Art, Art History, & Design // Art, Art History, & Design

Kirsten Milliard's paper selected for Undergraduate Symposium in Art History

2012-02-22T10:00:00-05:00

Notre Dame Art History major Kirsten Milliard's paper entitled "Legitimizing Street Art: Claims and Complaints about Art in the Streets at MOCA LA." was one of twelve papers selected for New Perspectives in Visual Culture: 6^th Annual Undergraduate Symposium in Art History. This year's symposum will take place March 31st.

The symposium is organized by the Art History Association at Bowling Green State University. Papers may address any geographical or temporal epoch, although scholarship that engages contemporary theory and issues of audience reception are particularly encouraged. The symposium will take place within the School of Art at Bowling Green State University, located in northwest Ohio.

Congrats, Kirsten!

Notre Dame Students design to save lives

2012-02-22T10:00:00-05:00

The following was written/reported by Maureen McFadden and first published on WNDU's website:

When you think of graphic design majors you might not immediately think of how they challenge themselves to affect positive social change.

That's the mission of a senior design class at Notre Dame.

A class whose projects have taken them to Haiti and soon South Africa, and another recent project that was inspired by the death of 18-year-old Amanda Abbiehl, a young Granger girl just about their age.

These graphic design majors in Professor Robert Sedlack's class at Notre Dame are getting a lesson Tuesday on pain pumps and how the addition of monitors to follow breathing and respiration may save lives.

Professor Sedlak says this latest project was inspired when students heard about the death of Amanda Abbiehl almost two years ago, “One of my favorite definitions of design generally is taking an existing situation and turning it into a preferred situation.”

With experts on hand Tuesday, Sedlak's students were hearing more from the companies who design the monitors and people working in health care. For a young Granger girl who died at just 18, they could relate too.

Professor Sedlak discusses how Amanda’s parents are just as much as an inspiration as Amanda was, “Not only Amanda, but her parents, I mean her parents are inspirations for this project, I mean their cause is to not let it happen to anybody else.”

Michael Wong is with the Physician Patient Alliance for Health & Safety, an advocacy group for improving patient safety.

He told students Tuesday there is growing evidence monitoring a patient's respiration with monitors while on pain pumps save lives.

Michael Wong, PPAHS, explains where the machine is most commonly used, “It's widely used in standard equipment in operating rooms, outside of operating rooms it is not standard equipment.”

Wong says both veteran affairs and the country's oldest combined hospitals, Saint Joseph's Candler in Savannah, have proof, “Over eight years they've had, they've been error free for the last eight years and that's incredible.”

Tammy Hasler is a Clinical Nurse at Saint Francis Hospital outside Indianapolis where in 2007 they implemented continuous monitoring for people on pain pumps.

Hasler describes how the machine helps the patients with continuous use, “If the patient has a event where they have decrease in ventilation it actually alarms and lets the nurses know they need to go in and check the patient at the bedside.”

Like St. Joseph Candler in Savannah Tammy says their hospital has had no respiratory events since adopting the new system.

Seniors Jenaa Spizzirri and KC Youm are excited they may be part of change and also help support Brian and Cindy Abbiehl, whose foundation, "A Promise to Amanda" is working toward the same goal.

Spizzirri explains where they are in their study, “We're kind of ending our research phase as of right now and we want seeing what we can do and how we can help implement this goal.

Youm describes that it is hard to see himself doing something different, “It's difficult for us to see ourselves outside the world of design, the impact that we can have on the world.”

One of the experts on hand Tuesday said that hospital in Savannah, was able to avoid 500 adverse events involving pain pumps since adding the new CO2 monitors, possibly saving lives, and the hospital saved about $4 million after an investment of $2.5 million.

We'll continue to follow the progress of the Notre Dame design students and also the Abbiehl's foundation, A Promise to Amanda.

