Please join us Tuesday, February 27th, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the VAIS Gallery in the Art Building for the opening of IDEA grant recipient Austin MacDonald’s solo exhibition, ‘Prodigal: A Cut Paper Comic Book’. Works will remain on exhibit until Friday, March 2nd.
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Applications and nominations are invited for the position of Department Head, Department of Art & Art History in the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut. The department seeks a dynamic leader with a distinguished record of creative and scholarly achievement, and a clear vision to lead the faculty in shaping the future of the unit. The new Head should be forward-looking, with a broad knowledge of emerging trends and opportunities in the visual arts, and the imagination and flexibility to respond to the changing needs of students and faculty. Candidates should have a strong record in university education and administration, and a national and international profile in research and/or creative practice deserving appointment as a full, tenured professor in the department.
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is in the midst of a transformational period of growth supported by the $1.7B Next Generation Connecticut (http://nextgenct.uconn.edu/) and the $1B Bioscience Connecticut (http://biosciencect.uchc.edu/) investments and a bold new Academic Plan: Path to Excellence (http://issuu.com/uconnprovost/docs/academic-plan-single-hi-optimized_1). We are pleased to continue these investments by inviting applications for the Department Head of Art & Art History.
The Department of Art & Art History has over 170 undergraduate majors, 15 graduate students, and a full-time faculty of 21, along with a number of specialist adjunct faculty and a committed team of staff. The department is dedicated to the cultivation of artists and scholars with a wide-ranging understanding of the concepts, aesthetics, techniques, and social functions of contemporary art practices within broader historical and cultural contexts. It offers the degrees of BFA in Studio Art (with concentrations in graphic design, illustration/animation, painting/drawing, photography/video, printmaking, and sculpture/ceramics), BA in Art History, and a three-year MFA program in Studio Art. All programs are accredited by NASAD. The department is also committed to enriching the wider university and regional community through a range of courses for non-majors, minor programs in Studio Art and Art History, and a variety of offerings at UConn’s regional campuses across the state, as well as through major public exhibitions and thematic programming in collaboration with other departments and schools across the university. Additional information about the Department of Art & Art History can be found at: http://art.uconn.edu .
The successful candidate will demonstrate excellence in one or more of the department’s areas of specialization, which range widely across the visual arts and art history. Applications from candidates with experience of working in a program that combines studio art, design, and art history, and with a proven commitment to interdisciplinary research and practice in a Research I university, are especially welcome.
The new Head will be expected to have a strong commitment to academic excellence in a major research institution, and to fostering diversity and inclusiveness at all levels of the academic enterprise, including faculty and staff hiring and student recruitment. She or he will work collaboratively with the Dean, to whom the Head reports directly, and with other leaders within the School of Fine Arts, particularly the Heads of the other academic departments (Digital Media & Design, Dramatic Arts, and Music), and the directors of the Benton Museum of Art and of the Contemporary Art Galleries, to implement the strategic goals of the School and of UConn’s Academic Plan. The Head will oversee budget, personnel (including faculty promotion and tenure procedures governed by AAUP contract, and management of unionized staff), curriculum, and facilities, and work closely with faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors, and outside constituencies to support and promote the vision and mission of the department.
The Storrs campus is located in a beautiful area of New England, with a moderate cost of living and proximity to major cultural, recreational, and urban centers of the Northeast. The University community provides residents with a rich diversity of cultural, artistic, athletic, and historic experiences, and the surrounding area offers affordable quality housing and top schools for faculty and families.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
APPOINTMENT TERMS
This is a full-time, 10-month tenure track position with an anticipated start date of August 23, 2018. The successful candidate’s appointment will be at the Storrs campus. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
TO APPLY
Applications can be submitted through the University of Connecticut Employment Opportunities website (http://www.jobs.uconn.edu). Application packages should be submitted as a single PDF file including: (1) a cover letter; (2) a curriculum vitae; (3) a two-page statement outlining the candidate’s personal vision and goals for education and research in the visual arts, and their approach to academic leadership; and (4) names and contact information of five professional references. (Later in the search process shortlisted candidates will be asked to submit additional statements, on teaching, research, and commitment to diversity, as mandated by University policy.)
