Transcending the Atlantic</h1> <article> <h1>Transcending the Atlantic</h1> <p>awillia2 — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 03:41:15 +0000</p> <span>Transcending the Atlantic</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-10T23:41:15-04:00" title="Monday, March 10, 2025 - 23:41">Mon, 03/10/2025 - 23:41</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Studying amulet pouches associated with the African diaspora in 17th- and 18th- century Brazil helped Matthew Rarey uncover hidden history.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Danielle Frezza</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>What information gaps exist in history? Specifically, who are the people we don’t hear about, and where can their footsteps be seen today? Associate Professor of African and Black Atlantic Art History Matthew Rarey seeks to tackle those very questions in his book <em>Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic</em> (Duke University Press, 2023), which traces the history of sacred objects created by people of African descent living in South America and Europe.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/matthew-rarey" hreflang="und">Matthew Rarey</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" hreflang="und">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">José Francisco Pereira (attributed), Paper with figures, dated 1730.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, Portugal</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40685" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-text-size-large> <p>What does it mean that our access to learning about these objects is mediated through the very institutional structures that were meant to destroy or suppress them?</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40361" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption><em>Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>Rarey was inspired to write <em>Insignificant Things</em> after learning about amulet pouches, which were owned by enslaved Africans. Through his studies, he found that the pouches held great significance to the people who created and owned them, and they revealed a long tradition of complex value and meaning in cultural and political movements within the African continent. These pouches often contained prayers and treasured items and were carried with the faith that they would bring protection and good fortune to those who possessed them. </p> <p>The amulet pouch practice continued for centuries, and can be found across various cultures. However, the iteration associated with the African diaspora in 17th- and 18th- century Brazil intrigued Rarey as a scholarly mystery: After seeing a cursory reference to these pouches in a book during graduate school, he asked his professor about the artifacts and learned that very little research had been conducted on them. </p> <p>“I thought it was such an important methodological question,” he says. “If we have this group of objects that we know are so widely used by enslaved people and seem to be so central to their lives, we want to forward a kind of art history that actually centers the lived experiences of people that we don’t normally write about.”</p> <p>Rarey’s research process included learning Brazilian Portuguese so he could read original documents archived in Lisbon, Portugal, with insights into the people who made the amulets. However, the materials were written in 18th-century Portuguese, and it took “months and months of obsessing over these pages” to decipher their meaning, he says.</p> <p>Uncovering the story behind these artifacts was also made challenging by the fact that only two amulet pouches still exist today. According to Rarey, those pouches survived because they were confiscated by the Portuguese Inquisition in the 18th century and preserved for recordkeeping. Although there were hundreds of thousands of enslaved people in Brazil at the time, the vast majority of the remaining pouches fell by the wayside, either disposed of or never found by the Inquisition. </p> <p>For Rarey, that led to an important question: “What does it mean that our access to learning about these objects is mediated through the very institutional structures that were meant to destroy or suppress them?” he asks. “There were probably millions in the world, and they just disappeared with history.”</p> <p>After all, enslaved people were “critically analyzing and reinterpreting” their life events, he adds, and the production of the pouches shows they were “moving through and commenting on [those events] through the objects.” Art history is also “uniquely positioned to interpret some of the only material objects that are the evidence of [a] person’s life,” Rarey stresses, and can challenge common misconceptions to foster a more thorough education about humanity.</p> <p>This is especially true for enslaved people or other subjugated groups because there are often few or no surviving written records that detail their experiences. “Sometimes slavery is spoken about as a generic condition, … and it’s such a widely diverse practice and situation that there are as many responses to it,” Rarey says. “When we deal with these microhistories, our assumptions really get abandoned.” </p> <p>Rarey emphasizes how multicultural and interwoven world history truly is. “I see Africa written about sometimes as unchanging space, and I really want to push against that,” he says. “Sometimes we use the word ‘Western’ to mean ‘white,’ even though we don’t want to say that. So whenever I hear that word [‘Western’] deployed, … it erases what is a very long and deep history of persons of color in Europe.”</p> <p>To Rarey, understanding art is understanding what makes us uniquely human, and it adds vibrance to the stories of people who created it. “We can read the textual records, and there’s not much in them,” he says. “But if we have the critical analyses to interpret the material objects, … then we open up radically new voices and experiences and perspectives that aren’t otherwise available.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40362" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>Matthew Rarey’s research focuses on the art history of the Black Atlantic with a focus on connections between West Africa, Brazil, and Portugal from the 17th through the 21st centuries. He earned a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic won the 2024 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award.</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Matthew Rarey</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Associate Professor of African and Black Atlantic Art History</li> <li class="professional-title">Chair of Art History</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/matthew-rarey">View Matthew Rarey’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40384" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top: 1.25rem;">About the Image</h2> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right" data-cte style="margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"> <figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption> </figure> <p class="subhead" style="margin-bottom: 0; color: var(--darkgray);">José Francisco Pereira (attributed)</p>  <p>Paper with figures, dated 1730.</p> <hr class="hr--light" style="clear: both; margin: 1.25rem 0;"> <p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40363" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">�鶹��Ƶ Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style>  <style> .biography-card blockquote { display: none } .body-centered-layout blockquote { margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: -1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>3 Things with Matthew Rarey</h1> <p>eburnett — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 19:44:15 +0000</p> <span>3 Things with Matthew Rarey</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2024-01-31T14:44:15-05:00" title="Wednesday, January 31, 2024 - 14:44">Wed, 01/31/2024 - 14:44</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="/node/5126">Matthew Rarey</a> researches and teaches the art history of the Black Atlantic, with a focus on connections between West Africa, Brazil, and Portugal from the 17th through 21st centuries. It’s a path he first encountered in an African art history course as an undergrad at the University of Illinois.