Department of Art & Art History
News from the Art Department
2022 Senior Show at the RMA
Rollins College Book Arts Collection
Professor Rachel Simmons collaborated with Olin Library and the Rollins Museum of Art to produce the Rollins Book Arts Collection, which can be accessed in the Rollins College Archives and Special Collections reading room of Olin Library.
Sharing and Celebrating Community
Student Accomplishments
The 2023 Fred Hicks Curatorial Fellow, art history graduate Abbey Matusik '23, guest curated the exhibition, Mediated Terrain: Perspectives of a Reenvisioned Landscape, which opened at the Rollins Museum of Art on June 1st and ran till August 28th. Examining the social dimension of our interaction with our land, this exhibition addresses the nuances of the interconnectedness between humans and their environment and invites viewers to envision new ways of engaging with their surroundings.
The works of studio art seniors Katelina Coyle, Madeline Moreland, Nana Takano, Claire Angel, Sophia Perry, Kat St. John, Haley Van Doren, Liv Sala, and Emma Lostutter debuted to the public in the 2023 senior show, Continuum, running from April 7th to May 14th. The featured works showcased a variety of our seniors skills in mixed media, embroidery, screenprinting, sculptural installation, drawing and portraiture, book arts, photography, and watercolor painting.
During its Winter Opening, the RMA unveiled, In Our Eyes: Women's, Nonbinary, and Transgender Perspectives from the Collection, an exhibition co-curated by students of Dr. Kimberly Dennis' ARH 404: Museum Practicum course. The exhibition, running from January 14th thru September 3rd 2023, focuses on explorations of memory, storytelling, and history through the lenses of gender non-conforming artists as they are reflected in a diversity of forms and subjects, engaging critically with the realities of our time while also examining a nuanced historical context.
2022
In conjunction with her work as the 2022 Hicks Fellow, graduating Art History senior Maia Bhikarrie opened her solo exhibition, Trauma to Triumphs: Perceptions of the Human Body, which ran from May 21st - September 4th, 2022 at the Rollins Museum of Art.
The 2022 Senior Show, Prograde & Retrograde, featured work by graduating studio art majors Anastasia Dresden, Shelbi Higgins, Gabrielle Clark, Vilja Aaltonen, Tracy Lam, Sophia di Marzio, Claudia Prado, and Karina Hornberger, and ran from April 9th - May 8th, 2022, at the Rollins Museum of Art.
Art History/Studio Art alumna Pilar Brooks '19 hosted a virtual event to our students discussing her current book and paper conservation internship at the Minnesota History Center, as well as opportunities available for our students to pursue graduate programs and internships in the field of art conservation.
Art History senior Julia Wolffe worked with the Art History faculty this February to host the Rollins Fashion Panel, an opportunity for students to learn more about the pursuit of a career in the fashion industry. Featured panelists were Art History alumnae Lindsay Muscato '07, Milicent Armstrong '09, and Bella Radovsky '20.
2022 Studio Art seniors Anastasia Dresden, Shelbi Higgins, Gabrielle Clark, Vilja Aaltonen, Tracy Lam, Sophia di Marzio, Claudia Prado, and Karina Hornberger presented the pop-up exhibition, Reverberate, which ran from November 16th thru the 19th.
In collaboration with the Rollins Museum of Art, the RMA Student Council hosted the RMA Halloween Party on October 19th, giving students across campus the opportunity to learn from our ARH faculty about all things spooky in art history!
2021
Professor Rachel Simmons collaborated with Olin Library and the Rollins Museum of Art to produce the Rollins Book Arts Collection, which can be accessed in the Rollins College Archives and Special Collections reading room of Olin Library. Common Ground: Selected Works from the Rollins Book Arts Collection, the corresponding exhibition from Rachel and Olin Library Director, Dr. Deborah Prosser, was featured at the Rollins Musem of Art from September 18th thru December 31st. To learn more about the collection, visit the Rollins Book Arts Page or view the collection.
Art History major and Fred Hicks Curatorial Fellow Isaac Gorres '21 Join Isaac Gorres ‘21 led a tour of the exhibition, Art Encounters: Community or Chaos, which explores themes of social justice, protest, and freedom of speech.