Art History Bus Trip to the Detroit Art Institute

2012-02-08T14:00:00-05:00

Thanks to the generosity of the department and a TBC grant, as well as coordination by Professor Rosenberg, we were able to charter a 38-seat bus to go to Detroit on Feb. 3 to see the exhibition “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus.” Below is the link to the DIA page about the exhibition.

http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=2306

This exhibition opened in Paris at the Louvre, travelled to Philadelphia, and will close in Detroit on February 12. This is a unique opportunity. Among the major works on exhibition are The Supper at Emmaus from the Louvre, six Heads of Christ, a fine impression of the 100 Guilder Print, and paintings, prints, and drawings from London, New York, Paris, Amsterdam, and other venues. There are about 45 works specifically attributed to Rembrandt in the exhibition, along with about 25 more which are his studio or other artists.

Hesburgh Library Concourse Exhibit

2012-02-08T10:00:00-05:00

The Gender Studies Program invites you to visit our Hesburgh Library concourse exhibit (in the wall display case opposite the auditorium doors), featuring the work of Nicole Kenney (BFA ’03) and Kamilah Campbell (MFA, gender studies minor ’13). And after spring break, the Introduction to Gender Studies course (under the supervision of the graduate Teaching Apprentices, Lourdes Hurtado and Keelin Burke) will install an exhibit in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Notre Dame becoming co-ed.

NKenney Wall Info

KCampbell Wall Info

Poster

Originally published by Linnie Caye at genderstudies.nd.edu on February 08, 2012.

Ann-Marie Conrado's article appears in Innovation

2012-02-06T11:00:00-05:00

Industrial Design faculty member Ann-Marie Conrado published the article 'Crafting Economic Opportunity: Design for Fair Trade Artisans' in Innovation, the quarterly journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America. The article describes the involvement of Notre Dame studio art and design undergraduates who travel to Nepal each summer to work for ten weeks with disadvantaged fair trade artisans to design and develop new handcrafted home and lifestyle products that are more appealing to a global market. By reflecting global and consumer trends, the project has increased sales, attracted new buyers and opened up new retail channels.

The article showcases some of the student designs that have emerged from the project. With support from Notre Dame's Center for Social Concern's International Summer Service Learning Project, selected Notre Dame art and design students for the summer 2012 session are already preparing for their project and looking forward to continuing the successive collaboration.

http://issuu.com/idsa.innovation/docs/innovation_winter2011_issu

The article starts on page 50

Bre Stakowski honored in Student Design Competition

2012-01-31T10:00:00-05:00

Bre Stakowski, ME/ID 2013, was awarded Honorable Mention and a cash prize in the highly contested 2012 International Housewares Association 19th Annual Student Design Competition.

Her design, WinTurn Ergonomic Snow Shovel Handle, is a revolutionary pivoting system that significantly reduces back strain and effort when shoveling the driveway.

Congratulations, Bre!

Gabrielle Gopinath's essay to be presented at Cinesonika 2: the Second International Film and Video Festival of Sound Design

2012-01-12T10:00:00-05:00

Gabrielle Gopinath's essay titled "Schizophonia and the Moving Image" will be presented at Cinesonika 2: the Second International Film and Video Festival of Sound Design, to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia in February.

The theme of this international film and video festival is to celebrate the soundtrack. Usually in cinema festivals there is a fixation on movie stars, or captivating imagery, or the literary qualities of screenplays. Sound tends to be relatively unvalorized in moving-image making. The intent of the festival is to give attention to innovative work in the creation of film and video soundtracks, and to give due credit to the importance of audio in audiovisual media.

This second annual festival will showcase international works of film and video with fascinating soundtracks, idiosyncratic sound design, eclectic scoring and innovative approaches to the sound-image relationship.

Anna O'Meara's essay accepted for National Conference on Undergraduate Research

2012-01-12T09:00:00-05:00

Senior art history major Anna O'Meara's essay titled "Cinema Against Cinema : Imagery in the Films of Guy Debord" has been accepted for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, which will be held this year at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

The National Conferences on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), established in 1987, is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity in all fields of study by sponsoring an annual conference for students. Unlike meetings of academic professional organizations, this gathering of young scholars welcomes presenters from all institutions of higher learning and from all corners of the academic curriculum.

Through this annual conference, NCUR creates a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement, provides models of exemplary research and scholarship, and helps to improve the state of undergraduate education.

