Art History

Michele Fricke, professor and program head of art history, teaches ancient and renaissance art and the history of textiles and ceramics. A practicing artist, Fricke creates fiber work that has been shown in exhibitions across the country and which is represented in many private collections. She has been published in Ceramics Monthly and Fiberarts and is a regular contributor to the Surface Design Journal. She also serves on the editorial board of that journal as well as the board of the Midwest Art History Society. Recent publications include the catalog for the “New Fiber” Exhibition, sponsored by the Fiber Art Network, and a review of the 2009 Surface Design Conference exhibitions for the German textile journal, Textilforum.  She edited the books "Royal Nepal Through the Lens of Richard Gordon Matzene" and "Luba Agha:  Pakistani Artist," as well as the exhibition catalog, "Modern Indian works on Paper," all written by Dr. Marcella Sirhandi of Oklahoma State University.  Her current research involves an investigation of historical architecture, interpreted in knitted form.

Fricke received KCAI's "Excellence in Teaching Award" in 1993. She was the exhibition chair for the Surface Design Association's national conferences held in Kansas City in 2000 and 2003. She curated the exhibition "Material Evidence" for the Reed Whipple Cultural Center in Las Vegas and "Couplets: a Collaboration of Fiber Artists and Poets," shown at the Writer's Place in Kansas City. She has spoken at numerous venues including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the National Association of Colleges of Art and Design, a lecture series on the history of ceramics at the Red Star Studio in Kansas City and recently at Baylor University on "Fiber Art: The New Dynamism."

Before coming to KCAI in 1988, she taught at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill.; St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Ind.; and the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. At the last two schools, she also served as the director of exhibitions. Fricke earned a B.S. degree in education, an M.A. degreei n art history and an M.F.A. degree in fiber from Northern Illinois University.

Contact: 816-802-3386 or mfricke@kcai.edu

Steve Cromwell teaches history of photography, history of film, contemporary European art, Latino art of the 20th century, 19th century painting, aesthetics and art criticism, women in contemporary art, modern sculpture and American art since 1945.

Formerly an exhibiting artist, Cromwell's mixed media photographic work has been shown in many solo, invitational, group and juried exhibitions throughout the United States. Solo exhibitions include: Sheldon Memorial Gallery of Art, University of Nebraska in Lincoln; Douglas Drake Gallery, Kansas City; and University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene. His photographs have been shown in the "New Photographic" competition exhibition. His works are in the collections of Mulvane Art Center, Mutual Benefit Life; University of Kansas Spooner-Thayner Museum of Art; University of Oklahoma Museum of Art; Denver Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; and the Cincinnati Museum of Art.

Cromwell has been a visiting artist and lecturer for a number of special programs and colleges as well as a juror of art competitions and organizer of several exhibitions. He has served as photo editor of The Cottonwood Review literary magazine at the University of Kansas, and as editor of Words, a literary magazine at Kendall College. In 1978 he was program chair of the Society of Photographic Education's national conference.

A member of the KCAI faculty since 1972, Cromwell holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Kansas.

Contact: 816-802-3385 or scromwell@kcai.edu

Jan joined the liberal arts faculty at KCAI in 2006, previously working as a lecturer at KCAI and as an adjunct assistant professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan.

Jan has taught a wide range of classes at KCAI, including "Asian Art Survey," "Japanese Art Survey," "Japanese Prints," "Spiritual Landscapes in Art," "Baroque Art," "Impressionism and Post-Impressionism," "Abstract Expressionism," "Art of Venice" and "Art of Zen."

She received a B.A. in the history of art and English literature, an M.A. in the history of art and a Ph.D., all from the University of Kansas. Her major area for the Ph.D. was 17th Century Dutch and Flemish paintings and prints, and her minor areas were Venetian Cinquecento painting and Japanese painting of the Edo period. Her dissertation was "Images of the Soldier in 17th Century Dutch Art."