Review of applications will begin on Monday, January 8, 2018. The position is open until filled. Employment of the successful candidate will be contingent upon the successful completion of a pre-employment criminal background check. (Search #2018269)
Inquiries concerning the position should be directed to Arielle Hill-Moses, Assistant to the Dean, at arielle.hill-moses@uconn.edu, or tel. (860) 486-1593.
All employees are subject to adherence to the State Code of Ethics which may be found at http://www.ct.gov/ethics/site/default.asp .
The University of Connecticut is committed to building and supporting a multicultural and diverse community of students, faculty and staff. The diversity of students, faculty and staff continues to increase, as does the number of honors students, valedictorians and salutatorians who consistently make UConn their top choice. More than 100 research centers and institutes serve the University’s teaching, research, diversity, and outreach missions, leading to UConn’s ranking as one of the nation’s top research universities. UConn’s faculty and staff are the critical link to fostering and expanding our vibrant, multicultural and diverse University community. As an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity employer, UConn encourages applications from women, veterans, people with disabilities and members of traditionally underrepresented populations.
Come visit with our faculty and students and tour our facilities on Sunday the 29th! See what our department has to offer you as a prospective student. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Visiting Artist Presentation
Monday, October 9, 2017, 4:00pm
Storrs Campus, Art Building, Arena Gallery
Rita Lombardi received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and her MFA from The University of Connecticut. She has been the recipient of grants and scholarships, including a travel grant from the University of Connecticut, a travel scholarship from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the John Renna Arts Scholarship, National Endowment for the Arts. She was an artist in residence at the School of Visual Arts in NY and at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT.
Lombardi currently resides in central New York state where she is Assistant Professor of Photography at Pratt Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally; in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Louisville, and throughout New England. She has been published in both print and online publications, including F-Stop Magazine, Afield Magazine, Redivider Literary Journal, and Blank Canvas Magazine. Her photographs can be found in various private collections.
Rita Lombardi: Artist Statement
I am endlessly curious about life and the motivations that guide us. It is through observing and picturing the world around me that I come to an understanding of it. I use a variety of materials and instruments within photography to come to these visual understandings. I have involved printmaking, repetition and chance, high-end digital and old-school antique processes, and every format of film camera from 35mm to 8×10. For me, it isn’t so much about what I am using, as it is about what it is I am making and how that relates to what I have used to make it; a symbiotic process of cause and effect.
I am currently, as I often do, working on multiple “projects”. In On Libraries, I am picturing the present usage of community libraries, acknowledging their rich history and striving to see them as a vital part of the future despite their complex and changing current role. With Liminal Umbra I explore abstraction in a photographic artifact, the glass negative.
I find that the best way to answer my own questions is to make things until I understand. I recall the voice of a grade school teacher saying “the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.” Put more succinctly by Alice Walker, “So much of the satisfying work of life begins as an experiment; having learned this, no experiment is ever quite a failure.”
| MFA Plan of Study | Credits | |
| Year One, Semester One (12 credits) | ||
| ART 5310 Graduate Art Seminar | Graduate Art Seminar | 3 |
| ART 530* | Graduate Studio Art (Major Studio Area) | 3 |
| ART 5383 | Special Topics: Studio Process & Practice | 3 |
| ARTH 5370 | Issues in Contemporary Art | 3 |
| Year One, Semester Two (12 credits) | ||
| ART 5310 | Graduate Art Seminar | 3 |
| ART 530* | Graduate Studio Art (Major Studio Area) | 3 |
| ART 5383 | Special Topics: Studio Process & Practice | 3 |
| ART 5340 | Studio Art Instruction and Curriculum Planning | 3 |
| Year Two, Semester One (9 credits) | ||
| ART 5310 | Graduate Art Seminar | 3 |
| ART 53** | Elective Studio or Elective Area | 3 |
| ART 530* | Graduate Studio Art (Major Studio Area) | 3 |
| Year Two, Semester Two (9 credits) | ||
| ART 530* | Graduate Studio Art (Major Studio Area) | 3 |
| ARTH 5383 | Special Topics: Curatorial Practice | 3 |
| ART 53** or Elective Area | Elective Studio or Elective Area | 3 |
| Year Three, Semester One (9 credits) | ||
| ART 530* | Graduate Studio Art (Major Studio Area) | 3 |
| ART 53** or Elective Area | Elective Studio or Elective Area | 3 |
| ART 5320 | Issues in Art Criticism | 3 |
| Year Three, Semester Two (9 credits) | ||
| ART 530* | Graduate Studio Art (Major Studio Area) | 3 |
| ART 5397 | MFA Project, (Major Studio Area) [required final semester] | 6 |
30 years strong, UConn’s MFA Studio Art program positions studio art practice in a research environment at a top 25 R1 University. Creative research is important at UConn and we succeed.