</p> <p>“I realized African art history was asking all these formative questions—about race, gender, colonialism, diaspora, and personhood—that I felt weren’t just important to the discipline; they were important to understanding the <em>world</em>,” he says.</p> <p>Chair of �鶹��Ƶ’s <a href="/node/318461">Art History Department</a> and an associate professor of African and Black Atlantic art history, Rarey is deeply focused on curating African and Black Atlantic art histories. He co-curated the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s 2019-20 exhibition <em>Afterlives of the Black Atlantic</em>, which won an Award of Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators.</p> <p>Now Rarey’s work is in the spotlight again: This year, he won the College Art Association’s prestigious Charles Rufus Morey Book Award for his first book, <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/insignificant-things"><em>Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic</em></a> (Duke University Press, 2023). It traces the history of the African-associated amulets made and carried as tools of survival by enslaved people from the 17th to the 19th centuries.</p> <p>We asked Rarey to share three things about how he uses art history to tell new stories about the African diaspora. Here’s what he had to say.</p> <p><strong>1) “Western” art history is deeply entangled with Black Atlantic art history.</strong></p> <p>African art and artists have always been instrumental to the development of visual culture of the so-called “West.” One great example I often teach with is at �鶹��Ƶ’s Allen Memorial Art Museum: an ivory saltcellar carved around 1500 by a Sapi artist who worked in what is now Sierra Leone. It was commissioned by Portuguese traders active on the West African coast, and its design demonstrates the artist’s strategic negotiation of Sapi and Portuguese aesthetics. The traders—some of whom eventually initiated into Sapi society—later took the saltcellar to Lisbon and displayed it as a prestige object. Keep in mind that by 1550 Lisbon also had a large, diverse Black population who forged lives at all levels of Portuguese society. Categories like “African” and “European” don’t seem helpful to me in describing the saltcellar and the worlds it moved through. Rather, I’m interested in exploring how Black art and artists routinely challenge or upend efforts to categorize them by revealing the longstanding circulations of African and European visual culture in the wider Atlantic world.</p> <p><strong>2) Black Atlantic art history demands creative, ethical approaches.</strong></p> <p>Consider the amulets discussed in my book, which I think are critical to understanding Black Atlantic art history. Often made by Africans enslaved in Brazil, these small pouches had the power to protect their users from violence. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of these amulets existed in the 1700s. Today only two known examples survive—and only because they were confiscated as part of the Portuguese Inquisition by officials who declared the amulets evil and sacrilegious. How can we look to these objects to understand the lives of their makers while also reckoning with the violent histories that made them available as objects of study? To me, these questions are what makes Black Atlantic art history exciting and important: It demands we come up with innovative ways to tell ethical stories from small, fragmentary sources.</p> <p><strong>3) Contemporary artists rewrite history.</strong></p> <p>Though my book is primarily about the 1700s, I teach and write about a lot of contemporary artists. That’s because Black artists throughout the diaspora—like María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Ayana V. Jackson, Jaime Lauriano, Fabiola Jean-Louis, and Rosana Paulino, just to name a few—all engage historical documents and archival sources in their work. Their artistry reckons with, and calls out, the dominant ways history and art history have been written to obscure Africans’ lives. And often, what the archival sources obscure—and what the artists want to help us see—are the anti-racist and egalitarian worlds that enslaved people have always fought to bring into being.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">How the �鶹��Ƶ professor uses art history to tell new stories about the African diaspora.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2024-01-31T12:00:00Z">Wed, 01/31/2024 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2597">Faculty and Staff</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2378">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25436">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=4821">Africana Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/matthew-rarey" hreflang="und">Matthew Rarey</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" hreflang="und">Art History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/africana-studies" hreflang="und">Africana Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">In early 2024, Matthew Rarey won the College Art Association’s Charles Rufus Morey Book Award for his first book, “Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic.”</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Jamie Overstreet Earns YB Staff Award for 2023</h1> <p>eburnett — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 13:57:44 +0000</p> <span>Jamie Overstreet Earns YB Staff Award for 2023</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2023-04-26T09:57:44-04:00" title="Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - 09:57">Wed, 04/26/2023 - 09:57</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="/jamie-jacobs">Jamie Overstreet</a>, program coordinator of �鶹��Ƶ’s <a href="/node/318461">Art History</a> and <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art">Studio Art</a> departments, was named the recipient of the 2023 YB Award for extraordinary service, an annual honor awarded to an �鶹��Ƶ staff member. Overstreet was honored by President Carmen Twillie Ambar at a lunch event for employees in the Root Room on April 26.</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right"> <figcaption>Jamie Overstreet with President Ambar (photo by John Seyfried)</figcaption> </figure> <p>An 11-year employee of �鶹��Ƶ, Overstreet coordinates the needs of approximately two dozen faculty and staff members for both departments, including maintaining the schedules for five buildings, managing budgets for all studio art courses, and scheduling and promoting some 30 visiting artists and scholars and numerous exhibitions annually.</p> <p>“Jamie is absolutely integral to the functioning of the Studio Art Department for students, staff, and faculty alike,” one nominating colleague noted.</p> <p>Additional praise for Overstreet among nominators included the following:</p> <p>“She is the most public face for one of the biggest departments on campus. She makes the art curriculum possible for �鶹��Ƶ College.”</p> <p>“I’ve truly never worked with someone who performs so many integral functions at the same time with such efficiency and kindness, and her excellence sets the tone for the department.”</p> <p>“Jamie is an absolutely incredible person. She is so organized and makes sure that everything that she is involved with runs as smoothly and simply as possible. She puts in so much extra effort in order to make events and communication accessible for everyone.”</p> <p>“I cannot say enough about the recognition that Jamie Jacobs deserves and has earned through hard work. She is inspiring to all of us and runs a tight ship so that faculty and students can work in our diverse, complex ways.”</p> <p>“In everything she does, she is both genuinely empathetic and the consummate professional. I’m pretty sure Jamie could run the world, and it would be a much better place if she did.”