PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
CONTACT: Dr. Gayle Seymour. (501) 450-3295; gayles@uca.edu.
February 16, 2012
Arkansas College Art History Symposium set for UCA
By Rachel McAdams
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas will host the 22nd Arkansas College Art History Symposium on March 8-9 in the Art Lecture Hall, McCastlain 143.
This year’s symposium will feature guest scholar Kevin Concannon, professor of art history and director of the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech, and is an opportunity to “show off” student research and prepare undergraduates for graduate school and their professional careers, said Dr. Gayle Seymour, professor of art and associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication.
Concannon will deliver the keynote address, “War Is Over If You Want It: John & Yoko’s Year of Peace,” on Thursday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. The following afternoon at 4:30, he will discuss the student papers and present another lecture, “Yoko Ono’s Touch Piece: A Work in Multiple Media, 1960-2008.”
These lectures are free and open to the public.
“It’s unusual that undergraduates have this opportunity,” Seymour said. “It doesn’t happen in many places across the country. We do it here and it helps our students prepare for grad school and professional careers. We’re really proud of that.”
UCA’s Art History Symposium has a rich history of providing undergraduate students across Arkansas with feedback on research from prestigious art historians. With emphases covering a wide range of art genres over the years, these undergraduate students will present papers to the “rock stars” of art history, a feat normally reserved for graduate students and professionals.
Concannon’s scholarship focuses on art of the 1960s, particularly the work of Yoko Ono. Concannon is also active in the Scholarship of Teaching, Assessment and Learning (SoTAL), contributing to and chairing panels on pedagogy issues at professional conferences, including the College Art Association.
This event is sponsored by UCA with assistance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and funded by UCA arts fees.
For more details and information about the symposium, contact Seymour at (501) 450-3295 or gayles@uca.edu, or Dr. Dito Morales, assistant professor of art history, at (501) 450-5779 or rmorales@uca.edu.
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