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By Gayle Seymour, Associate Dean CAHSS | Associate Professor of Art, Art History »
Three Students Accepted for 31st Annual Arkansas College Art History Symposium
Art history majors Olivia Fleming, Avery Rudolph, and Maegan Wise were accepted to present their research at the 31st annual Arkansas College Art History Symposium, hosted by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s symposium was virtual, taking place over three afternoons, March 10, 11, and 12, from 2 to 4 pm, via Zoom at ualr.at/artsymposium.
Olivia Fleming’s paper, “Helen Zughaib’s Syrian Migration Series: Examining the World’s Largest Refugee Crisis through Art,” based on personal interviews with the artist, explores Zughaib’s messages of hope in a time of hopelessness. Avery Rudolph’s paper, “Angkor Wat,” examines Cambodia’s most famous temple architecture, the largest religious monument in the world. Maegan Wise’s paper, “Lifting Voices: Suffrage Rugs and Sharon Louden,” which stems from her experience as an intern with the artist, investigates Louden’s strategies to live and sustain a creative life during COVID.
Two former UCA students, who are now art history graduate students at UA Little Rock, Madison Seiter and Mackenzie Nunnally, will also presented their research. Seiter presented “Contemporary Art of Africa: Visual Narratives of Struggle, Activism, and Identity in Willie Bester’s Two- and Three-Dimensional Works”. Nunnally presented “The Esoteric Craft of Kabyle Women: Traditions of Pottery, Textiles, and Geometric Motifs”
Additional student presenters include Laurel Gaither (ASU), Jordan Hancock (UALR), Marti Jo Boren (ASU), Skylar Stickford (HSU), Cassy Christ (UALR), and LeAnne Roberson (UALR).
Established in 1991 by Dr. Floyd Martin at UA Little Rock and co-founder Dr. Gayle Seymour at UCA, the Arkansas College Art History Symposium seeks to encourage and recognize student achievement in art history in the state. Providing a much-needed forum for emerging undergraduate and graduate students, the symposium features 20-minute illustrated talks on a wide variety of topics in art history. The symposium also encourages cooperation among art history faculty throughout the state. Each symposium includes the participation of a guest art historian who presents a scholarly paper on their own research.
This year’s guest speaker is Dr. Alison Kettering, Professor Emerita, Carleton College, and Editor-in-Chief of the semiannual, refereed e-journal, Journal of Netherlandish Art (jhna.org). Kettering presented “Black in Rembrandt’s Time: The Culture of Race in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art” on March 12 at 6 pm at the conclusion of the symposium via Zoom at ualr.at/artkeynote.
For more information, contact Dr. Lynne Larsen, Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Art + Design, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, (501) 569-8639, lalarsen@ualr.edu.
