Department News

To: Art Department Students, Faculty and Staff
From: Matthew B. Jenkins, Professor and Chair, Department of Art
Date: October 23, 2024
 
For context, Music, Theater & Dance, and the CVA do not have the same program fee structure as we do in the art department and are in need of a long-term funding plan. So, this proposal is to create a university wide Arts fee, which would function similar to the Athletic fee or the Recreation fee, to fund the various arts at the university. For our portion in the art department, we would participate in the new fee only to increase funding to our VASD program, and our program fee structure would remain the same. The Arts fee would also greatly benefit the CVA and we are all in support of that!
 
This proposal is in its early stages and has a way to go before approval. I support the initiative because it asks our senior leadership at the university to think in more wholistic, strategic, and sustainable ways about how the various arts meet the mission of the university.
 
These open forums are an opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to ask questions and learn more about the Arts fee proposal. It is also an opportunity to get behind the proposal and share how valuable we think the arts are on/off campus and to the future of the university and our communities.
 
Please share this widely with your students and consider attending and speaking out in support of the arts at MSU Denver.

Meet via Teams on Tuesday October 29th at 1:00 | Meet via Teams on Wednesday October 30th at 1:30

2023-2024 Dean’s Innovation Grant Awardee:
Dr. Jill Mollenhauer and Dr. Jessica Weiss

Over the week of Spring Break in 2024, Professors Jill Mollenhauer and Jessica Weiss traveled with five student research assistants—Krista Allen, Michelle Burns, Nova Kor, Rebekah Sokol, and Jolie Voss—to New York and Washington, D.C. to conduct “on the ground” art historical research. Nova and Krista worked with Dr. Mollenhauer to conduct collections-based research on portable works of Olmec art. Artworks were documented through a combination of photography and three-dimensional modeling via photogrammetry app (Polycam). Michelle, Rebekah, and Jolie worked with Dr. Weiss to conduct iconographic research related to imagery in a fifteenth-century European illuminated manuscript.

The group first visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Dr. Mollenhauer and her team documented the 14 relevant works in their collection. Dr. Weiss and her team used the holdings of the Thomas J. Watson Library to review secondary literature. The Olmec researchers then moved to Washington, D.C.  to visit the National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian, where they recorded a variety of artworks and archaeological artifacts, in addition to conducting archival research among the historical document holdings. The team finished up their research with a visit to the museum at Dumbarton Oaks, where they documented an additional 16 works of art. The manuscript researchers remained in New York where they studied comparative manuscript illuminations at The Morgan Library and Museum and traveled to the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University to evaluate possible iconographic matches to the images under investigation.

This research will be used to support the writing of various scholarly and teaching resources. Professor Mollenhauer also hopes to eventually create an online repository of three-dimensional models of Olmec art for public use.

If you step into MSU Denver’s Center for Visual Art, you’ll be greeted by a full spectrum of color, though not everyone sees it that way. Some students and community members got the chance on Thursday to see colors they usually don’t.

MSU Denver CVA hosted a launch event for color blind students, staff, faculty and community memmbers to try special glasses for color blindness. These volunteers were invited to try EnChroma glasses that enable the color blind to see an expanded range of clear, vibrant color. The glasses are designed to help people overcome obstacles and frustrations for things like learning or even appreciating art. It’s estimated that more than 250,000 people in Colorado are color blind.

We’re taking over the Denver Art Museum!

Come learn more about the emerging professionals docent internship, meet museum professionals, and enjoy artist activations by Moe Grahm and Sarah Darlene.

EAT FOOD – WIN PRIZES – SEE ART

Email questions to Dr. Weiss.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that Metropolitan State University of Denver has been awarded a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects grant supporting Design for the Common Good programming. This project supports the dissemination of public interest design best practices through a national conference, exhibition, and a digital archive.

MSU Denver’s project is among 1,248 projects across America totaling $28,840,000 that were selected to receive this first round of fiscal year 2022 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects category.

Part of the grant project includes the Design for the Common Good International Exhibition hosted at MSU Denver’s Center for Visual Art in Denver, Colorado. The exhibition opened on January 14, 2022 and runs through March 19, 2022. It is held in conjunction with the Structures for Inclusion conference hosted at MSU Denver on March 4 and 5, 2022 and will feature keynotes and panel discussions from project teams included in the exhibition. As part of the grant project, case studies will be developed from exhibition content creating a digital archive of public interest design practices to be hosted on the Design for the Common Good Network website.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Lisa M. Abendroth, Professor | Grant Project Director
Communication Design Program
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Office: 303-615-0102 | [email protected]

Professor Lisa M. Abendroth is the curator and organizer of the Design for the Common Good International Exhibition featured at MSU Denver’s Center for Visual Art from January 14 – March 19, 2022. Her research focuses on public interest design and the social, economic, and environmental impacts created with, and within, the contexts of underserved people, places, and problems. Her pedagogy is committed to community-led design practices that embolden access and equity. She is a SEED (Social Economic Environmental Design) Network co-founder and co-editor of two books in Routledge’s Public Interest Design Guidebook series.

“Don’t ever return the painting to Austria.” That was the only stipulation Bob Harrell (pictured left) had for his recent donation of the Franz Lerch painting “Fishing Boats.” Lerch was an important figure in Austria’s Neue Sachlichkeit (New Realism wave) and happens to have been an uncle to MSU Denver alumnus Harrell. In the late 1930s, Lerch and his wife fled Austria due to his wife’s Jewish heritage, and the artist destroyed much of his work. Having witnessed the horrors of a Nazi-occupied nation, Lerch was adamant that his paintings never return to the country that had scorned his family. Now, Harrell and his wife Kristin Kullmann (right) are graciously entrusting MSU Denver with preserving “Fishing Boats,” one of the artist’s few remaining works, and honoring Lerch’s wishes. “I fully trust MSU Denver and the institution’s commitments to excellence, without reservation,” Harrell said. “Service and integrity are cornerstones which have enabled MSU Denver to build a sterling reputation and exhibit outstanding performance in the realm of higher education.” Soon, the colorful painting will hang in the Art Department conference room as part of a materials collection that was started by faculty in the Art History, Theory and Criticism program. “Art is a strong part of a culture’s history, and it is part of what shapes a culture’s values,” said Deanne Pytlinski, Ph.D., chair and associate professor of Art, who is excited at the opportunity to bring art and history alive for students.