Let us share some of the reasons why to come to UConn for an MFA in Studio Art.
An intensive, multidisciplinary approach to the development of work in a wide range of art media, including drawing and painting, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics, photography, video, installation and performance. The program focuses on the advancement of each student’s abilities as an artist. Work in the studio and studio based classes is combined with courses in art criticism, theory and history to provide a context of ideas for developing students’ visions. Frequent contact with faculty members and visiting artists exposes students to diverse viewpoints and practices.
The best of both worlds: the creative excitement and intellectual energy of an art school and a major research university combined. We are ranked in the top 100 graduate studio art programs in the country and we are ranked as a top-twenty public university nationally. We are a member of Universitas 21, a global network of leading research universities.
A nationally and internationally renowned faculty. The members of our faculty have won major international honors and awards, from Guggenheim Fellowships and Fulbright Scholarships to Getty Foundation grants to National Endowment for the Humanities and the Arts Grants. They exhibit in major art centers globally, including New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, and Sao Paolo. They publish books with premier academic presses – Yale University Press, Harvard University Press, the University of California Press. All of this knowledge, creativity, and professional expertise are available to you, every day, in and out of the classroom.
Visiting artists, field trips and exhibition opportunities. Vital visiting artist program including artists, curators and critics as Roberto Lugo, William Villalongo, Marina Abromovic, Nari Ward, Megan and Murray McMillan, Ben Katchor, Shirin Neshat, Alfredo Jaar, Robert Storrs, and Petah Coyne. Extensive field trip opportunities to interact with artist, curators, and museum professionals in New York City, Boston, and other national art centers. The group M.F.A. Exhibition and student public talks take place at the William Benton Museum of Art on the UConn Campus. Following graduation, students present their M.F.A. Exhibition in June at a New York City gallery.
Generous financial aid and fellowship awards. Fully funded program with graduate tuition waived, generous stipends given for teaching and gallery assistantships, and subsidized health insurance.
The success of our alumni. Our graduates are exhibiting work nationally and internationally, have won major international honors and awards including Guggenheim Fellowships, Fulbright Scholarships, and state art council awards, teaching at colleges and universities across the United States, and working in museums and galleries, animation studios, design firms, and publishing houses.
Access to all the arts. As the boundaries between the arts become ever more fluid, the School of Fine Arts makes it possible for you to study Music, Dramatic Arts, and Digital Media alongside Studio Art or Art History. The School of Fine Arts serves as an umbrella organization and incubator for cutting-edge interdisciplinary initiatives in the arts. UConn’s museums, galleries, and performance centers – including the Department’s own award-winning Contemporary Art Galleries – bring major international and national artists and performers to our campus.
New and improved facilities. New graduate studios opened in Kirby Mill recently, providing large studio spaces with exceptional light in which the grads work together within a sense of community. The Bishop Center Studios include stellar printmaking studios and book arts. These studios are a center of creative energy featuring unparalleled resources. In the main Art Building, the Digital Arts Services Lab supports digital photography with state-of-the-art equipment. Renovated graduate and advanced wet darkrooms have re-opened. The renovated and upgraded Ceramics Studios benefit from the purchase of new equipment. And we have established a Digital Arts Materials Lab to support digital work in sculpture, printmaking, and other media.
Join us this Wednesday April 19th, 2017 at 6:30pm for the opening reception of “Include, Exclude,” by Diana Abouchacra. This work explores Xenophobia through printmaking. A performance will take place at 7:00pm.
Reception will take place in Vais Gallery located inside the art building, RM 109 on the first floor.
The exhibit will be on view through April 22, 2017.
Visiting photographer and environmental activist from India Ravi Agarwal
When: TWO talks:
Tuesday April 11, 2017
11:00 am – This talk is about his environmental work
4:00pm – This talk is about his photographic career
Where:
ARTB Room 119 (11:00am)
ARTB Room 101 (4:00pm) Now happening in the Arena Gallery located inside the Art Building.
