Vanderbilt University History of Art Blog

HART Alumna Writes About Retro Baseball Parks & Stadium Design

Allison Mast, HART major who graduated in May with a bachelor of arts degree, has written an article about stadiums and their designs and how they have assumed an increasingly important role in the popularity and sustainability of the sport. She collaborated with Kevin Murphy, chair of the history of art department, on the article, “Stadium design: baseball’s saving grace?,” which was published in The Conversation on July 29.

Prior to graduation, Mast completed a thesis on the architecture of baseball parks, with an emphasis on Camden Yards, Petco Park, and Marlins Park. In addition to pursuing a master’s degree in sports management at the University of San Francisco, she is working on a book that explores the unique features of Major League ballparks.

*Marlins Park at night, Miami, Florida

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on September 11, 2015 in HART, Student/Alumni, VRC

Kevin Murphy Focuses on the Tudor-Style House in Recent Volume

Kevin Murphy, chair of the history of art department, has written a beautifully illustrated volume on the Tudor-style house, published earlier this year by Rizzoli International Publications. The Tudor Home showcases the wide variety of Tudor homes and the many manifestations the form has taken across the nation, from the Tudor City apartment buildings of New York to the stately homes of Tuxedo Park; from the cozy, Prairie-inspired homes of Oak Park, Illinois, to the richly nuanced Arts and Crafts–inflected mansions of Pasadena, California.

With its distinctive hallmarks—steeply pitched gables and roofs covered in slate or imitation thatch, bays of casement windows with diamond-paned leaded glass, clustered chimney stacks, interiors of wood paneling and plasterwork, and half-timbered and stuccoed facades—the Tudor-style house has been a favorite among homeowners since its birth in sixteenth-century England.

With a wealth of color imagery newly photographed for this volume by Paul Rocheleau and Murphy’s insightful commentary on the history, development, and evolution of the Tudor style in America, the book is an engaging read that opens a window on this much loved style of home.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on September 10, 2015 in HART, VRC

Goldberg Lecture to Address Protection of Cultural Heritage

Concerns about cultural heritage feature prominently in the present humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq. With more than 250,000 dead and millions displaced, all aspects of daily life have been upended. Destruction of the region’s famed archaeological sites, most recently Palmyra, has prompted an outpouring of international concern. Despite many humanitarian interventions designed to address the current crisis in Syria and Iraq, there have been fewer efforts to protect the heritage that represents the cultural identity of Syrians and Iraqis inside both countries. What can we do to protect cultural heritage in this crisis?

Brian Daniels, director of research and programs, Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania Museum, will deliver the Norman L & Roselea J. Goldberg Lecture on Tuesday, September 22, in which he will discuss how the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq (SHOSI) Project has answered this question. His lecture, entitled Protecting Cultural Heritage in Syria and Iraq: Lessons Learned in the Present Crisis, will begin at 4:10 pm in Cohen Memorial Hall, room 203, followed by a reception in the atrium.

Daniels co-directs the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq Project, which aims to enhance the protection of cultural heritage by supporting professionals and activists in conflict areas, and leads a National Science Foundation-supported study about the intentional destruction of cultural heritage in conflict. He has worked with local communities on issues surrounding heritage rights and repatriation for more than fifteen years. He previously served as manager of the National Endowment for the Humanities regional center initiative at San Francisco State University, where he developed strategies for community engagement and outreach on folklore documentation. Daniels received his doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sponsored by the Department of History of Art and the Archaeological Institute of America, the Goldberg Lecture is free and open to the public. The talk will be accompanied by an exhibit in the rear atrium of Cohen Hall that was organized by Betsey Robinson, associate professor of the history of art, and E.B. Armstrong, a junior in the College of Arts and Science.

“Syria Widowed: Remembering Palmyra” commemorates recently destroyed monuments in Palmyra, Syria. The exhibit, on view through December 10, juxtaposes 18th-century engravings of temples, tombs, and cityscapes with photos taken by Robinson in 1995. The organizers hope to counter ISIL’s violence with memories of more peaceful times.

The exhibit co-sponsors are History of Art, Anthropology, Religious Studies, Islamic Studies, and Classical Studies, as well as the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Divinity School, Fine Arts Gallery, and syriaca.org.

Limited parking is available in Lot 95 outside Cohen Hall, off 21st Avenue South on the Peabody campus and across from Medical Center East. For more information, call the department at 615.322.2831.

*Monumental arch in the eastern section of Palmyra’s colonnade

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on September 4, 2015 in Events, HART, Lectures, VRC

History of Art Major Applied to a Range of Successful Careers

Why art history? What is the value of a degree in art history? Can an art history major ever be a powerful ticket to a successful career?