O'Meara's paper was selected from a pool of more than 3,500 submissions.

Congratulations, Anna!

Art History MA Sophia Meyers returns as guest curator for Snite Exhibition

2012-01-09T09:00:00-05:00

Art History MA (2010) Sophia Meyers is returning to the University of Notre Dame to serve as guest curator in the Snite Museum of Art exhibition Artist in Residence: Working Drawings by Luigi Gregori (1819 - 1896).

The exhibition will run from January 15 through March 11, with Meyers offering a lecture at the public reception on February 26.

A former Boch Graduate Intern at the Snite Museum of Art, Meyers put together the program catalog, which includes her piece "Seeing Purity in Painting: A Fresh Look at the Career of Luigi Gregori (1819-1896)."

This exhibition showcases Gregori’s sketches for the murals in the Basilica and Main Building at Notre Dame.

As the first exhibition dedicated to his graphic the show explores Gregori’s drawing style, working methods, and techniques. Using his drawings as illustrations, the exhibition presents new research regarding Gregori’s biography and artistic training. The show also considers the contemporary impact of Gregori’s work at Notre Dame, and historic artifacts from the University of Notre Dame Archives will be on display.

The Preface for the program was written by Robert Randolf Coleman, University of Notre Dame Associate Professor of Renaissance & Baroque Art History.

MFA student's label recognized in Artforum's "Best of" list

2011-12-12T09:00:00-05:00

Benjamin Funke's Captcha Records has been featured in Artforum's "best music of 2011" list with the release of Philip Cohran and Legacy's album African Skies.

Captcha Records is proud to announce the arrival of “African Skies,” the most recently recorded album from the visionary Brother Kelan Philip Cohran and his band Legacy. This record was influenced and realized in 1993, shortly after the passing of Brother Phil’s friend, mentor and band mate, Herman Blount (Sun Ra) and was exhibited at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois that same year. By channeling the energy of Sun Ra, Brother Phil brings us closer to enlightenment, closer to the cosmos with melodies that are as ancient as time itself. Sun Ra believed that music is the voice of the spirit and it is the energy that we want to live in, and Brother Phil received that. “African Skies” is a nourishing and inspirational document showing the maturity of one of the most visionary musicians of our time.

“African Skies” is the first record to be released by Cohran since the stellar “Malcolm X Memorial (Zulu/Mississippi)” record in 1969.

Update: Check out this article in the Oxford American about the project

Publications: Gabrielle Gopinath

2011-12-07T08:00:00-05:00

We are pleased to announce publication of two recent pieces by Art History Professor Gabrielle Gopinath.

An essay titled “Reversing Time’s Arrow in Nam June Paik’s Guadalcanal Requiem,” will be published in an upcoming issue of Quarterly Review of Film and Video.

Also, an essay titled “Merce Cunningham’s Photographic Afterlife,’ just appeared in Merce Cunningham at Notre Dame, a volume published by the DeBartolo Performing Arts center to celebrate the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's recent visit to Notre Dame. (Notre Dame, IN: DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, 2011)

Congratulations, Alisa Rantanen!

2011-11-21T09:00:00-05:00

Please congratulate Alisa Rantanen for winning a Divisional First Place in the 2011 Design the Next Studebaker Competition.

Her 21st century design echoed a retrospective of the taut, edgy lines born in the 1962 Avanti.

(The original Avanti was influenced by Raymond Lowey Associates.)

The competition, Sponsored by the National Studebaker Museum, traditionally receives domestic as well as international entries from a broad and talented demographic.

Hats off to Alisa, one of our excellent NDIDers!

Graphic Designer Robert Sedlack Wins Pair of National Awards

2011-11-07T15:00:00-05:00

Robert Sedlack, an associate professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Art, Art History and Design, recently won two American Graphic Design Awards for University-related projects.

Graphic Design USA magazine honored Sedlack ’89 for his work on the Parallel Currents exhibition catalogue for the University’s Snite Museum of Art and for Words for Painting, an artist’s monograph showcasing the work of Notre Dame Assistant Professor Jason Lahr.

To design Lahr’s book, Sedlack says he drew on elements of the artist’s technique, including his use of typography and the blue masking tape he employs when stenciling and airbrushing.