Uconn MFA Art Sale. <—- Link to the art sale here
This year, instead of the annual MFA Art Auction, the graduate students have decided to hold an online art sale that will raise money for the 2018 and 2019 MFA thesis shows in New York. All work will be two dimensional, and will be sold at prices that range from $25-$100
Counterproof Press Visiting Artist: Michael Siporin Levine
Thursday, April 6 at 6:30 pm
Art Building RM 106
All are welcome to attend! See his work at http://www.mksplv.com/
Michael Siporin Levine is a visual artist, working in drawing, printmaking, video and installation. Michael graduated with a BFA in studio art from the University of Connecticut (2011), and an MFA in printmaking from The Lamar Dodd School of Art at The University of Georgia (2014). From September to December of 2016 Michael was an Artist in Residence at Knox College where he taught Experimental Printmaking course, and produced work for solo exhibition. This past summer he was the Print Fellow at the Wassaic Project Artist Residency in Wassaic, NY (May-Sept 2016), where he developed his own work as well as assisted visiting artists with screen printed editions. In 2015 he was selected to participate in a public art installation as part of the Southern Graphics Council in Knoxville, TN.
Blending autobiography, history and invention, Michael uses a mixture of observation and process to create imagery with open-ended narratives. Through technique and process, he allows an initial idea to change, abstract, and evolve. Using drawing as a foundation he lets process inform decision-making while working in various printmaking techniques, collage, as well as video, animation, and installation. Working with and against a technique encourages his experimentation with the medium, allowing a greater opportunity for chance and discovery to play a role in the process.
Sponsored by
Department of Art & Art History Digital Media & Design Department Digital Humanities and Media Studies Thomas J. Dodd Research Center Human Rights Institute
Artist Joseph DeLappe engages the intersections
of art, technology, social engagement/activism and interventionist strategies exploring geo-political contexts. Working with electronic and new media since 1983, his work in online gaming performance, sculpture and electromechanical installation has been shown internationally. His creative works
and actions have been featured widely in scholarly journals, books and in popular media—his most familiar work is a performative and memorializing intervention into the US Army video game recruitment website, “America’s Army.”
RESISTANCE, PLAY, AND MEMORY
When: Tuesday April 4, 2017 at 5:30 pm
Where: Konover Auditorium Thomas J. Dodd Center
Additional Artist Info: delappe.net
Mark your calendars!
Thursday April 13th from 6:00-8:00pm
It’s time for the annual Bachelor of Fine Arts senior show! Each year, the UConn School of Fine Arts senior class holds an exhibition at Willimantic’s ArtSpace Gallery to showcase their senior projects. This year, the show is on April 13th and is sure to be a fabulous night of food, fun, and beautiful artwork with your friends and family at UConn Art. We hope to see many of you there!
Department of Art & Art History Sculpture/Ceramics Area & the Association of Ceramic Artists (Clay Club) Student Organization Present Our Spring 2017 Visiting Artist with support from the Gus Mazzocca Visiting Artists and Scholars Fund
Claudia Alvarez
Artist Lecture/Demonstration
Thursday – Friday March 30-31, 2017
10:00am-12:30pm & 1:30-4:00pm
Art Building Rm. 117
Claudia Alvarez is a painter and sculptor currently living in New York City. Born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1969 and raised in California from the age of three, she received a BA from the University of California, Davis in 1999, and an MFA from California College of Arts, San Francisco in 2003.
Alvarez worked at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California from 1987-2000. Deeply affected by the terminally ill children and elderly patients she encountered as a non-emergency ambulance driver, she reflects on their strength and vulnerability through her painted and sculpted figures.
The Art Building main entrance is located on Bolton Road behind the Drama/Music Building on Rte. 195 Hillside Road at 280 Bolton Rd. Storrs, CT 06269
For more information, contact: Department of Art & Art History Office at 860-486-3930
Located in ARTB 109, this room functions as exhibition, lecture, and classroom space as needed.
STRUCTURES
Paintings by Laura Newman
March 28 – May 5, 2017
Monday – Friday 10 am – 4 pm
Public Talk
March 28th from 4 – 5 pm – Art Building, VAIS room 109
Exhibition and Artist’s Reception
March 28th from 5 – 6 pm – Art Building, CAG
The Contemporary Art Galleries will present an exhibition of artworks including paintings by New York based artists Laura Newman. Prior to the artists’ reception, Newman will present a public talk on her artwork at 4pm in UConn’s Art Building. This event is open to the public, and free of charge.
