Kathmandu, Nepal, November 11-13, 2011.  Dr. Bangdel will then travel to Mumbai, India to present the Keynote Address for the Exhibition which she co-curated “Feminie Visions of Contemporary Nepalese Art”, November 20-27, 2011
• Associate Professor James Farmer along with PhD Students Andrea Alvarez, Kristina Keogh, Amy Marshman, Sara Moriarty and Kaitlin Smith will be presenting at the 67th Annual Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), November 9-12, 2011.
• Associate Professor James Farmer presented his paper “What’s NOT in Barrier Canyon Art and What Does (or doesn’t) It Mean?” at the Utah Rock Art Research Association Annual Symposium in Price, Utah, September 21-26, 2011
• Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Dina Bangdel presented her paper “Encountering the Sacred:  Art and Ritual in Himalayan Art” at the Nevada Museum of Art, in Reno, NV, June 27-30, 2011.
• Associate Professor James Farmer traveled to Albuquerque, NM to present his paper “The solar Program at Azetc Ruin Great Kiva” at the Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest, June 15-18, 2011.
• Professor Babatunde Lawal spent the Spring 2011 semester at the National Museum of African Art (Washington, D.C.) on a Senior Smithsonian Fellowship completing a book tentatively titled “Signifying the Thunderstorm Deity:  Sango in Yoruba Art.”   The book explores the interplay of word and image of Sàngó iconography as well as the changing transnational reinterpretation of Sàngó forms by artists of African descent in the Americas.
• PhD Student Jessica Welton will be participating in a panel of Young Scholars at the 17th Annual Native American Art Studies Association in Ontario, Canada, October 26-29, 2011.
• PhD Student Glenna Barlow has received a Fulbright Student Scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year.  She will travel to Mumbai, India to research decorative motifs in ephemeral folk art and work under the direction of Professor Prakash Khandge at the University of Mumbai.
• PhD Student Sara K. Moriarty received the Paul and Fredrika Jacobs Scholarship Award for the 2011-12 academic year.
• Undergraduate Student, Richard Tyler King will be presenting his paper “Chronicling Urbanism In-Between  There/Here” at the second International Conference on the Constructed Environment, October 27-31, 2011.
• Undergraduate Students Elizabeth Forbes and James Shaeffer received the Bernice B. Gordon Scholarship Award for the fall 2011 semester.
• Undergraduate Student Emily Stock received the Barbara Ellen Powers Scholarship Award for the fall 2011 semester.
• Undergraduate Student Shazia Aziz received the Maurice Bonds Scholarship Award for the fall 2011 semester.
• Undergraduate Student Corey Martin received the 2011 Dean’s International Study Grant to travel to Kathmandu, Nepal.

• Robert Hobbs, Rhoda Thalhimer Chair in American Art presented his paper “Image Duplication:  Roy Lichtenstein’s Legacy” at The Morgan Library & Museum’s Symposium “Lichtenstein in Context:  Drawing in the 1960′s”.
• Dina Bangdel, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies published Pilgrimage and Faith:  Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam along with Virginia C. Raguin and F.E. Peters (Chicago:  Serindia Publications, 2010).
• Michael Schreffler, Associate Professor and Department Chair published his paper “‘To Live in the City is to Die’:  Death and Architecture in Colonial Cuzco, Peru” in Hispanic Issue On Line 7 (2010) Death and Afterlife in the Modern Hispanic World, eds. Constance Cortez and John Beusterien.

  http://hispanicissues.umn.edu/DeathandAfterlife.html

• Graduate Student Glenna Barlow has received a Fulbright Student Scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year.  She will travel to Mumbai, India to research decorative motifs in ephemeral folk art and work under the direction of Professor Prakash Khandge at the University of Mumbai.
• PhD Candidate Kerry Lucinda Brown presented two lectures on the Art History of Newar Buddhism at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal where she is a visiting Fulbright Fellow.  On November 9th she presented her lecture “Nepal Mandala:  Localizing the Scared in Newar Art” and on November 12th she presented her lecture The Iconography of Dipankara Buddha in Nepal”.
• Corinne McVeigh, Master of Arts candidate in the Museum Studies track has received a Thesis/Dissertation Award from the VCU Graduate School.  The award provides tuition support and stipend that allows authors to focus on their scholarship.  Corinne is expected to defend her thesis, “The Stockbridge-Munsee Tote at the National Museum of the American Indian”, during the Fall 2010 semester.
• PhD Student Kristina Keogh received the Paul and Fredrika Jacobs Scholarship Award for the 2010-11 academic year.
• Undergraduate Students Jessica Ferey, Ilijana Soldan and Dennis Williams all received the Bernice B. Gordon Scholarship Award for the fall 2010 semester.

