The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology has announced the appointment of Dr. Lauren Kroiz as the Museum’s next Faculty Director for a five-year term, effective January 1, 2020. Dr. Kroiz is Associate Professor in the History of Art Department where her research and teaching focus on art and modernism in the United States during the twentieth century. She plans to engage both graduate and undergraduate students from a broad range of disciplines in classroom and hands-on work at the Museum. And her scholarly and curatorial work evince a deep understanding of the impact of colonialism on practices of collecting, archiving, and displaying; this knowledge and critical acumen will serve her well in the Museum’s work on repatriation and relations with Native American governments and communities. The Hearst Museum aims to be a place where cultures connect in uncommon ways, through exciting exhibits of the rich holdings of the collection, through hosting object-based teaching and research involving scholars from our campus community and beyond, and through public education and outreach. Founded in 1901, at present the Museum cares for a collection of an estimated 3.8 million objects that span all six... [show more]

Lauren Kroiz's new book Cultivating Citizens: The Regional Work of Art in the New Deal Era has been released and was recently featured on the University of California Press's blog.

Assistant Professor Lauren Kroiz received a Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant from the College Art Association for her book Cultivating Citizens: The Regional Work of Art in the New Deal Era. Thanks to a generous grant from the Wyeth Foundation, these awards are given annually to publishers to support the publication of one or more book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of American art, visual studies, and related subjects. For this grant program, “American art” is defined as art created in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Assistant Professor of Art History Lauren Kroiz received the 2015 Patricia and Phillip Frost Essay Award for her article “‘A Jolly Lark for Amateurs’: John Steuart Curry’s Pedagogy of Painting.” The article was published in the spring 2015 issue of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s peer-reviewed journal for new scholarship. The Frost Award recognizes excellent scholarship in the field of American art history by honoring an essay that advances the understanding of the history of the arts in America and demonstrates original research and fresh ideas. The Jurors who selected Kroiz’s article wrote that it “offers a refreshing, innovative approach to 1930s art, especially Regionalist art, and the complex cultural politics of Regionalism as a locus of anti-fascism, as well as an important site for dialogue between ‘serious’ art and the world of amateurs. In this, it suggests transversal connections with other domains of art and cultural history of the 20th-century, such as photography, cinema and art education, and proposes a promising lead for American art history more broadly.” See the Smithsonian’s full press release here.

The online journal of American art history Panorama features an essay by Lauren Kroiz in a new section that will pair short scholarly and polemical essays with brief responses from academics, curators, critics, and other interpreters of American art and visual culture.    The inaugural "Bully Pulpit" considers a historical question with significant implications for contemporary art history: how have American art historians defined and reconceived their discipline during past moments of severe economic, political, and institutional crisis? The academic status and disciplinary objectives of art history have of course inspired much discussion in recent years. Facing myriad new challenges—including the reorientation of higher education around scientific and technical inquiry, cutbacks in support for arts education, and the intertwined problems of widening income gaps and narrowing access to the fine arts—art historians have begun to question the means and ends of their field with a new intensity. The section’s lead essay, written by Lauren Kroiz, demonstrates that these crisis-fueled self-assessments have a deep history. Kroiz’s essay, “Parnassus Abolished,” examines the bold arguments for discipli... [show more]

Five members of the Department will present papers at the College Art Association's annual meetings in New York, February 11-14, 2015.  

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.