The 2021 Senior Show, Ethos, ran from April 10th - May 9th, featuring works from Studio Art seniors Renee Sang, Melissa Rodriguez, and Andrea Czafit. Read more about the exhibition in the Rollins360 article. A 3D tour of the exhibition can be viewed here and artist talks from the students can be viewed in two parts: Part One | Part Two
On display at CFAM: Dr. Kimberly Dennis and her ARH 404: Museum Studies Practicum class have co-curated the exhibition, Drawing Connections: Inside the Minds of Italian Masters, which features Renaissance pieces from the personal collection of Congressman John Mica. The class was held in Fall 2020 and the exhibition will be on display through May 2021. A student-led tour of the exhibit is available to watch here.
Professor Rachel Simmons hosted fellow printmaker and book artist Benjamin Blount as one of the 20-21 TPJ Visiting Scholars. During Ben's virtual visits, he collaborated with Rachel's students on a month-long book arts project and presented his work at the talk, "Printing in the Present Tense," on February 23rd.
2020
The Studio Art graduating class of 2020 virtually presented their exhibition, Frame of Reference, featuring works by Kailee Blalock, Christine Cole, Danie Forero, Angela-Maria Martinez, and Ty Wedekind.
Graduating art history major Morgan Snoap '20 has received the honor of valedictorian, making her the fourth art history valedictorian in the past 15 years, following in the footsteps of footsteps of Andrea Williamson '07, Christian James Bromley '12, and Zachary Baldwin '14. Morgan was also named Outstanding Senior by the Expressive Arts Division for the Class of 2020.
2019
Our graduating studio art majors gave gallery talks for their Cease & Desist Exhibition at Cornell Fine Arts Museum on April 16, 2019, and April 23, 2019!
Associate Professor of Art Josh Almond's MM300 Applied Design Solutions students are hard at work designing and building a tiny house! Read more
Students in Professor of Art Rachel Simmons’ Visual Journals: Identity & Memory class recently explored books by artists at CFAM!
March 2019. Zinnia Upson '19 (studio art major) is using old materials from bee farmers to paint a dark picture of the fate of America’s declining honeybee population, all while inspiring viewers to take action to save them. Read more
Professor of Art History Kimberly Dennis and students in her Women, Art, and Power class studied works of art at Cornell Fine Arts Museum recently. See more
Meredith Ewen '19 presented Voices: Beyond the Walls last fall in Cornell Fine Arts Center. She is continuing the project through her website, voicesbeyond.net. Read more
November 2018. Et Cetera featured work by Rollins senior art students Meredith Ewen, Anastasia Rooke, Alicia Sales, Ari Schubot, Elizabeth Shugart, and Zinnia Upson at the Cornell Fine Arts Center. The exhibition was held on November 15, 2018. Read more
2018
Efemeral featured work by graduating studio art majors Tara Gallagher, Mallory Griffith, Brianne Lint, and Emily Richards, and ran from April 14 - May 13, 2018, at Cornell Fine Arts Museum. Read more
A new post is up on the Travel/Research Blog! Brianna Cooney '19 (international business/art history major) explored Milan and Venice as part of the rFLA course MM220H: The Italian Imaginary. Read more. Check out the Rollins 360 article!
Check out what Maisie Haney '20 (art history major) did during a study abroad semester in London, UK. Read more
Students from Professor of Art History Susan Libby's Picturing War class held a one day exhibition of projects in Cornell Fine Arts Center.
A Cornell Scholarship Award enabled Isaac Gorres '19 to explore a critically acclaimed exhibition as part of his future career plans in art conservation. Read more
Associate Professor of Art Dawn Roe's students connected with The Mayflower Retirement Community to explore how photos shape issues of identity, history, collective memory, and memorializing. Read more
Students in Professor of Art Rachel Simmons’ Power of Print class shared their poster designs. Look for their designs around campus in 2019! Read more
ART120 3-D Foundations hosted the 1st Annual Monorail Madness on December 8, 2018. Check out these videos of wing, boat, and train sculptures riding the monorail!
Professor of Art Rachel Simmons advised Holly Jeffries '14 '18 with her art piece for her thesis project. Read more
2017
Be More Than Entranced featured work by Rollins senior art students Tara Gallagher, Mallory Griffith, Brianne Lint, and Emily Richards, at the Cornell Fine Arts Center. Read the Sandspur article
December, 2017. This year's theme for the 3-D Foundations 500 Kinetic Sculpture Race was food in the style of a famous artist or art movement. The "Salvador Dali Pizza Oven" took best sculpture, while the "Pop Art Sushi Bento Box" pulled out an exciting first place!