“Social Skin, ” an exhibition collaboratively curated by VCUarts Museum Studies graduate students.

The body is at once biological and sociological. It is the container that distinguishes death from life, though it is only when our body fails us that we become aware of its complexity, its frailty, its physical presence—and our complete dependence upon it. At the same time, our bodies offer a means through which we craft our individualities. Although each physical body is unique, we embellish it and mold it to further elaborate upon our sense of self. Social Skin—the third in a biennial series of exhibitions collaboratively curated by VCUarts Museum Studies students—presents an eclectic mix of artworks and objects that present, explore, and delight in the body as cultural artifact.

Continues through August 1, 2010
6:00 – 8:00 pm
VCUarts Anderson Gallery

Dr. Robert Hobbs, Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair, VCUarts
“Looking for Bumstead”

Thursday, April 8th, 2010
4:00 – 6:00 pm
The Grace Street Theater, 934 W. Grace St, Richmond, VA

This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information: 804.828.2784

Speakers include:

1. Todd Cronan, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Virginia Commonwealth University
2. Bibiana K. Obler, Assistant Professor, George Washington University (specializes in Hans and Sophie-Tauber Arp)
3. Charles Palermo, Associate Professor, College of William and Mary (specializes in Miro, Picasso, and Photography from Emerson to Douglas Gordon)
4. Howard Singerman, Associate Professor, Univerity of Virginia (specializes in Contemporary Art and Theory, Sherrie Levine and Mike Kelly)

   Friday, April 2nd, 2010
   1:00 – 5:00 pm
   The Grace Street Theater, 934 W. Grace St, Richmond, VA

   The Colloquium is free and open to the public. For more information: 804.828.2784

Dr. Naresh Man Bajracharya, Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Dept. of Art History, VCUarts

Dedicated to Arya Tara the Buddhist goddess of Compassion, this is one of the most popular Tantric Buddhist rituals in Nepal and Tibet.  The elaborate ritual illustrates the use of images in the ritual context and involves chanting, meditation, dance, symbolic hand gestures, empowerment, and blessing.  Dr. Bajracharya is one of the leading ritual specialists of Nepalese Buddhism.

Saturday, March 6th, 2010
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Pace Center for Campus and Community Ministry
700 W. Franklin Street

The performance is free and open to the public. For more information: 804.828.2784

“Traditions–I”

Friday, November 13th , 2009
9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Virginia Historical Society, 428 North Boulevard, Richmond, VA

The conference, directed by Professor Charles Brownell, will have four sessions. They will deal with the story of the “Palladian” window from the Ancient Near East to Richmond’s Fan District; furniture classics in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and furniture made in Richmond; the art of ironwork, with special reference to VCU’s nationally important collection of wrought and cast iron; and a “parade of white columns,” from the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition of 1907 through more recent buildings inspired by Monticello.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and a dozen other cultural institutions join the Department of Art History in sponsoring the event.

Admission is free to students, $8.00 per person for members of sponsoring institutions, and $10.00 per person for others. Reservations are necessary for a post-conference reception, at an additional charge of $15.00, and for a walking tour of Richmond wrought iron, at $10.00. To register, please send checks, payable to VCU Conference, to Conference, Department of Art History, Virginia Commonwealth University, P.O. Box 843046, 922 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23284-3046, by November 6. Brochures will be available in early Fall. For a brochure or other information, please call 804/828-2784 or email Courtney Culbreth at cculbreth@vcu.edu.

Download 2009-10 Architectural History Symposium Brochure

“Color in Islamic Art and Culture”

November 2 – 4, 2009
Cordorba, Spain

For more information and to receive email updates: http://www.islamicartdoha.org/
17th Annual Symposium on Architectural History and the Decorative Arts

“Color in Islamic Art and Culture”

November 2 – 4, 2009
Cordorba, Spain

For more information and to receive email updates: http://www.islamicartdoha.org/
17th Annual Symposium on Architectural History and the Decorative Arts