Fall 2019 – Welcome and Welcome Back!
The Art History directors and staff welcome you to the 2019–20 academic year! Whether you are a new or returning student or faculty member or a prospective member of our community of scholars, we have exciting news and plans to share with you, and new student leaders and faculty directors to introduce.
We welcome Professor Karen Bearor as Director of Graduate Studies and Professor Jack Freiberg as Director of Undergraduate Studies. Several of our faculty members have received prestigious grants for research this year, amounting to an impressive total of $250,000 in funding. Our student-run Art History Association is led this year by 2nd-year MA students Abigail Youngblood, Olivia Morris, and Emily White.
New initiatives are underway in Museum & Cultural Heritage Studies, now under the direction of Professor Kristin Dowell. This fall, MCHS Students will learn methods of cultural heritage documentation while assisting with the collaborative oral history project Resilient Voices: African American Oral History in Miccosukee, FL. This project documents community traditions, agricultural practices, historical events, and civil rights activism through the experiences of individual citizens in the Florida Heritage community of Miccosukee. In the spring, Professor Michael Carrasco will teach a course centered on the technical aspects of cultural heritage documentation and 3D photogrammetry.
For MCHS students interested in The Ringling Track – or any Art History student interested in our prestigious university museum complex in Sarasota – Ringling Assistant Director of Academic Affairs Dr. David Berry will visit on October 15 to meet with graduate students and discuss the year-long internship program. Also this fall, MCHS will co-sponsor a film screening in honor of Native American Heritage Month: Warrior Women (2019), an award-winning documentary directed by Christina King and Elizabeth Castle, will be shown November 7th at All Saints Cinema. We also look forward to hearing reports from the 2019 summer Field School in Puerto Rico. Professors Kyle Killian and Paul Niell led a challenging program in which MCHS students documented endangered sites and structures on the hurricane-ravaged island.
Curatorial practice continues to be an important part of our programs. Professor Lynn Jones, in association with an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty, has curated Identity in the Ottoman Empire, which opened in August at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition, which features Ottoman architectural drawings, stamps, textiles, calligraphy, and other documentary materials, will be on display through November 9 – the same week that our Museum Object show will open in the WJB Gallery. This exhibition, entirely curated by undergraduates in the Museum Object class under the direction of Professor Doron Bauer, will focus on architecture and the sense of place in the burgeoning state of Israel.
This summer we welcomed a new Dean of the College of Fine Arts, FSU alumnus Dr. James Frazier. Dr. Frazier, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Florida State, previously served as a faculty member and interim dean at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Arts and Department of Dance and Choreography. He is honored to return to his beloved alma mater and is eager to know the community of students and faculty he serves, so we encourage all to attend the CFA community welcome event Ready… Set… Go! on Thursday, Sept. 5, 11:30 AM- 12:30 PM in the Fine Arts Building lobby. There will be food, games, and photo opportunities. Undergraduate and graduate students, be sure to introduce yourself to Dean Frazier and pick up your free CFA t-shirt!