Faculty, Students and Alumni Working in the Community

THE DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY
FACULTY IN THE COMMUNITY

Dr. Elizabeth Bolman, Associate Professor and Interim Director of Art History Graduate Studies, is Director of the Red and White Monastery Project in Sohag, Egypt, working on a restoration, conservation and analysis project of these early Medieval Coptic monuments. The project has received over one million dollars in funding from various agencies. As Director of the Red and White Monasteries projects, Professor Bolman successfully nominated these buildings to the
World Monuments Watch 2002 List of 100 Most Endangered Sites of cultural heritage. Her work has humanitarian implications as it aids the community and country in its economic development through preservation of sites key to tourism. For her efforts, Dr. Bolman won the “Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation” in 2008 from the College Art Association (the professional association of Artists and Art Historians).

Dr. Susanna Gold, Assistant Professor, is involved in three volunteer arts programs at a local elementary school that otherwise offers very little exposure to the arts. She is Chair, Artist in Residence; Chair, Art in the Classroom; and Former Co-Chair/Founder for Afterschool Art Club at the Chestnutwold Elementary School in Ardmore, PA.

Dr. Marcia Hall, Professor, recently gave a lecture open to the community entitled —“Tea With Violet Oakley”— at the First Presbyterian Church of Germantown, which is the site of some of Oakley’s murals. Oakley, an artist and suffragist, lived in Chestnut Hill. She was one of America’s and the region’s most famous muralist and stained glass artists, especially known for her early twentieth-century murals for State buildings in Harrisburg, the most significant public commissions given to a woman artist up until that time.

Dr. Gerald Silk, Professor and Chair, is consulting with PhD candidate Sophie Sanders on a project entitled “Diasporic Dialogues: African American and Jewish Perspectives on Arts and Culture,” in conjunction with the Temple Judea Museum in Elkins Park, PA. Plans include programs not only with the Temple Judea Elkins Park community but also with individuals from other academic areas at Temple University, including Painting, Afro-Jewish studies (Philosophy Department and
African-American studies), as well as artists and scholars from other institutions, including the Brandywine Workshop and Penn State. The enterprise will include an exhibition and symposium, which will be open to the public and should be of deep interest to the community.

THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
FACULTY IN THE COMMUNITY

Scott Gerald Shall, Assistant Professor, offers a new Gen Ed course, GUERRILLA ALTRUISM through which students learn about and complete several acts of Guerrilla Altruism in partnership with local NGOs (including, but not limited to, the Mural Arts Program). He took a team of students to Bolivia, where they designed and implemented new educational initiatives with the Shoe Shine Boys or “Lustrabota” community of La Paz, Bolivia, many of whom, in order to eat, must work every day instead of attending school. Professor Shall oversees the reclaimedSKY project.

 

 

 

 

THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & ART EDUCATION
FACULTY IN THE COMMUNITY

Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Assistant Professor, is working on an internationally based community based architectural design for the Handball Stadium: Centre for New Media and Recreation in Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia. The main objective in this long-term community project is working with the local non-profit organization called kuda.org - New Media Centre to preserve an existing handball stadium from Socialist era and adapt it into the new centre targeting youth.

The project is supported by Trust for Mutual Understanding (Rockfeller, New York) and by the City municipality of Novi Sad and it is published in architectural and art press both in the US and Europe. More at: www.thenao.net/NAOsk.htm

Wendy Osterweil, Assistant Professor, is the founder and coordinator of Prints Link
Philadelphia, a coalition of community arts organizations, art centers, museums, schools and teaching artists who are developing curriculum and projects to educate and promote printmaking to children and teens in the Philadelphia region. PLP is an independent projects partner with Philagrafika 2010 and exhibited prints by children and teens at the Main Brand of the Free Library of Philadelphia in early 2010. www.philagrafika2010.org/node/220

Pepon Osorio, Laura Carnell Professor of Community Arts,
has initiated the project, “In Loving Memory of…” a multidisciplinary community arts project centering on stories of area residents whose lives have been affected by urban crime and violence. The goal is to create a massive response to the issue by bringing awareness from within. Various multi-media projects will encompass the project, including video stations where families can record their experiences with crime and a storefront installation serving as a center for reflection on the collective experiences of violence and its aftermath. Students are partnered with families who live near Temple University. Tyler is partnering with the School of Communications and Theater for this project.


ART HISTORY STUDENTS AND ALUMS

Sophie Sanders, PhD candidate, is working on projects relating to the Cai Guo-Qiang exhibition at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, doing outreach education programs for local Asian community members such as students of the Folk Arts Cultural Treasures Charter School. Other Art History grad students are involved in the Cai Cuo-Qiang exhibition, including Florence Sheng-chieh Hsu, an MA candidate, who will be translating Mandarin Chinese and English for visitors and the native Chinese weavers at the workshop engaged in this project.

Galen Born, BA summa cum laude, Art History, ’08, served for a year with AmeriCorps VISTA at the People's Emergency Center in West Philadelphia, teaching classes in computer literacy to underserved youth and adults.

Heather Castro, PhD Candidate who worked on “Who We Are,” also interned at Crane Arts, doing projects related to the citywide Philagrafika exhibition, which celebrates Print in Contemporary Art.

Ana Vizcarra Rankin and Olive Sheehan are among several Art History undergraduates involved in the “Ethnographic Terminalia” exhibition at the Crane Arts Building near the Temple Campus. Ana has also worked for the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours for 5 years running and volunteered for exhibition installation and marketing at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.

Laura Turner Igoe and Aliza Benjamin, both PhD candidates, give spotlight tours at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which are open to the public.

Stacey Wujcik, MA candidate, interned for the Wolgin Prize, working on didactic materials, which included weekly exhibition tours to the public.

Sophia Q. McCabe, MA Candidate, is a volunteer at the Fowler Museum at UCLA with grant writing and membership services and is a Provisional Docent at the Pacific Asia Museum as Recent Past. She has also been a photographer for “Flashes of Hope,” a non-profit organization that provides portraits of children battling cancer to their families.

Alysha Friesen, MA candidate, works at Laurel Hill Cemetery and was involved in a series of events honoring General Meade, one of the many civil war heroes interred at the cemetery, including a historical re-enactment and a workshop led a certified genealogist in its archives.