</p> <hr> <p>The YB Staff Award was established to honor the extraordinary service of the late Yeworkwha Belachew—“YB,” as she was affectionately known—who served �鶹��Ƶ in numerous roles for more than 35 years, most notably as ombudsperson and founder of the �鶹��Ƶ College Dialogue Center (OCDC). The center was renamed the Yeworkwha Belachew Center for Dialogue upon her retirement in 2016.</p> <p>First presented in 2016—to Belachew—the YB Award was established to recognize a non-faculty employee of the college or conservatory who demonstrates daily commitment and performance in advancing �鶹��Ƶ’s strategic goals through exemplary service.</p> <p>For more information about the YB Award and a complete list of past honorees, please visit the Department of Human Resources’ <a href="/node/72566">Awards and Recognition page</a>.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Program coordinator for studio art and art history hailed for orchestrating the success of both departments.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2023-04-26T12:00:00Z">Wed, 04/26/2023 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Office of Communications</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25436">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jamie-jacobs" hreflang="und">Jamie Jacobs Overstreet</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" hreflang="und">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Bryan Rubin</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>From Art History Major to Marketing Manager</h1> <p>anagy — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 20:55:31 +0000</p> <span>From Art History Major to Marketing Manager</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2023-03-10T15:55:31-05:00" title="Friday, March 10, 2023 - 15:55">Fri, 03/10/2023 - 15:55</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>As an art history major at �鶹��Ƶ, Jessica Moskowitz cofounded a <a href="https://www.jessicamoskowitz.com/design-for-america">design studio</a>, worked as a freelance photographer, and served as student liaison for the �鶹��Ƶ Entrepreneurship Club. She completed internships in marketing and communications at the New York-based mental-health startup Quartet Health, the photography magazine <em>Musée</em>, and the New York City art gallery Lehmann Maupin. She graduated in 2019—adding a minor in studio art—and took on yet another internship at the International Center of Photography, also in New York. </p> <p>Originally from the N.Y.C. suburb of Edgemont, Moskowitz began her career as a media planner with a client list that included American Eagle, CarMax, Warner Bros., and Procter & Gamble. These days, she works for JeffreyM consulting, where she is a paid social activation manager for Microsoft.</p> <p>In a recent interview, Moskowitz helped connect the dots between her wide-ranging interests, her numerous internships, and her career trajectory thus far.</p> <p><strong>You were involved in �鶹��Ƶ’s Entrepreneurship Club. What were some important takeaways from that experience?</strong></p> <p>I got involved with the Entrepreneurship Club after participating in LaunchU, which was one of my favorite <a href="/winter-term">Winter Term</a> experiences at �鶹��Ƶ. I participated in the startup accelerator because I had an idea to create a grocery-delivery service using reusable packaging. I wanted to create a solution, in the form of a business, to address the effects of packaging on the climate crisis. My foremost goal wasn’t to make a profit, but to create something that would make a difference in the world. I joined the newly founded Entrepreneurship Club because it had the same goals, which I thought were very �鶹��Ƶ: to find new solutions to solve problems and create your own path in a sustainable and scalable way. These experiences reinforced the importance of being open to new ideas and working with people from all backgrounds. In the work world, being able to communicate and collaborate with people with different perspectives is one of the keys to success. Overall, being a lifelong learner is the most important takeaway I have from �鶹��Ƶ.</p> <p><strong>During your time at �鶹��Ƶ, you completed a range of internships. What was your experience like interning in the art world?</strong></p> <p>I completed an internship at Lehmann Maupin as a communications intern. In the gallery, I got to see how other people’s educational and career trajectories led them to where they are at the moment, and a firsthand look into what it is like to work in the art world. </p> <p><strong>What is the current work you do, and what led you to it?</strong></p> <p>I am a consultant for JeffreyM on the Direct Buy Team, and our client is Microsoft. My team handles their media planning and buying for their social media ads. I work on the Microsoft Store line of business, which promotes Microsoft’s e-commerce store. My job is to work with my stakeholder to buy social media ads based on their business objectives by determining which platforms and audiences to target, while taking budgets and timing into account.</p> <p><strong>How did you transition into your current role in marketing? </strong></p> <p>Throughout college, I did several marketing internships in the arts industry. Since high school, I had wanted to be a copywriter, and while I really liked art history, I realized that I could come back to it if I wanted to. After �鶹��Ƶ, I took a continuing education course at the School of Visual Arts in New York City to build up my copywriting portfolio. At the same time, I was working at my first job in out-of-home marketing, working on campaigns that you see on subways, trains, airports, on the highway, etc. In my next role, I worked in operations on the Procter & Gamble account, where I learned a lot about digital billing and other types of media buying, as well as account and workflow restructuring. These skills have proved invaluable when working on various other accounts. After working on the Procter & Gamble account, I decided that I wanted to advance my skills in digital media, so I accepted a position as a social media strategist.</p> <p><strong>How have the skills you learned from art history and studio art played a part in your work since graduation?</strong></p> <p>As an <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history">art history</a> major, we analyzed objects to learn about history and culture, and I was especially interested in the relationship between words and images. When I was applying for marketing roles out of college, I emphasized that as an art history major, I understood and could effectively communicate the importance of visual culture. I saw art history as connected to marketing, since marketing is coming up with the best way to get your message and value across to a specific audience. In marketing, I’ve learned that the right combination of visuals and words, or copy, as well as its social relevance and context, such as where and when the ad is being shown and whom it is being shown to is key to a successful ad campaign.</p> <p><strong>What advice do you have for students interested in marketing after graduation?</strong></p> <p>�鶹��Ƶ gives you the skills to be a strong writer and critical thinker, which are vital skills in this industry—and all industries. Showing how you are able to clearly articulate your rationale and ideas is very important. In all jobs, understanding a client’s or user’s needs and aligning them with your job’s objectives requires clear communication. When you are looking for a job, and in your job, strategic thinking and communication are the biggest skills to showcase. All the jobs I have had, especially at the entry level, taught me the industry-specific skills I needed. If you’re open and willing to learn, people are happy to teach you, so don’t be afraid to say you don’t know something and ask for help when you need it. If you are interested in marketing and have questions or want to connect, please reach out to me!</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">How Jessica Moskowitz turned her love of art into a career in social media marketing.