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Art Faculty Attend Institute in Asheville, NC

Art faculty Julia DeLancey, Aaron Fine, Aaron Neeley, and Sara Orel, along with Amanda Langendoerfer, who is the Head of Special Collections and University Museums at Truman, attended a Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges Summer Institute on Liberal Learning in Asheville from June 8-10, 2017.  This year the annual institute focused on art programs.  Titled “Adaptations: Working in Art Departments at Public Liberal Arts Colleges,” the program brought together faculty from 18 universities to share ideas and discuss such topics as encouraging undergraduate research in Art, teaching Art History without having major museum collections nearby, and partnering with community arts organizations.

Photograph of participants in the COPLAC Summer Institute, courtesy of Emma Anderson.

Truman Faculty (all in the front row): Aaron Neeley, Julia DeLancey (2nd and 3rd from the left, respectively), Sara Orel (8th from left), Amanda Langendoerfer (5th from right), and Aaron Fine (2nd from right).

At the Institute Truman faculty also had the opportunity to congratulate the incoming Executive Director of COPLAC, our former colleague Cole Woodcox, who has retired from Truman to take the position. (He is the first person on the right in the back row of the photo above).

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New Public Art on Campus

Danielle Yakle’s Introduction to the Visual Arts class was at it again this spring.  As you walk around campus over the summer, see how many benches you can find that were not there at the beginning of April.*

These benches were completely fabricated by Professor Yakle’s class, with her assistance, and they are sturdy enough to last through midwestern weather.  The body of the benches is metal, and they are almost completely covered with concrete with the decoration added at the end of the process. Each bench is differently-shaped and covered with glass tiles of different colors.  They are placed around the central part of campus.  It is time for a treasure hunt!

*There are six benches.

Painting professor Lindsey Dunnagan on one of the benches newly installed on campus.

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What Are Students Doing This Summer?

Students are doing exciting things over the summer.  Here are just a few of them.  Check back over the summer for pictures and updates from students and faculty, who are traveling all over the U.S. and around the world, and having adventures as they go.

Lisa Simms writes: “I will be the assistant supervisor in the summer program called the C.A.R.E. art gallery where I will be helping young high school artists hone their craft and work on different art mediums and techniques each week!”  This gallery is in Columbia, just down the road from Truman.

Another student has gone a bit further for her professional experience this summer:

Corin Hoke will be interning at the Benjamin Franklin House in London from June 17-August 15. She does not have an official title but will be helping lead tours, completing a special project of her choice, and possibly editing a book of the home’s architecture and writing articles.

 

 

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Congratulations Dr. Heidi Cook!

Assistant Professor of Art Heidi Cook completed her Ph.D. this year in the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh with advisor Barbara McCloskey. Her dissertation was titled “Picturing Peasants: Maksimilijan Vanka’s Folkloric Paintings and the ‘Croatian Question’ from Habsburg Empire to Croatian Nation-State.” Using the work of Croatian-American artist Vanka as a linking thread, her project explored how the production, circulation, and reception of objects and images related to Croatian folk culture played an active role in imagining a spectrum of competing national and imperial identities in early twentieth-century Yugoslavia. She received an American Councils Title VIII Fellowship, Foreign Language and Area Studies Academic-year Fellowships, and a Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship from the University of Pittsburgh among other grants to fund her research and writing. Her research will continue to focus on visual constructions of nationalisms and other competing political identities in the modern art, architecture, design, and cultural history of Central and Eastern Europe.

Dr. Cook and Dr. McCloskey at the University of Pittsburgh Commencement.

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Congratulations to Art Graduates (and all other grads as well!)

Truman split their commencement into three parts this year because of construction and track improvements.  So the BA and BFA students were honored at a 9 am ceremony on May 13th, which also featured an address by Dr. Cole Woodcox of the English Department, who has also taught Art History for several years. Congratulations to all graduates!  We will miss you as you go on to your exciting futures.  Please keep in touch and let us know what you are doing.

Photo courtesy of Tim Barcus

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Art Projects Look to Science for Inspiration

Art professors Lindsey Dunnagan and Francine Fox promoted interdisciplinary studies by inviting their students to sketch or paint in partnership with the sciences for first-hand experience with live, unique subjects.
Dunnagan’s class worked with science professors, including Jay Bauman, Elisabeth Hooper and Timothy Waston. Bauman taught students how to attach reflective nodes to their bodies and capture motion in 360 degrees by using special recording devices in the Piper Lab. Students painted how meaning is conveyed in body movements using the technology.

In another project, students painted plants and animals from the greenhouse using elements of a Japanese marbling technique and seed collections. Walston also set up a lab for students to investigate single cell organisms from pond water. The students also explored how other objects, such as dried plants, a cracked egg and clothes, looked when magnified a thousand times.

Teams within Fox’s class created multi-panel pieces of artwork centering on a given theme to render realistic representations of their subject matter. Later depictions also included distortions of their imagery to better communicate their concepts. Continue reading →

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Department Is Featured Artist

Local art gallery Gallery 104: Art on the Square highlights the Truman State University Art Department as their featured artist for the month of April.  The Art Department has had exhibition space in Gallery 104 since their opening last summer. Student artwork is on sale, and this month you can window shop for Truman artwork in the front window as well.

 

 

On March 31st, there was a reception for the exhibitors and students who attended are shown below: (from left to right, back row) Daniel Degenhardt, Hannah Nicks, Emily LaMarche, Lindsey Picht, Jenny Reagan, Audrey Kastner, Greta Dellinger, (from left to right, front row) Karlynn Naylor, Claire Nipper, Olivia Brady, and Maddie Pearson.

A poster from the “Join, Save, Buy” exhibit in the University Gallery this past February hangs in the Gallery 104 window on the Kirksville Square.

The sea serpent that spent last summer on the Quad has found a comfortable home in the gallery (his name is Wilburt, if you hadn’t heard!).