“The publisher, Stepsister Press, wanted a book that wasn’t the standard glamour shot of the finished product, page after page,” Sedlack explains. “What they wanted was a book about his process and a book about his writing and how those things lead to these great paintings.”

The end result did exactly that, Lahr says.

“Throughout the process of working on the book I was constantly impressed by Robert’s vision and innovation,” he says. “He truly created a book that embodied both my writing and studio practice. I am thrilled that his hard work has been recognized at the national level.”

Sedlack says he particularly enjoyed the project because it was a collaboration with two colleagues from the Department of Art, Art History, and Design: Lahr and Michael P. Grace Professor of Painting Maria Tomasula, who wrote the introduction.

For the dual-language Parallel Currents catalogue, Sedlack was designer and production coordinator and served as art director for a three-day photo shoot at the Florida home of the collector, Ricardo Pau-Llosa.

The catalogue, he says, does more than showcase the exhibit pieces. It illustrates how the Latin American art collection “is central to Ricardo Pau-Llosa’s professional endeavors as poet, critic, and curator—and integral to the extraordinary domestic space that he has created over the past 30 some years.”

The design work for both winning projects was done through Sedlack Design Associates, a business endeavor he says is integral to his work at Notre Dame.

“Particularly as a teacher, I want to keep my hand in the professional game,” Sedlack says. “I want to continue to practice my craft professionally, so when I walk into the classroom I can talk about what I did last week, not ‘here’s what I did 15 or 20 years ago.’ That’s extremely important to me.”

In addition to receiving recognition for his design work from HOW, Graphis, Print, and the American Association of Museums, Sedlack won two American Graphic Design Awards in 2006 and was included in the magazine’s list of “People to Watch” in 2007.

He teaches both undergraduate and graduate design students in Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters, and his course work includes projects that tackle various social issues, including discrimination, gun control, and voter participation. Sedlack, who spent fall break in South Africa, is currently working with advanced students to develop a campaign to address xenophobia in that country.

“My area of academic research is based in the social model for design,” he says, “the idea that graphic design, in particular visual communications, can make a demonstrable difference in society and can get people to understand things differently.

“Projects like these—where my teaching, my academic research, and my experience in professional practice overlap—are the most exciting.”

Learn More >

2010-2011 Newsletter

2011-10-24T15:00:00-04:00

University of Notre Dame
Department of Art, Art History & Design
2010-2011 Newsletter

Welcome to the first annual newsletter from the Department of Art, Art History & Design at the University of Notre Dame. This newsletter gathers together news items and events associated with our department in 2010-11. It is our hope that this will give you the opportunity to consider all the work we do and to reflect upon the outstanding achievements of our faculty, our students, and our alumni.

Download pdf

And the winners are...

2011-10-12T08:30:00-04:00

Congratulations to both Ceramics MFA Jessica Zekus and Ceramics Professor Bill Kremer for their award winning pieces in the 33rd Elkhart Juried Regional art show!

Jessica Zekus' piece "Untitled (Abstract Pair)" was awarded the Robert Weed PLywood Corporation Purchase Award.

Bill Kremer's piece "Horizontal Vessel" won the Alice Skoglund Memorial Best of Show.

The 33rd Elkhart Juried Regional was held at the Midwest Museum of American Art. With over $25,000 in awards, the show featured 171 works by 141 artists. The all-media compeititon was jurored by Billy Hertz and Joyce Garner.

The show will be on display until December 4.

But will I get a job?

2011-09-26T16:05:00-04:00

Contrary to what some might assume, especially given the current job market, University of Notre Dame Studio Art, Art History and Design majors have demonstrated consistently high rates of placement after graduation. Parents may wonder whether knowledge of Medieval Art or an ability to wield a brush or a chisel may narrow one’s future options too much. The record shows otherwise. For example, Notre Dame’s Career Center data tells us that in 2010 all reporting graduating seniors in Studio Art and Art History had gone on to full employment, graduate school or service programs. Design graduates also had extremely high placement and over the last couple of years have also reported an average starting salary of about $40,000. Across each of these programs we are proud to say that we have witnessed excellent and various outcomes over many years.