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2023-03-10T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/10/2023 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Ava Miller '25</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2360">After �鶹��Ƶ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2583">College of Arts and Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3846">Engaged Liberal Arts</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" hreflang="und">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Jessica Moskowitz '19, center, is a social activation manager for Microsoft.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of Jessica Moskowitz</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-32080" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-add-quotes> <p>As an art history major, I understood and could effectively communicate the importance of visual culture.</p> <p class="blockquote__attribution"> Jessica Moskowitz '19 </p> </blockquote> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Chloe Lai Receives Fulbright to Taiwan</h1> <p>anagy — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 14:49:24 +0000</p> <span>Chloe Lai Receives Fulbright to Taiwan</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2022-06-07T10:49:24-04:00" title="Tuesday, June 7, 2022 - 10:49">Tue, 06/07/2022 - 10:49</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Spring graduate Chloe Lai will reconnect with her family’s heritage and hone her skills in language pedagogy in Taiwan as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA).</p> <p>During her Fulbright year, Lai will live and learn in Hualien county, a rural mountainous region on the eastern coast of the island. She applied for a Fulbright ETA because she is passionate about learning and teaching. </p> <p>“I enjoy all parts of the teaching process, from planning to reflection, and am constantly striving to become a better educator,” says Lai, an <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history">art history</a> and <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/east-asian-studies">East Asian studies</a> major with an education concentration. </p> <p>Lai has taken Chinese at �鶹��Ƶ for three years, and she has worked as an America Reads tutor in the same fourth-grade classroom in the �鶹��Ƶ elementary school for all four years. She has also taken a course in language pedagogy, and she has been a teacher with the <a href="https://www.oberlinsites.org/">Spanish in the Elementary Schools</a> (SITES) program. </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>Lai speaks with one of her faculty mentors, Associate Professor of Art History and East Asian Studies Bonnie Cheng. Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</figcaption> </figure> <p>“I love language teaching and learning because for me, these classes make the world seem so big,” she says. “Through (SITES), I learned a lot about language acquisition and leading student-centered classes.”</p> <p>Outside of the classroom, Lai has been a member of the Third World Co-op, a writer in the Arts Students Committee, and a gallery guide at the <a href="https://amam.oberlin.edu/">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a>. A resident of Redwood City, California, she plans to continue teaching in the future, and possibly pursuing graduate studies. </p> <p>“I think I am prepared to adjust to challenges, and I'll be able to find questions and pathways to pursue my interests. During my year in Taiwan, I am most excited to learn about the nuances of cultural identity, explore the natural landscape, and try new foods!” </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Through courses and experiences at �鶹��Ƶ, Lai developed a particular interest in education and language acquisition.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2022-06-08T12:00:00Z">Wed, 06/08/2022 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2377">Arts & Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2391">Languages & Literatures</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2378">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25226">Education Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25336">East Asian Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/bonnie-cheng" hreflang="und">Bonnie Cheng</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/east-asian-studies" hreflang="und">East Asian Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" hreflang="und">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Chloe Lai '22 has been selected as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Taiwan.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Watson Fellowship will take Madi Goetzke ’21 to Panama, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Brazil</h1> <p>swargo — Fri, 07 May 2021 16:04:25 +0000</p> <span>Watson Fellowship will take Madi Goetzke ’21 to Panama, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Brazil</span> <span><span>swargo</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-05-07T12:04:25-04:00" title="Friday, May 7, 2021 - 12:04">Fri, 05/07/2021 - 12:04</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Madi Goetzke ’21 will spend a year traveling the world as a Watson fellow to analyze the role of communally-based cultural heritage sites which double as UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites. Her project, Reimagining Access to Communal Cultural Heritage Sites, will take Goetzke through the Global South, including Panama, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Brazil.</p> <p>An <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" target="_blank">art history</a> major, Goetzke first became interested in cultural heritage during a semester abroad in Senegal, when she spoke with residents of Saint-Louis about the relationship between the state, the community, and culture. Upon noticing a clear class divide in the city, Goetzke began asking questions. “I wanted to know, what does heritage look like for people? What does heritage look like for people as a daily lived experience? What can relationships to cultural heritage look like?” From there, her project began to take shape.</p> <p>The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship is a one-year grant for purposeful, independent exploration outside the United States, awarded to graduating seniors nominated by one of 40 partner colleges. Fellows conceive original projects, deciding where to go, who to meet, and when to change course. The fellowship provides a one-year stipend of $30,000.</p> <p>Goetzke developed an interest in the Watson program during her first year at �鶹��Ƶ when she began thinking about opportunities for art historical research. The freedom offered by the program would allow her to explore new ways of thinking about art and accessibility.</p> <p>“Watson was the first opportunity I saw that really embraced on-the-ground relationship building as a critical part of art history. I thought it could be an opportunity to bring what already feels like a heady, academic study of art history into a more pragmatic framework of how people live and how they live amongst what we consider art history.”</p> <p>To incorporate these ideas into her project, Goetzke plans to lead a map-making activity among groups of people in the Global South, asking them to draw their ideas of culture and community. The activity, Goetzke hopes, will transcend language barriers and encourage an authentic expression of different perspectives.</p> <p>Goetzke will begin studying these perspectives in San Felipe, Panama, researching alongside a local university professor how UNESCO world heritage sites impact access to housing. In order to understand the effects of gentrification and tourism on San Felipe locals, Goetzke will meet with housing activist groups advocating for basic rights.</p> <p>From there, Goetzke will travel to George Town, Malaysia, to study clan jetty villages. “Jetties have the largest collection of postwar architecture and as a result, they've been prized by UNESCO. At the same time, rising sea levels and tourism really impact the locals there. I’ll be conducting interviews with shopkeepers in the area and doing wide ranging research at universities and local hotels, from massive chains to basic hostels to see the impact of tourism,” Goetzke said.