Jason Hosford, one of our Digital Curators, has been elected Chair of the Northern California chapter of the Visual Resources Association.  The VRA is dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of image management especially within educational and cultural heritage environments.  Jason's election to chair our local chapter of the VRA after just a year in the profession is an honor for him and for our department.  Congratulations, Jason!

Visual Culture and British India, History of Art 192F.2

This seminar, taught by the Department's visiting British art specialist Imogen Hart, engages with recent groundbreaking scholarship in the field of art and the British Empire, focusing on visual material relating to British India in the nineteenth century. See the rest of the description here. 

Professor Andrew Stewart has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.  This honor testifies to the "exceptionally high regard in which [he is] held by the Humanities community in Australia."  Congratulations!

PhD candidate Will Coleman was awarded the Second Annual Sir Denis Mahon Essay Prize for unpublished work on an early modern topic by a scholar under 30. Will will receive a £1,000 prize and a trip to the U.K. to present his winning essay, "'To live in accord with nature': Rubens's Houses and the Construction of Neostoic Leisure," at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, on November 8 of this year. Congratulations, Will! 

Update 5:45 p.m., October 1, 2013:  We expect to re-open the Department office at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 2.  Power is being restored to the Library and other affected buildings (information here).  Update 6:40 a.m., October 1, 2013:  Doe Library is still without power and the Department will be closed until further notice.  Classes may resume as power has been restored in other buildings, incuding Moffitt Library.  Please contact your instructor for more information.  10:06 p.m., September 30, 2013:  A Berkeley campus evacuation is in effect and the department office will be closed until further notice.  Please see the campus website for more information. Contact your instructor directly for updates about class meetings, office hours, etc.

 The August 8th issue of the London Review of Books includes a laudatory review of Anne Wagner and Tim Clark's exhibition of paintings of L. S. Lowry at Tate Britain. It begins:

Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life, curated by the American art historian Anne Wagner and her British husband T.J. Clark, is the most radical and exciting re-evaluation of a British artist I have ever encountered, and a thrilling display of how paint conveys ideas, time, place, building a self-contained world at once absorbing and convincing in its relation to lived experience. So, more or less (I have tinkered with it only a bit), began Jackie Wullschlager’s review of the Lowry exhibition (until 20 October) in the Financial Times. I was planning to begin with a similar bang myself, but as she went off first I just add my full endorsement.

Students, faculty, staff, and families and friends came together on September 8 at the home of Todd Olson and Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby for a gathering to celebrate the beginning of the fall semester.  We are so lucky to be in this beautiful place with all these wonderful new people!  And it's a matter of record that History of Art does the best potlucks around; the food, as usual, was magnificent.  Happy New School Year!

For more photos of the event, see https://berkeley.box.com/s/q759o6cbx2opqm7iu6m4

Space is available in most History of Art lectures and seminars for fall.  See course descriptions here.  Consult the on-line schedule here.  Featured courses.

Welcome to Lauren Kroiz and Lisa Trever, who joined the faculty this fall.  Professor Kroiz is a specialist in 19th and 20th century American art and  visual culture.  Professor Trever is a Pre-Columbianist focusing on the ancient Andes—specifically the Moche of Peru—with expertise also in ancient Mesoamerica and strong interests in Latin American art history.  The Department is also searching for an Assistant Professor of Global Modern Art.  

UNDERGRADUATES WHO BECAME ART HISTORY LIBRARIANS
by Kathryn Wayne

Photo caption: Alex Watkins, Norlin Library, University of Colorado, Boulder

As the Head of the Art History/Classics Library, one of the most enjoyable aspects of my job is to interact with a strong and diverse group of students and faculty. Over the years, I have had several opportunities to mentor students who were interested in pursuing the field of art librarianship. In this column, I am pleased to highlight two History of Art undergraduates, Barbara Rominski (1999) and Alex Watkins (2007). Please read on for their inspiring stories.

BARBARA ROMINSKI (History of Art BA1999)

UC Berkeley was an obvious choice when I decided to pursue my undergraduate degree, studying both art and archaeology, from Greek and Roman studies to the Northern Renaissance and Asian arts. In 1998, I had the privilege of serving as an undergraduate representative on a committee for a proposed new Visual Arts Library, chaired by Fine Arts Librarian Kathryn Wayne. She was the person who also helped guide me to my next degree—a Master’s in Library Science—when she counseled, “you love art, you love books and libraries, why not become an art librarian?”

While earning my degree at San Jose State University, I had the good fortune to serve as the Achenbach Graphic Arts Council (AGAC) Fellow, where I worked with the Reva and David Logan Illustrated Book Collection. After the fellowship, I stayed on as a project liaison with the Anderson Graphic Art Collection, giving me an introduction to Hunk and Moo Anderson, private collectors in the Bay Area. Later, Hunk Anderson hired me to help manage and tour his private collection of art and to assist with his foundation.

In 2003, I was hired as the Head of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Research Library. As SFMOMA’s third librarian, I have established the SFMOMA Institutional Archives and Institutional Records Management Program. Looking forward, I am excited to design and shape SFMOMA’s new library in our Snøhetta expansion. Art librarianship has, most assuredly, been a rich and rewarding career!

ALEXANDER C. WATKINS (History of Art BA 2008)

When I saw Fine Arts Librarian Kathryn Wayne at a recent Art Libraries Society of North America conference, I was brought back to how I got on the path to becoming an art librarian. When I began as an undergraduate at Berkeley, I wasn't much of a researcher, until I took Professor Elizabeth Honig’s Gender and Representation class, where Kathryn led a research seminar. Her enthusiasm really opened my eyes to the value of good research and the unlimited potential that Berkeley's world-class library represented. Doe Library became like a second home, as I spent countless hours there, working for ILL, working on my assignments, and working as a research assistant for HA professors.

After graduating I worked in a public library and then decided to go to Pratt Institute where I was able to get a dual Master’s Degree in both art history and library science. Living in New York City had great advantages as I was able to study and work at some of the best museums and libraries in the country (Met, Columbia, New York Public Library). In July 2012, I was pleased to be hired as Assistant Professor and Art & Architecture Librarian at the University of Colorado Boulder where I work closely with the Program in Environmental Design and the Department of Art & Art History. I love my job, and, like Kathryn, I now get to teach classes on research methods, consult on research projects, and develop the collection of books, journals, and databases.