The scope of our students’ post-graduation destinations is wide. While many of our students work within the arts and culture industries (which remain a vital part of the nation’s economy, generating more than $160 billion in economic activity every year), other students use their visual arts education to take them along other career paths. Our Art Historians have gone on to graduate school and law school; they have become account executives, investment bankers, and tax consultants; they have also become doctors, dentists and veterinarians (further options may be found here). Similarly our Studio Art students have gone on to graduate school and have become teachers and practicing artists; they have gone on to law school and medical school; they have pursued many service options. Our Design students have gone into industry and into an array of design firms and consultancies; they have pursued careers in marketing, the media, and even professional sports. Whether it be teaching, doing mission work, designing for an architectural firm or moving on to law school, our alumni have found themselves pursuing their professional goals in places from New York to Uganda, from L.A. to Italy; their worlds opened by their majors in Studio Art, in Art History, and in Design.

Resources:
National Endowment for the Arts findings
Job postings / Internship opportunities

Senior’s Interactive Toy Design May Aid Children with Autism

2011-09-22T09:00:00-04:00

When Notre Dame senior Dan Jacobs signed up for an elective while studying in London last year, he wasn’t expecting that his course selection—seemingly unrelated to his industrial design major—would spark the idea for his B.F.A. thesis project, or potentially help thousands of children.

Called the “Riverside Program,” the course involved working with children with developmental disabilities.

“I wasn’t actively looking for a project,” Jacobs says. “I took the class because developmental disabilities is a topic I didn’t know much about, and I saw a challenge.”

The challenge Jacobs anticipated became more acute as he was struck by the reality that most of the toys the children played with were repurposed toys designed for mainstream students that didn’t cater to the needs of those with disabilities.

“I met with the teachers and therapists and talked to them about specialty toys,” Jacobs says. “While there is a specialty toy market, there is a communication and social relationship between the child and the toy—I wanted to bridge the gap and develop a toy that requires cooperative play between two people. One of the biggest questions I needed to ask is ‘What would prevent a child with autism from taking this toy in the corner by himself?’”

Called “Hands On,” the toy Jacobs created resembles a pair of ordinary gloves. These gloves can be used in several modes, each producing an electronic effect when activated in certain ways. “Hands On” only functions when played with in cooperation with another person.

The creative mode allows two children to each wear one of the gloves and try to produce sounds or activate lights when they align them in certain ways with each other. The game-play mode is prompt-based and requires the children to work together following common prompts, like bringing corresponding fingers together or moving them in a particular way. The therapy mode allows the unit to be manually controlled by the parent or therapist using a computing device to cater to the specific needs or areas of interest to the child.

“Creating a toy for children with autism made the most sense because socialization and communication are such big issues,” Jacobs says. “‘Hands On’ can improve their social skills, communication abilities and restricted behaviors.”

Integrating several fields—design, psychology, electrical engineering, video, graphic design, and computer programming, developing “Hands On” was especially gratifying for Jacobs.

“Originally, I was an FTT and design double major, and this project gave me the opportunity to utilize a broad skill set.”

Jacobs hopes to eventually patent “Hands On” and bring the product to market. In the meantime, he’s weighing options for his immediate future—which include graduate school, pursuing the project through Notre Dame’s Innovation Park, or possibly a career in the consulting side of product design.

Learn More >

Originally published at newsinfo.nd.edu.

Exhibition of Italian Prints and Drawings on View at the Georgia Museum of Art

2011-05-18T08:52:00-04:00

"The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art" is on view at the Georgia Museum of Art through August 7. The exhibition features 53 works on paper produced in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

Guest curators Babette Bohn, professor of art history at Texas Christian University, and Robert Randolf Coleman, associate professor of art history at the University of Notre Dame, chose these prints and drawings from the collections of GMOA and Giuliano Ceseri because they provide rare insight into the training, working habits and creative process of artists.

“Beginning in the 14th century and increasing in the following centuries, as paper became more widely available, drawings became critical tools of the design process for artists,” said Bohn.

