The Art Museum of WVU has selected participants for its inaugural Art Museum Faculty Fellowship and Jacknowitz Summer Internship for Summer 2022. Both of these positions are central to the Art Museum of WVU’s efforts in engaging both students and faculty in object-centered learning and professional development.

Dr. Lisa Di Bartolomeo will serve as the inaugural Art Museum of WVU Faculty Fellow. Over a period of four weeks this summer, Di Bartolomeo will work closely with curator Robert Bridges, and educational programs manager Dr. Heather Harris to select works from the museum’s collection and develop an exhibition and related materials for display in the McGee Gallery in Spring 2023. The Faculty Fellowship is designed to provide the opportunity for faculty and instructors from across disciplines to enhance their teaching and scholarship by engaging with the Art Museum’s permanent collection of more than 4,000 objects. A teaching professor in the Department of World Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, Di Bartolomeo will integrate the exhibition into her course, “The Holocaust in East European Literature and Film,” and also present a public program at the Art Museum during the run of the exhibition. She was selected from a pool of applicants to an open call to all WVU clinical, teaching, and service track faculty as well faculty equivalents and other professionals with teaching responsibilities.

The Art Museum of WVU Fellowship program is an opportunity for faculty and instructors from across disciplines to enhance their teaching and scholarship by engaging with the Art Museum’s permanent collection of more than 4,000 objects. All full-time faculty (tenure or non-tenure track) on the Morgantown campus are eligible. This includes clinical, teaching, and service track faculty as well faculty equivalents and other professionals with teaching responsibilities.

Fellows will collaborate with museum staff in the summer of 2022 to develop a small (approximately 20 objects) exhibition that integrates themes and concepts from their teaching and research practice with the Art Museum’s collection. In the summer of 2022, the fellow will receive $3600 in summer research funding as they research objects for potential inclusion in the exhibition. They will also meet with Art Museum staff to plan and draft interpretive materials such as exhibition didactics, accompanying essays, and education guides. During the exhibition period (Spring semester 2023 or Fall semester 2023), the fellow is expected to substantively integrate the resulting exhibition into their curriculum for the chosen semester and to serve as an ambassador for departmental and college colleagues to do the same. They are also expected to participate in at least one public program at the Art Museum related to the exhibition.

“True Colors: Picturing Identity” is a new exhibition featuring selections from the New York collection of James Cottrell and Joseph Lovett exhibited for the very first time in West Virginia—including major works by Keith Haring, Deborah Kass, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol, among others.

Together with objects from the Art Museum’s permanent collection, “True Colors” includes paintings, sculpture, prints, ceramics, and photographs by 20 contemporary artists—all of whom use the human figure to explore and express diverse aspects of both personal and collective identities. Many of these works challenge traditional art historical narratives that have often excluded marginalized groups, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.

“From the Mountain: Malcolm Davis and the Art of Shino” will open at the Art Museum of West Virginia University on Jan. 22.

Featuring more than 70 objects on loan from private collections, this exhibition celebrates Davis’ artistic commitment to both beauty and function through a diversity of forms designed for everyday use.

A sculpture by Doug Gruizenga has been added to the collection at the Art Museum of West Virginia University.

“Yesterday Today and Tomorrow” now sits in the Nath Sculpture Garden after being seen in major exhibitions such as the Chicago Sculpture Exhibit and ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“The Great American Roller Coaster Ride” by Vanessa German is the newest addition to the Art Museum of West Virginia University. The piece was purchased with the Art Acquisition Fund for A Diverse Collection.

The fund was established last year at the WVU Foundation through the generosity of several donors to specifically support the acquisition of works by BIPOC artists.

The Art Museum of West Virginia University’s Lunchtime Looks lecture series will continue Friday November 5, 2021 at 12 p.m. with speaker Sam Hensley.

Hensley is a junior Art History student at WVU and he spent the summer working at the Museum as the inaugural Jacknowitz Summer Intern. His undergraduate research focuses on the artwork and mythology of the Pre-Columbian Americas, particularly that of the Maya and the Moche culture of modern-day Peru. He plans to continue in the Pre-Columbian field in graduate school, while also exploring East Asian art and the international context of Modern and Contemporary art. 

The late Alice and Jack Frost will be forever memorialized at West Virginia University through The Alice & Jack Frost Endowment for Art Museum Exhibitions.

Sue Frost established the endowment to honor her parent’s deep roots at WVU and their love of the arts.

Linda Jacknowitz and her late husband Art added to their legacy of service and giving at West Virginia University with a significant planned gift to support the Art Museum of WVU’s educational outreach programs.

“This is a truly transformational gift for the Art Museum of WVU,” said Director Todd J. Tubutis. “Linda’s foresight in dedicating her and Art’s legacy to support a graduate assistantship means we contribute not only to the educational mission of the University, but we will also be able to build capacity in serving greater numbers of K-12 students in north central West Virginia.”

The Art Museum of West Virginia University will resume its free, in-person Lunchtime Looks Lecture Series on Friday Sept. 10. WVU’s School of Art & Design Associate Director Kristina Olson will lead the discussion on the museum’s latest exhibition "Rauschenberg in China: The Lotus Series.”

Olson teaches modern and contemporary art history. She is co-editor of the book “Social Practice Art in Turbulent Times: The Revolution Will Be Live,” author of many exhibition catalogues and an exhibition reviewer for several art magazines and journals.