</p> <p>In Nigeria, Goetzke plans to visit Osun-Osogbo, home to a sacred river dedicated to the Yorùbá orisha Oṣun. There, she plans to analyze the upkeep of UNESCO sites in more natural environments.</p> <p>Finally, Goetzke will arrive in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she will study life on the wharfs and favelas of the city, and participate in candomblé religious ceremonies to better understand Brazilian relationships to cultural heritage.</p> <p>Goetzke chose to focus her project around the Global South because of the wide scope of environments offered.</p> <p>“The themes that you see in the Global South are largely gentrification, tourism, environmental impacts, as well as art-historical and archeological efforts to preserve. Each of these places offers a different environment, different relationships to culture and heritage, new political systems and new economic systems. They offered the most diverse scope for an already diverse project. I wanted to embrace that.”</p> <p>A native of Saint Louis, Missouri, Goetzke is a Bonner Scholar and has served in the Ninde Scholars program, spending time as a docent and student volunteer in the Education department at the <a href="https://amam.oberlin.edu/" target="_blank">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a> where she develops educational programming for K-12 students to improve visual literacy in �鶹��Ƶ and Lorain County. After her Watson year, she plans to pursue a master’s and PhD in art history. She plans to work in the public programs and learning and engagement fields to “make the arts into an accessible community resource.”</p> <p>Goetzke is thankful for the support of friends and faculty at �鶹��Ƶ. “Those are people who will always feel proud of you whenever you don't feel proud of you,” she said. “Those are the perspectives that matter.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-05-07T12:00:00Z">Fri, 05/07/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Kyra McConnell ’22</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2378">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" hreflang="und">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Madi Goetzke '21</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jonathan Clark '25</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>A Career in the Creative Side of Journalism</h1> <p>ygay — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:37:13 +0000</p> <span>A Career in the Creative Side of Journalism</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-03-04T11:37:13-05:00" title="Thursday, March 4, 2021 - 11:37">Thu, 03/04/2021 - 11:37</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Goode, a native of San Fernando Valley in California, majored in English and minored in art history. She was awarded high honors in English and was a <a href="/financial-aid/basics/scholarships-offered" target="_blank">John F. �鶹��Ƶ Scholar</a>. For the past two years she has worked in New York as assistant to the creative director for <i>Vanity Fair</i>, a monthly magazine that features popular culture, fashion, and current affairs.</p> <p>Read more about Goode in this After �鶹��Ƶ Q&A.</p> <hr> <p><strong>What were your internships or projects during winter term?</strong> I had several internships over winter term. I worked for the Laura Dail Literary Agency and <em>POV | American Documentary</em>, and completed the <a href="https://amam.oberlin.edu/learn/oberlin-college-students/student-docent-program" target="_blank">Student Docent Program</a> at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. </p> <p><strong>Did you have mentors at �鶹��Ƶ?</strong> [Visiting Donald R. Longman Emerita Professor of English] <a href="/sandy-zagarell" target="_blank">Sandy Zagarell</a> was my advisor and an incredible mentor to me. I am so indebted to her for the support she gave me as both a student and a human being. In addition to helping me become a better reader, writer, and thinker, she looked out for me and helped me through many trips and falls of my college career. I will always be grateful to Sandy for her endless patience, guidance, and for helping me shape my senior thesis, something I’m still really proud of. </p> <p><strong>What does your job entail?</strong> As the assistant to the creative director, I help everyone in the art department—creative director, design director, and art directors—with both administrative and creative tasks. Generally, I spend my days working on editorial layouts, commissioning and art directing illustrators for columns, and designing Instagram stories for <em>Vanity Fair</em>’s feed. I’ve also had the opportunity to contribute to some really special photoshoots and issues, such as our Hollywood 2020 portfolio and our September 2020 issue, which was guest-edited by [<em>New York Times</em> best-selling author] Ta-Nehisi Coates. A dream came true last year when a concept I pitched—a photo portfolio of TikTok stars who were breaking into the mainstream—was developed and produced. I also write about podcasts for VF.com when I have time.</p> <p><strong>Have you experienced any challenges at <em>Vanity Fair</em> that you would like to share?</strong> I don’t have formal training in graphic design. I’ve been designing as a hobby since I was in high school, and worked as a student graphic designer at �鶹��Ƶ—my former boss, Emily Crawford ’92, is actually my colleague at VF, now—I’m completely self-taught. On the one hand, I feel lucky to have gotten a design job without a BFA, but sometimes my lack of a formal foundation can feel frustrating. </p> <p><strong>Has the pandemic greatly affected how you do your job?</strong> Yes. Creating a print magazine is such an incredibly collaborative and hands-on process; it was difficult to adjust to doing everything over Slack, and still feels difficult sometimes, even though we transitioned to [working from home] almost a full year ago. I really miss the camaraderie of the office. It feels like creative ideas spring up way more naturally when you’re talking and pitching things to people in person, as opposed to over Zoom. </p> <p><strong>What are your long-term career goals?</strong> To be completely honest, I’m still figuring that out. At this point, as long as I’m able to make a living in a creative field, I would consider that a success. </p> <p><strong>Any advice for students who wish to seek a job in the creative side of journalism?</strong> I am very open about the fact that I got this job through the Columbia Publishing Course, a six-week professional development program offered every summer through Columbia University. I attended the course in 2018 and although it didn’t happen immediately, it led me to my current position. I would encourage students to look into similar programs and also take advantage of resources like Study Hall, a social network for freelancers that offers tons of advice on pitching, leads on jobs, and more. Also, talk to me. I’m happy to help in whatever way I can.</p> <p><br> </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-03-04T12:00:00Z">Thu, 03/04/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Justine Goode ’16 has always wanted to work at a print magazine in either a design or an editorial capacity. Today, the former editor of the <em>Grape</em>, �鶹��Ƶ's alternative student newspaper, is fulfilling both career goals at <em>Vanity Fair</em>.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2360">After �鶹��Ƶ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2389">Young Alumni</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=181496">Journalism</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art-history" hreflang="und">Art History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/journalism" hreflang="und">Journalism</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Justine Goode '16 stands in front of the Hudson River. Vanity Fair is published in New York, the United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and France.