Drawings also enjoyed a close relationship with prints during this period. For example, Coleman’s entry on Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s prints in the accompanying exhibition catalogue discusses how they reveal a fantastical and visionary imagination. Piranesi’s works create an aura of mystery, not only because of the dramatic chiaroscuro, but also because of disappearing staircases, leaning ladders to nowhere and architectural elements that appear to have no real function.

“Prints enabled artists to replicate the designs created in drawings through a technology that provided the possibility of creating multiple works of art and facilitated the spread of the artists’ reputation around the world,” said Bohn.

The exhibition includes prints by Italian printmakers such as Parmigianino and Marcantonio Raimondi, and examples by figures such as Pietro Testa and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.

The in-house curator for this exhibition is Lynn Boland, GMOA’s Pierre Daura Curator of European Art.

This exhibition was last on view at the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame from January to May 2009 and will travel to the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Calif., in November of this year.

See original story

Graphic and Industrial Design MFAs Accept New Positions

2011-05-13T12:11:00-04:00

We are pleased to announce that even more of our graduating MFA students have accepted faculty and consultancy positions.

Aaron Huffmann, Graphic Design, MFA 2011

Aaron Huffman will soon be joining the faculty at his alma mater, Cedarville University, as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design. His additions to their program include professional experience in branding and recruitment as well as graduate and teaching experience from his studies here at Notre Dame. “I have learned so much about teaching from professors Robert Sedlack and Ingrid Hess. Their approaches have significantly impacted my own personal teaching style.” He hopes to teach his students “to design purposefully and strategically, moving beyond the mere application of visual style to a project. Instead, students will learn to implement design-thinking and the graphic design process to create meaningful and effective visual communication.” New perspectives gathered from both his graduate and professional experiences will complement the strengths of Cedarville’s design program.

Charlotte Lux, Industrial Design, MFA 2011

After graduation, MFA candidate Charlotte Lux plans to join a Chicago-based consultancy, IA Collaborative, where she had the opportunity to intern last summer. “I look forward to contributing to their user-driven design approach,” says Charlotte. This approach is based on qualitative research that investigates the needs of users, such as medical patients or symphony ticket purchasers, and aims to blend those needs with the goals of the client, such as a medical equipment manufacturer or an online symphony ticketing site. Her MFA thesis project centered on the experiences women face when undergoing diagnostic breast procedures. Read more (link: http://artdept.nd.edu/news/18533). Now she hopes to draw upon and further develop what she has learned from her thesis.

Describing herself as “a hybrid designer-researcher,” Charlotte believes this company provides the perfect environment, bringing researchers and designers together as a team working toward a common goal. While studying at Notre Dame, she has had opportunities to work collaboratively "...with students and faculty from various departments across campus including business, engineering, psychology, architecture and design.”

Lux also shares that working with Notre Dame's industrial design faculty has been invaluable in her development as a designer because of the expertise they have in the field. “Working with Ann-Marie Conrado—who has extensive experience in healthcare design research—on my thesis project has helped me to refine my design approach, with an emphasis on research and design strategy.” Professor Conrado’s background in anthropology and its practice of ethnographic research helped Lux to effectively utilize methods of ethnography in her design project.

Students reflect on Italian Drawings Seminar

2011-05-03T09:02:00-04:00

On April 19th, students in the Italian Drawings Seminar had a chance to meet with Jack Reilly, Snite Museum of Art benefactor and advisory council member. Under the direction of Dr. Robert Randolf Coleman, undergraduate and graduate students researched sixteen Italian drawings dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, most of which were given to the Snite Museum of Art by Mr. Reilly. During the informal meeting, Mr. Reilly talked with the students about their experience in the seminar, how they conducted their research, and what they learned in the process. The seminar culminated in catalogue of essays written by the students. The drawings are on display until May 22 in the Scholz Family Works on Paper Gallery in the Snite Museum of Art.

Dr. Coleman, Jack Reilly, Pamela Johnson, Quinn Darlington

Jack Reilly, Dr. Coleman, Cheryl Snay, Pamela Johnson

Jack Reilly, Pamela Johnson, Clare Monardo, Quinn Darlington, Dr. Coleman