Heidi Cook

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Faculty Scholarship and Creative Work, News and Events, Uncategorized

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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I, too, am America — round table discussion

On October 27, Mona Lee and Zoe Abbey, visited Truman State University Art Gallery to discuss their contributions to the current exhibition I, too, am America: Photographs by Kansas City Fast Food Workers, on view in the side gallery until Thursday December 1.
The two artists, who have both been employed in the fast food industry for many years, are actively involved in Stand Up KC (http://standupkc.org), an organization set up to give fast-food and retail workers a voice to speak for better working conditions, higher wages, and a union. Through their work with Stand Up KC, Lee and Abbey were drawn into the Langston Hughes Club and collaborated on this photography project with photojournalist Steve Hebert. The aim of the project was to document—from their own perspective—the conditions in which low-income workers live and work.
Both Lee and Abbey talked discussed how their and their fellow workers’ financial, personal, and social difficulties were expressed in the everyday scenes captured in this exhibition, showing among other things bare rooms, empty refrigerators, and bathtubs full of laundry. The interactive and personal discussion provided an invaluable inside perspective, showcasing exactly why the exhibition I, too, am America has caught the attention of media nationwide (http://nyti.ms/1GDn5Ld).
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Mona Lee and Zoe Abbey, who contributed to the I, too, am America exhibition, pictured with Gallery Director Heidi Cook

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Department, Uncategorized

Heidi Cook (B.A. ’07) serves as Director of the University Art Gallery for 2015-2016

While Professor of Art Aaron Fine is on sabbatical this year, researching and writing about color theory, 2007 Truman graduate Professor Heidi Cook is filling in as Visiting Director of the University Art Gallery and teaching Art History courses as well – Non-Western Art, Contemporary Art, and Introduction to the Visual Arts. She writes:

I am a Truman alumna (German and Art History, ’07) and I am truly excited to be back on campus and working alongside the Art Historians who introduced me to the history of art and made me want to pursue it further. Teaching Art History is one of the coolest jobs. I get to spend my time reading, thinking, and talking about how artworks visualize important and changing social, historical and religious ideas across the globe and throughout history. My hope is always that I can begin to open students’ eyes to the power of their visual surroundings.

I am currently a PhD candidate (All But Dissertation) in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. My research focuses on the modern art and design of Central and Eastern Europe. Using a body of folkloric works created by Croatian-American artist Maksimilijan Vanka as a guiding thread, my dissertation explores how objects and images related to Croatian folk culture were used to imagine a variety of competing Central European identities. In February, I am chairing a panel at the College Art Association Conference in Washington, D.C., about the relationship between European folk culture and American immigrant identity titled “Old Country in the New Country: Exhibitions, Museums, and Early Twentieth-Century American Immigration.”

If you ever want to talk about modern art in Central Europe or about applying or attending graduate school, feel free to stop by my office OP 1231 or email me at hcook@truman.edu.

We are very pleased to have Prof. Cook on campus this year, and know that students in her classes are benefiting from her knowledge and enthusiasm.

Prof. Heidi Cook, her husband Brent, and Pumpkin, in Kumrovec, Croatia in front of the house where Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito was born.

Prof. Heidi Cook, her husband Brent, and Pumpkin, in Kumrovec, Croatia in front of the house where Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito was born.