Art History
Art history at an art college is intrinsically different. At KCAI, the art history program reflects a unique approach that combines academic rigor with an understanding of studio practice. Many members of the art history faculty are also art makers. This infuses the program with a deep understanding of media, technique and the dynamics of art making in tandem with the history and theories of art.
As you progress in the major you have opportunities to select from a wide variety of upper level courses, such as “History of Ceramics,” “Constructivism and the Bauhaus,” “History of Photography,” “Spiritual Landscapes,” “High Art and Popular Culture,” “Film Noir,” “Seminar in Postmodernism,” “Survey of Africa, Oceania and Native American Art,” “Models and Muses,” “Japanese Prints” and “American Film of the 1970s,” to name only a few. Dovetailing with the college’s Community Arts and Service Learning certificate program, the art history curriculum includes courses that examine the artist’s role in society.
Dedicated to their teaching, the full-time art history faculty are also active as scholars in their fields — curating, publishing, working with museums and serving on boards of leading professional associations and societies. In the classroom and in professional practice sessions, which junior and senior year students attend as a means of career preparation, art historians talk with students about the symbiotic relationship between studio artists and art historians. Discussion focuses on how the two interact professionally throughout their careers, intersecting in virtually all art venues, including grant-making agencies, critical journals and newspapers, collegiate and university art departments, art galleries and museums and public art programs.
Art History Faculty
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Michele Fricke, professor and program head of art history
Michele Fricke, professor and program head of art history, teaches ancient and renaissance art and the history of textiles and ceramics...
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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 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. Recent publications include reviews of the Chicago exhibition "Material Differences," the 2007 exhibitions of the Surface Design Conference and an article entitled "Dressing Up Death: the Splendor of Fantastical Creatures" for the Surface Design Journal. She has also written an essay entitled "Full Circle" for the exhibition and conference on entrepreneurial textiles sponsored by the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in North Carolina. She delivered the keynote address at the conference in January, 2009.
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
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Steve Cromwell, associate professor
Steve Cromwell teaches history of photography, history of film, contemporary European art, Latino art of the 20th century, 19th century...
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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
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Maria Buszek, Ph.D., assistant professor
Maria Buszek, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Liberal Arts, teaches modern and contemporary art. She joined the KCAI faculty...
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Maria Buszek, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Liberal Arts, teaches modern and contemporary art. She joined the KCAI faculty in 2002.
Her recent publications include the book "Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture" (Duke University Press, 2006); contributions to the anthologies "It's Time for Action, There's No Option" (JRP Ringier, 2007), "Blaze: Discourse on Art, Women, and Feminism" (Cambridge Scholar Press, 2007) and "Contemporary Artists," 5 ed. (St. James Press, 2001); catalogue essays for Gagosian Gallery, Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, and Grand Arts; and articles in such journals as Art in America, Photography Quarterly, Woman's Art Journal, and TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. She is also a regular contributor to the popular journal BUST and Kansas City's Review. Buszek most recently edited the anthology "Extra/ordinary: Craft culture and contemporary art," relating to the explosion of and meanings behind craft media in the contemporary art world.
Dr. Buszek's scholarship has won and been nominated for awards from the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association (Emily Toth Book Award), the College Art Association (Charles Rufus Morey Book Award), American Society for Theater Research (Gerald Kahan Scholars's Prize) and New York University and the MIT Press (TDR Student Writing Award).
She is a prolific curator, and has recently curated exhibitions for the Charlotte Street Awards, Greenlease Gallery, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art and The Cube. She worked on the 2009 traveling exhibition "Raised in Craftivity."
Dr. Buszek earned a bachelor's degree from Creighton University and master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kansas.
Website: http://www.mariabuszek.com
Contact: 816-802-3378 or mbuszek@kcai.edu
Photo: Cortney Andrews (http://www.cortneyandrews.com)
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Jan Kennedy, assistant professor
Jan joined the liberal arts faculty at KCAI in 2006, previously working as a lecturer at KCAI and as an adjunct assistant professor at...
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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
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Sherman Reed Anderson, Special instructor
Reed Anderson, Ph.D., who holds a doctorate in American art from the University of Kansas, has taught a variety of classes since coming...
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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 or 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
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Deborah Dickson, special instructor
Deborah Dickson has a dozen years of teaching experience and has taught at the Kansas City Art Institute since 1999. She earned her...
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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."