October, 2017. Hannibal Square - An Archive featured work by Rollins students enrolled in the rFLA course Introduction to Photography: Technique, Form and Content (Fall 2016) at the Cornell Fine Arts Center.
Faculty Accomplishments
In Fall 2023, Dr. MacKenzie Ryan's contributions to the quarterly art historical journal will be featured in an upcoming issue of African Arts, a publication dedicated to the extensive array of artistic mediums among African culture. Dr. Ryan will pen the introduction and the article, "African Textiles, Fashionable Textiles," in a special issue of the publication's 56th volume, and will also contribute as its editor.
Professor Dawn Roe was named the 22-23 recipient of the Bornstein Award for Faculty Scholarship, an award given to determined faculty for their outstanding scholarship and creative endeavors regarding their professional work, bringing national attention to the Rollins institution and community.
In April 2023, The Rollins Museum of Art's 2023 Biennal Faculty Exhibition opened alongside the 2023 studio art senior capstone exhibition, Continuum, and featured the works of our talented studio art faculty members, Dana Hargrove, Rachel Simmons, Dawn Roe, and Audrey Hope. This Biennal explored themes of environmentalism, social and racial justice, religion, community, loss, and family, displayed through an array of mediums such as painting, printmaking and artist books, photography and digital media, and found objects mixed media installations.
Professor Rachel Simmons's art was featured in the Downtown Arts District Orlando's billboard exhibition, The Corridor Project, running from January 19th thru February 12th, 2023. Modeled after the successful Billboard Creative in Los Angeles and Sonora 128 in Mexico City, this exhibition features the artwork of 30 artists from regions along the I4 corridor. The artworks were rotated digitally throughout the month of January to increase visibility and awareness of what the Central Florida creative community has to offer by actively engaging tourists and locals as they are driving around Orlando and I4.
Dr. MacKenzie Ryan, art history professor of global and African arts, contributed to the gallery text and related volume of the exhibition, My Name Is Maryan, previously on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami and now on view at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art through May 27th, 2023. Her contribution details the 13 African masks that inspired artist and Holocaust survivor Pinkas Bursztyn. The companion volume for the exhibition can be purchased here.
Studio art professor Dawn Roe was selected as one of 49 resident artists for the 2023 International Changing Climate Thematic Residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The residency seeks to support artistic exploration, creative activism, and community art actions related to global warming that inspire individual transformation and inform collective action. Resident artists are able to complete up to three months of on-site work related to the theme in any medium of their choosing, during which Roe will continue her work on the complex entanglements between humans and the natural world.
2022
Studio Art professor Dawn Roe presented her current work at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 2022 conference in Barcelona, Spain. ISEA is one of the most important annual events worldwide dedicated to the crossroads where art, design, science, technology, and society meet. Roe’s project, DESCENT ≈ An Atlas of Relation, looks to fish—which have occupied our planet for millions of years in a constant struggle for survival—as an entryway to visualize the entanglements of interspecies relation through time-based imaging systems referencing the imperceptible slowness of evolutionary processes.
Art history professor Dr. MacKenzie Ryan was named one of the 22-23 recipients of the Arthur Vining Davis Fellow award, which goes to outstanding faculty members who demonstrate superlative achievements in teaching, advising, scholarly work, and contributions to their field.
Visiting studio art professor Audrey Hope debuted her first solo museum exhibition the Lightner Museum, presenting a selection of collages, photographs, and mixed-media sculptures. Titled Disappointed Tourist, the series is a deeply personal meditation on nature, religion, personal trauma, and creativity, addressing several expansive themes—the complicated relationship between nature and travel, desperation in creativity, and the magical capacity objects have for representation. The exhibition runs from October 7th through January 20th, 2023.
Art history professor Dr. Susan Libby was invited to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to speak at the symposium, Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast, to examine Western sculpture in relation to the histories of transatlantic slavery, colonialism, and empire. The symposium can be viewed here.
Studio Art professor Dana Hargrove's exhibition at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine opened in the museum's grand ballroom gallery, running from April 1st thru May 20th. The exhibit features Dana's watercolor paintings, the Iceland series, and focuses on her time in Northern Iceland and the ideas that frame our perceptions of the land and our sense of place and space. Her spatially illusionistic representations offer synthesized versions of the natural landscape, where organic forms are tamed and organized to highlight mankind’s ongoing subordination of nature.