Skills learned in history of art courses were touted by alums from Princeton University’s art history department: “My art history education was the first step in training my eye to recognize the recurring signatures of price movement in the financial markets,” noted Jamie Crapanzano (Princeton, 2000), portfolio manager at Guggenheim Partners. “Majoring in art history brilliantly expanded my ability to solve problems in medicine,” said psychiatrist Jeremy Spiegel (Princeton, 1992), who fondly recalls “the nurturing and consciousness-expanding playpen” of the department of art and archaeology. “Majoring in art history allowed me to relate to and understand the psychology of the creative mind,” said Sara Dennis (Princeton, 1987), who has been senior vice president at top fashion companies, including Lands End.

Kevin Murphy, chair of Vanderbilt’s history of art department, directs our attention to recent articles about successful art history majors: The Huffington Post by Alena Hall; and The Daily Princetonian by W. Barksdale Maynard (Princeton, 1988).

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on September 4, 2015 in HART, Student/Alumni, VRC

Kevin Murphy Addresses Environmental Costs of Urban Teardowns

In 2013 alone, more than 500 houses were demolished in Nashville, Tennessee, a sharp increase from previous years. And hundreds of additional teardowns are expected in a city that’s projected to add a million residents over the next two decades.

Nashville is hardly the only North American city to experience a recent wave of teardowns. In Vancouver, a housing and real estate expert reports that the city issued more than 1.000 demolition permits in 2013. She points out that most of the demolitions are of single-family homes, and each send “more than 50 tonnes of waste to landfills.”

While preservationists have long decried the loss of historic fabric and cultural capital through teardowns, the environmental costs of demolition are increasingly coming to the fore. Read more…

*Kevin D. Murphy is Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities and Professor and Chair of Department of History of Art at Vanderbilt University. This article originally appeared on The Conversation on July 21, 2015, and was reprinted by Time magazine on July 23.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on July 29, 2015 in HART, HART in Nashville, VRC

HART Cosponsors International Symposium on Traditional Chinese Architecture

A three-day international symposium on traditional Chinese architecture will be held July 23-25 at Vanderbilt University in Cohen Memorial Hall. The aim of the Senior Academics Forum on Traditional Chinese Architectural History is to advance the study of Chinese architectural history and forge connections between scholars of Chinese architecture across the globe.

“The history of Chinese architecture is a young but increasingly vibrant and important field, and forums such as this are vital to furthering the study and ensuring the protection of this important cultural tradition,” said Tracy Miller, associate professor of history of art, who organized and coordinated the event.

Professor Wang Guixiang of Tsinghua University, Beijing, PRC, and Professor Guo Qinghua of the University of Melbourne, Australia, established the forum only three years ago. Their goal was to bring the study of traditional Chinese architecture, the “classical” architecture of pre-modern East Asia, onto the global stage by providing a regular forum for the most active scholars in the field to gather and discuss their current research. Because each scholar is given 30-45 minutes to present his or her material to a small audience of experts, the level of scholarship and open discussion far surpasses the experience at larger conferences. The first of the meetings was held in October 2012 at the University of Melbourne and the second in December 2013 at Kinki University in Osaka, Japan.

To ensure that the results of the forum have an extended scholarly reach, the best essays presented will be considered for publication in the peer-reviewed Journal of Chinese Architecture History (Zhongguo jianzhu shilun huikan) published by Tsinghua University, who is the official co-organizer of the forum. Other sponsors are Vanderbilt University, College of Arts and Science, Department of History of Art, Asian Studies Program, Office of Arts and Campus Events, and Fine Arts Gallery.

This year in addition to the forum there will be an exhibition of 100 photographs from the “Snow Draft Ingenuity in Craft: Traditional Chinese Architecture Photography Competition「雪花純生匠心營造」中國古建築攝影大賽.” Examples from each of the eight competition categories will be on view from July 22-31 on the first and second floors of Cohen Memorial Hall, the Sarratt Student Center box office, and the atrium of Buttrick Hall.

Viewing hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 pm; Saturday (Cohen Hall only), 1-5 p.m.; closed Sunday.
The exhibit is sponsored by China Resources Snow Breweries and Tsinghua University School of Architecture, Beijing, and Vanderbilt’s Department of History of Art, Office of Arts & Campus Events, and Fine Arts Gallery.

