Truman State University Art Department

Welcome back!

Photo Credit:  Sara Orel

Welcome back to everyone after Thanksgiving Break!  Sara Orel sent this picture of our department chair with Spike, the Truman mascot, taken on the most recent visit day on campus.  A good, goofy start to the last couple of weeks of classes!

Happy Thanksgiving (and feasting)

Photo Credit:  Sara Orel

Last year for Thanksgiving break we featured a picture of luxurious ceramic serving vessels;  this year, again thinking of feasting and celebration, and again from Dr. Sara Orel, a picture from one of her study abroad trips to Cairo in Egypt.  The picture, taken after a huge feast on a boat sailing along the Nile, shows a then-Truman student (now alumna) dancing with two of the trip's taxi drivers.

For more on Dr. Orel's work in Egyptology and travels to Egypt, see this week's great feature on her in Truman's award-winning student newspaper, The Index.

For now, have a happy Thanksgiving and visit us again here at the Art blog after Thanksgiving break for news about Gallery openings, etc.

Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom mastaba (tomb) from Saqqara showing food offerings being brought to the tomb owner;  the basket includes figs.  Photo Credit:  Sara Orel

Congratulations to Art History almuna!

Hearty congratulations to Art Department aluma Heidi (Willhauck) Cook (BA:  Art History, 2007).  Heidi recently let us know that she had received her MA in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of Pittsburgh.  Her masters thesis was entitled:  "Peasants and Politics: Croatian Ethnography and Nationalism in the Work of Maksimilijan Vanka". 

Heidi has been accepted into the PhD program at the University of Pittsburgh, also in the History of Art and Architecture where she will be working on a dissertation on Modern central European art and design.  Her university website reports that "her current research focuses on the social and political significance of depictions of folk culture in early twentieth century Central and Eastern Europe. More broadly, her work analyzes visual constructions of nationalism." (http://www.haa.pitt.edu/person/heidi-cook)

Congratulations, Heidi!

If you are an alum and have news to send us, we'd love to hear from you!  Just e-mail art@truman.edu.

Upcoming Gallery Event

Lots and lots of great things have been going on in the Department and the University in the last few weeks:  talks on what it means to be a public institution and a liberal arts institution, faculty research presentations, and many other good events.

Next week Monday the University Art Gallery is hosting "Talking 'Bout a Revolution:  a discussion of posters of social protest".  The event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Art, Biology, and Society & Environment so thanks to that interdisciplinary group for good support.  Here's what the Gallery says about the event:  "Your experiences with the artworks on display in "Up Against the Wall:  Posters of Social Protest" will be central to this open-ended discussion".

This exciting discussion will take place on Monday, November 14 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the University Art Gallery (OP 1114).  Hope to see you there!  As always, more information about gallery events is available at http://tsugallery.org.