Art History Congratulates Amy Bowman, Doctoral Candidate and Museum Director

The Department of Art History’s MA student, Amy Bowman, has recently accepted the position of Director and Chief Curator of the Pensacola Museum of Art at the University of West Florida. Bowman is a teaching fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Art History at FSU. Her research areas include modern and contemporary art, curatorial practices in Latin America, art in the public realm, and curatorial theory. She is completing her dissertation, under the direction of Prof. Adam Jolles, on contemporary American artist Mike Kelley and the Los Angeles “Post-Sunshine” scene of the 1980s and 1990s.

Bowman received her MA in Art History from West Virginia University. She has worked at the Columbus (OH) Museum of Art, the Sweetwater Center for the Arts in Pittsburgh, the West Virginia University Art Museum, and the TAG (The Art Gallery) at UWF.  She teaches courses for the UWF Art Department and for the Department of Art History at FSU, including the exhibition-centered Museum Object course for undergraduates. Bowman recently co-authored with Gabriela Germana an exhibition review, “Vacío Museal: Medio Siglo de Museotopías Peruanas (1966–2016), Curated by Gustavo Buntinx, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima,” published in the Journal of Curatorial Studies.

My experiences in Art History at FSU have shaped me as a scholar, teacher, and curator. The rigor of classes, the guidance of faculty, and the opportunities to teach have enabled my success in the field. Teaching the Museum Object class – guiding a small group of undergraduates as they developed an exhibition from start to finish in one semester – fundamentally shaped the way I approach the task of curating and activating the museum as a pedagogical space.