For more information on the forum and photography exhibition, see the forum website: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/safcah/

*Both images are examples from the “vernacular architecture” division of the Snow Breweries competition.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on July 16, 2015 in Events, Fine Arts Gallery, HART, VRC

Betsey Robinson Organizes Symposium Held July 15-16 in Athens

Water Cult & Culture in the Mediterranean World of the First Millennium BCE, an international symposium coordinated by Betsey Robinson, associate professor of history of art, will be held July 15-16 at the American School of Classical Studies and the École française in Athens, Greece. The symposium is the first of several events sponsored by HYDRΩMED: Gestion des ressources en eau en Méditerranée pendant le 1er millénaire avant notre ère, an international research network funded by A*MIDEX, the Aix-Marseille University Foundation, and chaired by Sophie Bouffier, a professor of Greek history at Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France.

“Water is a precious and limited resource around the Mediterranean, and in antiquity it was carefully stewarded and its sources revered,” said Robinson. Symposium presentations on water in ancient cult will explore archaeological evidence of ritual practices at springs, the water-use in sanctuaries, and the role of water in the healing rites of Asklepios and early Greek medicine. Cultural topics include the representation of Nymphs in Greek art, the poetic use of water to articulate geography, ethnicity, and identity, and its propagandistic value in pan-Mediterranean politics.

Symposium participants:
A. Androvitsanea, Technische Universität Berlin
Hydraulic Installations at the Sanctuary of Amphiaraos
S. Barfoed, University of Kent / Danish Institute at Athens
The Nymph Nemea and Water Supply to the Archaic Sanctuary of Zeus
O. Belvedere and S. Vassallo, Università degli Studi di Palermo and Soprintendenza di Palermo
Le acque calde imeresi, tra mito e storia: da Himera a Thermai Himeraiai
S. Bouffier, Aix-Marseille Université
Arethusa and Cyane, Nymphs and Springs in Syracuse: Between Greece and Sicily
O. Dakoura-Vogiatzoglou, First Ephorate of Athens
Searching the Water at the Sanctuaries of the Western Hills
M. Dourou, Ephorate of Athens
The Sanctuary of the Nymphs and Demos: Evidence of the Recent Research
I. Fumadó Ortega, Aix-Marseille Université
Flux et reflux religieux en Méditerranée phénicienne et punique: L’eau, instrument
de propagande idéologique et politique

J. Hopkins, Rice University
Shifting Currents: A Reflexive Etiology of Hydraulic Exploitation and Urban Cohesion in
Early Rome
T. Kopestonsky, University of Tennessee
Offerings and Ritual at Corinthian Springs
B. Robinson, Vanderbilt University
Places and Poetics, Figures and Narratives
A. Stewart, University of California, Berkeley
Bathing Beauties: An Early Hellenistic Bronze Case-Mirror from Elis
J. Wiseman, Boston University
A Greek-Period Bath and Fountain Complex at the Northern Edge of Corinth
B. Wickkiser, Wabash College
‘Water is Cold and Wet’—Some Reflections on Water in Early Greek Medicine & the Cult
of Asklepios

Vanderbilt’s Department of History of Art, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the École française d’Athènes join A*MIDEX and Aix-Marseille University in hosting the Athens symposium. Subsequent HYDRΩMED gatherings will address geomorphology and hydrology, the engineering of water catchment and transport systems, and the history of water management around the Mediterranean before the Roman Imperial period.

For more information, see http://hydromed.hypotheses.org/

*Images courtesy of HYDRΩMED: The Fountain of Peirene at Corinth (above) and The Spring of Arethusa at Syracuse (below)

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on July 8, 2015 in Events, HART, VRC

Gallery Exhibit Features Vintage Circus Posters, Sideshow Banners

Experience the excitement of the circus this summer with Thrills & Chills! The Fantastic World of the American Circus at the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery. Posters that advertised circus acts and banners giving a teaser to the wonders of sideshows are as colorful as the spectacles they promise and the true focus of this summer’s festive exhibition, which will remain on view in Cohen Memorial Hall until September 4.

The exhibition is free and open to the public, and summer gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 12-4 p.m.; Saturday 1-5 p.m.; and closed Sunday and Monday. Beginning Wednesday, August 26, the gallery will assume academic year hours: Monday through Friday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 1-5 p.m. The Fine Arts Gallery is located in Cohen Memorial Hall, 1220 21st Avenue South, on the western edge of the Peabody College campus.

Thrills & Chills! The Fantastic World of the American Circus is organized by the Fine Arts Gallery and curated by Joseph Mella, director, and Margaret Walker, art curator assistant.

Posted by vrcvanderbilt on July 8, 2015 in Fine Arts Gallery, HART, VRC