2021
The 2021 Faculty Biennial ran from April 10th - May 9th, featuring works from Studio Art professors Audrey Hope, Dana Hargrove, Dawn Roe, and Rachel Simmons, the latter of whom collaborated with Environmental Studies professor, Lee Lines. A 3D tour of the exhibition can be viewed here.
2020
Dr. MacKenzie Moon Ryan, our very own African and Global Art Historian, has her own curated exhibition, African Apparel: Threaded Transformations across the 20th Century, working in collaboration with students Morgan Snoap '20 and Cristina Toppin '21. The exhibition will run from January 18th, 2020 to September 6th, 2020 in the Cornell Fine Arts Museum. To learn more about African Apparel’s creation, check out a gallery walk-through and interview with collector, Norma Canelas Roth, ’65, and a curatorial podcast with Dr. Ryan and her students Morgan Snoap and Cristina Toppin. A self-guided, virtual tour of the exhibition can be found here.
2019
Professor of Art Rachel Simmons presents an exhibition titled The Language of Watching at Arts on Douglas alt-space from May 4 - June 15, 2019. Opening reception May 4, 2019, from 4:00 - 7:00 pm. Artist's talk May 17, 2019, at 11:00 am. Read more
February 2019. Cornell Fine Arts Museum worked with Assistant Professor of Art History MacKenzie Moon Ryan and her ARH404 Museum Studies Practicum class on the exhibition The Place as Metaphor: Collection Conversations. Read more
Assistant Professor of Art History MacKenzie Moon Ryan adapts to living and raising her daughter in a freshman dorm. Read more
Professor of Art Rachel Simmons held a workshop on the 24-hour Visual Journal. Read more
2018
December 2018. Art professors Dana Hargrove and Dawn Roe exhibited new works at satellite fairs associated with Art Basel during Art Basel Miami Beach Week 2018. Read more
Associate Professor of Art Dawn Roe's work was featured in essay, v. with Leigh-Ann Pahapill at RAMP Gallery for Revolve Studios, Asheville, NC, from August 1 - September 15, 2018, and in Conditions for an Unfinished Work of Mourning at the Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville, NC, from August 3 - September 22, 2018. Read more
April, 2018. 2018 Rollins Faculty Exhibition featured works by Joshua Almond, Rose Casterline, Dana Hargrove, Dawn Roe, and Rachel Simmons, and ran from April 14 - May 13, 2018, at Cornell Fine Arts Museum.
Future Past: Experiments in Photography featured work by Associate Professor of Art Dawn Roe at Tracey Morgan Gallery, Asheville, NC.
Professor of Art Dana Hargrove was featured in Imago Mundi Luciano Benetton Collection- Myth/Reality
For residents of Ward Hall, the successful transition to college is made easier by the art history professor, former valedictorian, and outgoing toddler who lives on the first floor! Read more
Assistant Professor of Art History MacKenzie Moon Ryan gave talks at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, and the Morse Museum of American Art.
September 2018. Drs. Kim Dennis and Gretchen Meyers gave a first look at their collaborative research on the Pietro da Cortona ceiling in Rome’s Palazzo Pamphilj on September 20, 2018 at Cornell Fine Arts Museum.
August 2018. Professor of Art Dana Hargrove’s work was featured in Another Country- Aspects of Scottish Migration. She participated in Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts artist residency, and is now represented in Texas by Dean Day Gallery.
2017
November, 2017. Art in Odd Places, a nontraditional experience of performance art and interactive projects, was co-curated by Rollins professors Julian Chambliss and Rachel Simmons. Read the article in Interior Appeal, Fall 2017
*September, 2017. Associate Professor of Art Dawn Roe's work was featured in Memories of Underdevelopment at Gallery at Avalon Island, Orlando.
Rollins professors were featured in Time as Landscape: Inquiries of Art and Science (September 29 – December 31, 2017), and Steady Observation: The Intersection of Scientific Inquiry, Art, and Life (September 29 - December 31, 2017)
Why is Professor of Art Rachel Simmons ’97’s printmaking studio a hotbed of collaborative creation? Read more
Associate Professor of Art Dawn Roe was recently featured in the London-based publication, Floor magazine. Read more
February, 2018. Professor of Art Dana Hargrove's work was featured in Geoform.net, an online scholarly resource and curatorial project whose focus is the use of geometric form and structure in contemporary abstract art. Check out Dana's Geoform.net profile!