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of Justine Goode '16</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>From Pre-Med to Scientific Illustrator: Tiffany Fung '12</h1> <p>anagy — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 17:15:25 +0000</p> <span>From Pre-Med to Scientific Illustrator: Tiffany Fung '12</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-02-23T12:15:25-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - 12:15">Tue, 02/23/2021 - 12:15</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Examples of Fung’s ability to spin two disparate topics into one includes turning her passion for rock climbing into a senior thesis on mountain goat anatomy, and her dog-loving nature into pages of Borzoi drawings.</p> <p>Most recently, Fung co-founded <a href="https://www.biotic-artlab.com/our-work">Biotic Artlab</a>, a medical and scientific illustration studio, with classmates Ezra van Hattem and Margot Ceelen. All three received their master’s in scientific illustration at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.</p> <p>“We basically are illustrators-slash-designers who operate within the healthcare, medical, and pharmaceutical fields to provide visual content and educational material for those industries,” says Fung.</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right"> <figcaption>Tiffany Fung '12. Photo credit: Courtesy of Tiffany Fung</figcaption> </figure> <p>Medical illustration deals with the study of both life sciences and visual communication, explains Fung. It is an incredibly versatile and ubiquitous field, spanning textbook illustrations, patient education materials for doctors, illustrated medical research, and even 3D modeling and animation.</p> <p>“Scientific and medical illustration are intertwined,” Fung explains. “Scientific illustration encompasses biological and natural sciences. Medical illustration is pretty specific to human medicine.” </p> <p>Fung began her �鶹��Ƶ education on the pre-med track. However, during one <a href="/winter-term">winter term</a> project in which she shadowed an ER physician in New York, the 12-hour shifts proved to be the opposite of what Fung was looking for.</p> <p>“I realized that while I was interested in medicine, the practical life side of it was not something that I could see myself ever really accepting,” she says. </p> <p>Meanwhile, the art history program at �鶹��Ƶ gave Fung “a critical eye for anything visual.” </p> <p>“Honestly, when I switched to art history I thought that I was done with science. I realized that I wanted to do something more creative in the sense of myself creating something from start to finish,” she added.</p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>A comparative anatomy illustration. Credit: Courtesy of Tiffany Fung</figcaption> </figure> <p>That changed after she graduated from �鶹��Ƶ and learned that she could combine her interests within medical and scientific illustration. Still, the path to that goal was challenging.</p> <p>Fung discovered that there were only three master’s programs in medical illustration in the United States, and they demanded rigorous science courses. Fung took several courses at the University of California-Berkeley, but later decided to find a program in Europe after reflecting on her study abroad experience in Paris during her third year at �鶹��Ƶ.</p> <p>“I knew that I wanted to live abroad again,” Fung explained. “I knew that after working for five years that I wanted to go back there, and I knew that applying for a job and getting sponsored is much, much more challenging than becoming a student.”</p> <p>Fung began her master’s program at Zuyd University in 2018. While there, she was trained in traditional art with an emphasis on creative, independent work. Fung was even able to center her senior thesis around mountain goat anatomy as a way to explore her passion for rock climbing from a biological and artistic perspective.</p> <p>“I wanted to do something related to climbing, and I created this idea around mountain goat anatomy and human anatomy. There are zero people in the world doing research on that, so I was able to find advisors and foray into what it's like to find people who are interested in working with you, which is really valuable for starting my own company,” Fung says.</p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>An illustration of the lymphatic system. Credit: Courtesy of Tiffany Fung</figcaption> </figure> <p>“I think it actually mimicked what the professional environment would be like, where no one’s holding your hand and you have to figure out how to get from A to B on your own,” Fung adds about her master’s program.</p> <p>After graduating with her master’s in scientific illustration in 2020, Fung decided to stay in the Netherlands. In August 2020, she co-founded and launched Biotic Artlab with her classmates as a more collaborative approach to freelance work. </p> <p>“My two friends Margot [Ceelen] and Ezra [van Hattem] decided, we're going to end up doing freelance anyway, [so] why not work together?” Fung said. We have different strengths, and together our work is so much better than if we just sit alone in our apartments, competing against each other for work. There are not a lot of small collaborative medical illustration studios in Europe and we wanted to fill a niche.”</p> <p>Hattem specializes in natural science illustration and Celeen in surgical illustration. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted their plans to work with zoos and natural history museums, but there is now a greater demand from physicians, hospitals, and research institutes. Their projects involve designing medical apps, creating visualizations for surgical procedures, and developing branding and marketing for commercial medical products. </p> <p>“We're primarily working with physicians from different fields such as orthopedic surgery, cardiology, dermatology, and oncology, and they are from across Europe and the U.S.,” Fung said. “We're also working with wilderness medics in Oregon, creating educational material for them. So, it comes in many shapes and forms.”</p> <p>Their upcoming projects are mostly under wraps because of medical confidentiality, but Fung was able to share that Biotic Artlab is looking at creating more 3D projects and educational material related to COVID-19.</p> <p>For students interested in a similar career path, Fung urges them to research programs early. The <a href="https://ami.org/">Association of Medical Illustrators</a> and <a href="https://www.aeims.eu/">Association Européenne des Illustrateurs Medicaux et Scientifiques</a> and provide information about North American and European programs, respectively. She also advises that medical and scientific illustrators need to be self-motivated.</p> <p>“You're adding more work out there into this massive pool of images, and it's very easy to create work that does not add new perspectives to the field,” Fung said. “It's up to you being self-motivated and having integrity to better the medical illustration field instead of just generating content.</p> <p>“Medical illustration is not just pictures, and that's the cool part about it. You can do a lot with it. So for anyone who's interested in design or art or medicine, I would definitely recommend taking a peek into this field,” Fung added.</p> <p>To learn more about Biotic Artlab, <a href="https://www.biotic-artlab.com">visit the website</a> or view the Instagram page at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/biotic.artlab/">@biotic.artlab</a>.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Fung blended her love of science and art into a career as a medical and scientific illustrator.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-02-23T12:00:00Z">Tue, 02/23/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jaimie Yue '22</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://www.fungscientificillustration.com/">Tiffany Fung '12</a> is masterful at combining her diverse interests in new and interesting ways. Most notably, she is able to blend her love of science and art into her current career as a medical and scientific illustrator in Maastricht, Netherlands.