Newman states,
“In my recent paintings, architectural structures serve as containers for space. My paintings fold together a variety of approaches to form-among them hard-edged geometrical shapes, loose gestural forms arrived at through the actual process of painting, and representational references. The imagery in my work is poised between building sites and urban ruins, structures and deconstruction. Brushstrokes form structures that frame geometric paintings, embedded windows and fragments of views.”
Laura Newman is an abstract painter who lives and works in Brooklyn. In 2016 her work was included in Machines of Paint and Other Materials, 72 Front Street, Brooklyn; Conference of the Birds, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York; Surface Two, curated by Renee Ricardo, Arena, Brooklyn; and Inside Out, Art 101, Brooklyn. She has had solo shows at Jen Bekman Gallery, 1 GAP Gallery, The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Lesley Heller Workspace, Bellwether Gallery and Victoria Munroe Gallery. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Brian Morris Gallery, Fordham University, Lesley Heller Workspace, The National Academy of Art, The Weatherspoon Museum of Art, The New Museum and many others.
Publications include a catalog from NSCAD University with essays by John Yau and Amy Sillman, and reviews in The Brooklyn Rail, Artforum Magazine, The New York Times, and Bomb Magazine.
She has received fellowships and awards from Yaddo, The American Academy in Rome, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, MacDowell Colony and The New York Foundation on the Arts.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and educated at Cooper Union, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, she is an Associate Professor in the Art Department at Vassar College.
We are happy to invite newly admitted students to join our faculty and current students on Monday, March 27, for a special event: Spring into the Arts!
We’ll begin with a welcome reception at 2:00 pm, in the basement level of the Bishop Center, located at One Bishop Circle, Storrs. From there, we will proceed to two unique hands-on workshops with our faculty, followed by dinner with current students and faculty. We wrap up at 7:00 p.m., which is in plenty of time for you to take in an evening arts event on campus or explore our downtown.
This event provides a unique opportunity for prospective students to spend time with us, as part of our community.
As a side note, while we’re usually very happy to see parents and families, Spring into the Arts! is an event for admitted students only. However, we will be hosting a parents’ session from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. on this evening in Room 107 of the Art Building. Parents and families will be able to speak with Eva Gorbants, Assistant Dean and Director of Advising for the School of Fine Arts. Assistant Dean Gorbants is a great resource, and is very knowledgeable about all academic matters. Parents and families will also be welcome to join us at the general University Open House on Saturday, April 8.
This year, instead of the annual MFA Art Auction, the graduate students have decided to hold an online art sale that will raise money for the 2018 and 2019 MFA thesis shows in New York. All work will be two dimensional, and will be sold at prices that range from $25-$100. The website will go live on Monday, March 27th, 2017.
Use the link below to purchase some art on or after March 27th.
UCONN MFA Art Sale
The UCONN MFA students invite you to the 2017 Spring Semester Open Studios Event! Current artwork from the graduate students will be on view and their studio doors will be open, this is a great opportunity to talk with the MFA students about their work and studio practice + there will be a taco bar provided by Moe’s Southwest Grill!
Thursday, March 9th from 6-8PM at the Visual Arts Research Center (VARC) located on UConn’s Depot Campus in the Lebanon and Colchester buildings.
Address is: 95 Ahern Lane Storrs Mansfield, CT, 06269
DIRECTIONS:
The VARC is located on the UConn Depot Campus, just off Rt. 44.
*BY BUS: From the UConn main campus, take the Purple Line and get off at the Lebanon Cottage stop
*BY CAR: From 195, take Rt 44 West.
At the stoplight next to the former prison, make a left onto Walters Avenue. Stay right at the fork to merge onto Ahern Lane.
Just past the abandoned buildings, you should see Lebanon Cottage and a blue sign that says “Visual Arts Research Center.” Parking is FREE and so are the tacos. See you there!
Join us for the Opening Reception of “Stampede”
Solo Exhibition by Cate Solari, OUR Idea Grant Awardee
Thursday, March 2, 2017
6:00pm – 8:00p
VAIS Gallery, Art Building Room 109
University of Connecticut, Storrs
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