Jan has won numerous awards and fellowships, including the Friends of the Mauritshuis Fellowship associated with the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague that allowed her to conduct research in the Netherlands. In 1997, she contributed writings for "Dutch Art: An Encyclopedia," edited by Sheila D. Muller and published by Garland Publishing. More recently, she was a keynote speaker presenting her current area of research on the Christian art of Japan.

Jan is a member of the College Art Association, the Historians of Netherlandish Art and the Association for Asian Studies.

Contact: 816-802-3372 or jkennedy@kcai.edu

Reed Anderson, Ph.D., who holds a doctorate in American art from the University of Kansas, has taught a variety of classes since coming to KCAI in 2004, including "The Artist's Role in Society," "History of Prints and Printmaking," "History of Graphic Design," "Symbolist Art" and a seminar on outsider art.

One of Dr. Anderson's areas of specialization is the history of prints and printmaking, which inspired the exhibition and catalog American Etchers Abroad, 1880-1939 (2004). Sponsored by the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, the exhibition traveled to The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa. last summer. Dr. Anderson has also curated two exhibitions devoted to Kansas City artist Arthur Kraft: "The Art and Words of Arthur Kraft" for the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, Mo. (2002) and "Rediscovering Arthur Kraft" for the Carter Art Center at Penn Valley Community College, Kansas City, Mo. (2003).

Dr. Anderson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in art history from the University of Washington, Seattle. His dissertation for the Ph.D. degree is entitled "An Epic of the American Farm: James Chapin and the Marvin Paintings."

Phone: 816-802-3341
email: sanderson@kcai.edu

Erin Dahl finished her master's degree in the history of art at the University of Kansas in 2009. Prior to receiving her B.F.A. degree in fiber and art history from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2007, she spent a fruitful summer studying painting and art history at Maryland Institute College of Art. Her studio background in printmaking, painting and fiber adds a further dimension of understanding to her academic interests, which include political art, feminism and material and cultural studies. In addition to reading, Dahl enjoys foreign films and all things involving food: cooking, baking and, most important, eating.

Deborah Dickson has a dozen years of teaching experience and has taught at the Kansas City Art Institute since 1999. She earned her Bachelor of Science in biology and, in 1997, a Master of Arts in art history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her thesis, "Modifications and Dynamics in Sacred Senufo Storehouse Shrines," was based on a study abroad program in the Ivory Coast of West Africa.

In the last decade, she has published more than 100 art museum and gallery exhibition reviews in the local publications The Pitch and Review. Her curatorial experience includes curating "Off The Wall," an art exhibition at Arts Incubator benefiting a local nonprofit (2008), "So Near and Yet So Foreign: Sculptures by Cuban artist Rafael Perez" at Fahrenheit Gallery (2000) and co-curated "Simulation: Group Show in Multimedia by Local Artists" at Stocksdale Gallery at William Jewell College (2001). As a co-juror, she selected work for the 2nd Annual Grand Nude Show for the Hobbs Building Art Gallery (2001). As the tour guide for the Hall family collection of African art, she has given multiple talks to many museum groups and private collectors from around the country. She was a member of the selection committee for the Business Arts Awards sponsored by the Metropolitan Arts Council of Kansas City (2004) and was chosen to participate on a four-person panel on "Writing About Art" at the Writer's Place (2001).

Dickson has visited museums and galleries around the world, having traveled to 16 countries on four continents including Europe and the United Kingdom, West Africa, South America, Jamaica and Cuba. Her courses at KCAI include "Western Art I," "Western Art II," "Introduction to Art and Performance of African, Oceanic and New World Cultures," "Introduction to African Art," "Art and Performance of the African Diaspora," "Introduction to the Art of the Americas" and "Clay in Africa and the Americas."

Paula Rose, a lecturer in the School of Liberal Arts, has a master's degree in art history from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in art history and painting from KCAI. Her areas of specialization include modern and contemporary European and American art, contemporary Japanese art, popular culture and feminist art and theory. She has been teaching at KCAI since 2008. She also teaches courses in art history at Blue River Community College, gives tours at the Steamboat Arabia Museum and manages a small gallery in the Crossroads Arts District.  In her (rare) free time she enjoys photography, knitting, cooking and traveling.