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2360">After �鶹��Ƶ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2389">Young Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2367">Science & Math</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2377">Arts & Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3830">Pre-Medicine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">A medical illustration by Tiffany Fung '12.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tiffany Fung/Biotic Artlab</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>The Allen Memorial Art Museum Reopens</h1> <p>ygay — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 20:18:20 +0000</p> <span>The Allen Memorial Art Museum Reopens</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-09-01T16:18:20-04:00" title="Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - 16:18">Tue, 09/01/2020 - 16:18</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>After a welcome by John G. W. Cowles Director Andria Derstine and Assistant Curator of Academic Programs Hannah Kinney, a group of about seven new faculty members were given guided <a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQgdF94" target="_blank">tours of the galleries</a> by curators of the <a href="https://amam.oberlin.edu" target="_blank">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a>, including stops by new exhibits. </p> <p>College faculty and staff who wish to visit the museum may do so by appointment now through September 4. The museum will hold regular hours—10 a.m. to 5 p.m.—from Tuesday to Friday starting on September 8. The galleries will be open to students, faculty, and staff who are holders of �鶹��Ƶ College ID cards and participants in the college’s COVID-19 testing program. Masks and social distancing are required at all times.</p> <p>Derstine and Kinney touch on some of the questions that visitors may have, from safety protocols to the use of the space for classes. </p> <hr> <p><strong>With the reopening of the museum, some people may be wondering what they can expect when they return to the space—what protocols are in place. Can you tell us some of these changes?</strong></p> <p><strong>DERSTINE</strong>: At the AMAM, we have implemented a variety of new safety protocols. These include:</p> <ul> <li>Entrance only for students, faculty, and staff who are current holders of �鶹��Ƶ College ID cards, and who are participating in the college’s COVID-19 testing program.</li> <li>Checking IDs and recording names upon entry, in case of contact-tracing needs.</li> <li>Copious signage throughout the museum regarding the requirement for masks and social distancing.</li> <li>Hand sanitizing stations throughout the museum, and spray/wipes to clean lockers and portable stools, if those are used.</li> <li>One-way stairs.</li> <li>Gallery capacity limits to enable visitors to maintain a 6-foot distance from others. These range from seven in our smallest space (each side of the Stern Gallery, and the Nord and Willard-Newell galleries) to 32 (which includes both the King Sculpture Court and the four sides of its surrounding ambulatory).</li> </ul> <p><strong>Visitors may wonder if they are still able to explore the space as they did before the pandemic. Can you speak to that?</strong></p> <p><strong>DERSTINE</strong>: Although we have many new safety protocols in place, our hope is that visitors will be able to experience the close connection to works on view that they did before. All of the galleries will be open and visitors should feel free to explore and enjoy them as they did before. We simply ask visitors to remain masked at all times, and to be aware of their social distance from others, as well as our gallery capacity limits. Should the limit be reached, visitors should move to another gallery until others have moved on.</p> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image"> <figcaption>A new small exhibit in the AMAM asks the question: How can Museum Labels be Antiracists? Photo credit: Dale Preston ’83</figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>What new exhibits should visitors expect?</strong></p> <p><strong>DERSTINE</strong>: The curators have organized several brand-new exhibitions for this fall, and we have also extended some exhibitions that were on view last March to enable more visitors to see them. </p> <p>New exhibitions include <em>Do It Again: Repetition as Artistic Strategy, 1945 to Now</em>, which takes as subject repetition, in many different forms, in modern and contemporary art; and <em>Topographies of Representation</em>, which, in a year with a presidential election, the census, and the centenary of women’s suffrage, examines ways of looking at American representative democracy through works by four women artists. </p> <p>Exhibitions that have been extended since the spring include <em>Ukiyo-e Prints</em> from the Mary Ainsworth Collection, which highlights more than 100 Japanese prints that were part of an important bequest from an �鶹��Ƶ alumna of the Class of 1889; <em>The Enchantment of the Everyday: East Asian Decorative Arts from the Permanent Collection</em>, which showcases works in lacquer, jade, glass, ivory and other media; and <em>Monkeys, Apes, and Mr. Freer</em>, which presents three Japanese paintings that were among more than 100 Asian works donated to the AMAM in 1912 by important collector Charles Lang Freer. Additionally, the museum’s installation of African works, which was originally conceived by students in a 2016 art department seminar, has been modified, and includes several recent acquisitions.</p> <p><strong>Why do you think your space is important to visit, particularly during these times?</strong></p> <p><strong>DERSTINE</strong>: The staff and I know from our own experiences, but also from comments by many visitors, that in addition to fostering education, relaxation, and enjoyment, art can provide comfort and solace in times of stress. For many people, getting out of normal routines and into a new space can promote creativity and a more positive outlook. Art is thought-provoking and can help create conversation and community, as well as illuminate—and perhaps provide new perspectives on—important current issues. Our hope is that members of the college community will want to visit the museum not only because of its importance to a broad range of courses in the curriculum, but also simply to take a break, get into a new environment, and perhaps learn something new.</p> <p><strong>I understand classes will have the opportunity to use the sace this year. How will they be able to use it? </strong></p> <p><strong>KINNEY</strong>: Even though social distancing has required us to make some adjustments, this year the AMAM’s Office of Academic Programs is continuing to provide interactive learning experiences that prioritize close looking, critical analysis, and creative thinking for all �鶹��Ƶ students. As in years past, we will collaborate with faculty members to design museum visits that respond directly to the needs of their course. We will offer in-person, remote, and hybrid visits. In all cases, direct engagement with the AMAM’s collection will be central. In the galleries, we will use worksheets and VoiceThread to guide independent and small-group looking. On Zoom, discussions will be focused on high-quality images explored in intimate detail through the presentation platform Prezi. In many cases, content and questions first encountered on digital platforms will be enhanced by viewing sessions in the museum’s galleries and Print Study Room. As we’ve adapted our teaching to the challenges we face this academic year, we’ve concentrated on taking advantage of each platform’s affordances and using them to enhance one another. Throughout the constant reconfiguring and rethinking, we have been guided by our dedication to introducing students to the unique opportunities provided by having a rich museum collection, such as the AMAM’s, on campus.</p> <p><strong>What do you enjoy about the museum?</strong></p> <p><strong>DERSTINE</strong>: One of the things I enjoy most about the AMAM is that it is an encyclopedic museum—that means, it has art from virtually all of the world’s cultures. Our collection spans 6,000 years and six continents, and includes works in all media, from the ancient Near East to today. I also enjoy how connected we are with our audiences, even in this challenging time of COVID-19. I encourage everyone to visit us online, as our education department has devised a number of public programs that will roll out each month via videos or webinars. We want to stay connected with the college and local communities through art—even if we need to be a bit farther apart than usual.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-09-01T12:00:00Z">Tue, 09/01/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2378">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2385">Community</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2377">Arts & Humanities</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25436">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Faculty members explore the Willard-Newell Gallery in the Allen Memorial Art Museum.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Dale Preston ’83</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Taking Her Time: Master of Art History Candidate Michelle Fikrig ’18</h1> <p>anagy — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 19:00:23 +0000</p> <span>Taking Her Time: Master of Art History Candidate Michelle Fikrig ’18</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-07-02T15:00:23-04:00" title="Thursday, July 2, 2020 - 15:00">Thu, 07/02/2020 - 15:00</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>After completing her honors thesis with Assistant Professor Matthew Rarey, Fikrig is now working on a master of art history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the goal of earning a PhD.</p> <p><strong>Can you describe what you are currently doing at UNC Chapel Hill?</strong></p> <p>I’m in my first year of what will either be a two-year degree or longer depending on if I stay on for a PhD. My day-to-day life is mostly filled with coursework, but I’m also a teaching assistant so I get to develop lesson plans and have a lot of grading that punctuates my seminar work. Graduate school is very self-motivated, so I spend a lot of my time at the library or at the local coffee shop getting through readings and coming up with research proposals for various papers. </p> <p><strong>Why did you major in art history at �鶹��Ƶ?</strong></p> <p>Originally I was a biology major, but I switched to art history my sophomore year at �鶹��Ƶ. I felt confident making that switch because I realized that I could incorporate the reasons I was interested in a career in the sciences, mainly reproductive and queer rights advocacy and health care, into art historical research. </p> <p>For my honors thesis at �鶹��Ƶ, I looked at South African visual activist Zanele Muholi’s photographic archive of queer black women around the world, which got me thinking about how identities are formed visually and how community activism can be translated through art. At the graduate level you get a lot more freedom in the research you can conduct for each class, so I’ve been able to explore these types of topics more deeply, which has been really exciting to me. It’s also helped me realize how varied art historical research can be, and that I can carve out a niche for myself that resonates with those themes of advocacy and bodily autonomy that I was interested in.</p> <p><strong>How did �鶹��Ƶ help you build skills for academic, personal, and professional success?</strong></p> <p>I truly think that �鶹��Ƶ prepared me really well for graduate school. I remember being so nervous about my first seminar at UNC, but after class, I called my old roommate from �鶹��Ƶ and remember excitedly telling her, “Wait, that wasn’t so bad! It was literally just like an �鶹��Ƶ seminar!” �鶹��Ƶ’s seminars set me up to know how to deal with large workloads, how to lead class discussions, and how to effectively utilize the resources around me. I think one of the reasons I feel so comfortable in my seminars now is that I feel confident reaching out to my professors and to the librarians here—skills that �鶹��Ƶ really instilled in me from the beginning. </p> <p>The honors program in art history was also really helpful in teaching me how to devise, plan, and follow through with a large independent research project. I feel much more capable of tackling longer research papers now that I have accomplished a project of that scope.</p> <p>The relationship I built up with my advisor, Assistant Professor <a href="/matthew-rarey">Matt Rarey</a>, working on that project served as a really good model for how I interact and work with my professors at the graduate level. Working on my thesis with Professor Rarey made me feel like his colleague rather than just an undergraduate student. That boosted my confidence in my research and in myself as a scholar. I’m still actually using that research from �鶹��Ƶ, and it informs a lot of my thinking about current projects. I recently even presented it at a Global Feminisms conference at UNC.</p> <p><strong>What extracurricular activities or student organizations were you a part of at �鶹��Ƶ?</strong></p> <p>The two main student groups I was a part of were Students United for Reproductive Freedom (SURF) and �鶹��Ƶ’s literary arts magazine, the <em>Plum Creek Review</em>. Working with any student organization teaches you a lot; I learned a lot of management skills, how to navigate bureaucracy, and how to engage my peers. I’ve been using these skills at UNC as a member of our graduate student organization, but they’ve also helped me in various internships I’ve held. I’m no longer working directly on reproductive rights issues like I did while I was the cochair of SURF at �鶹��Ƶ, but knowing how to work within tight time frames, work with other departments or student groups, and how to advocate for myself have all made me a more effective team member during internships. </p> <p><strong>Do you have any advice for students interested in a similar field/career path?</strong></p> <p>I think this is true for a lot of career paths, but don’t be afraid to take your time. I took a gap year before �鶹��Ƶ and then another year before starting my master’s. I’ll honestly probably take some time off again before jumping into a PhD. Some of my colleagues that I think are most successful in my department took time off before returning for their graduate degrees.</p> <p>I think time away from academia has made me a stronger applicant and it has been hugely influential on my views as a scholar. I traveled, did my own research, and got valuable work experience during those years “off—although I think that’s a misnomer. Most importantly, I built connections. Immersing myself in places outside the academic bubble helped me build a network of like-minded professionals in a variety of fields that I can learn from and rely on for years to come.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-07-07T12:00:00Z">Tue, 07/07/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jaimie Yue '22</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Michelle Fikrig ’18 majored in art history and combined her scientific interests with art historical research. While at �鶹��Ƶ, she was also involved with the student literary arts magazine, the <em>Plum Creek Review</em> and Students United for Reproductive Freedom (SURF). </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2360">After �鶹��Ƶ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2389">Young Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2368">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2377">Arts & Humanities</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25301">Art History</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/matthew-rarey" hreflang="und">Matthew Rarey</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Michelle Fikrig took a gap year before pursuing a master’s in art history.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of Michelle Fikrig</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>