“Alive, but Dead,” Peter Callesen Acid Free paper, glue, acrylic paint, and oak frame. 27 x 94 x 11,5 cm. Collection: unknown. ©Peter Callesen. All rights reserved.
Stockbridge, MA, April 27, 2012—Norman Rockwell Museum announces a new educational collaboration with the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), based in Baltimore, Maryland. This past semester, Stephanie Plunkett, Deputy Director and Chief Curator for the Museum; and Joyce K. Schiller, Ph.D., curator of the Museum’s Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, have been teaching a Critical Seminar course in the school’s new Master of Fine Arts Illustration Practice Program, chaired by award-winning illustrator Whitney Sherman.
“Taught both on-site at MICA, and online, this unique seminar explored diverse aspects of our visual culture,” notes Plunkett. “Our talented graduate illustration students, in turn, provided fascinating perspectives on a wide range of illustration-based topics, creating exciting new scholarship relating to the field.”
On Tuesday, May 1, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the nine graduate students involved in the course will present digital exhibition concepts of their own design, exploring diverse themes that reflect the impact of illustrated images on the public’s perception and world view. Politics, dream realities, illustrated products, web comics, children’s literature, calligraphy and metaphor, and the new illustration are among the compelling themes to be explored. Exhibition curators include Nargol Arefi, Sara Barnes, Jun Cen, Dingding Hu, Lisa Perrin, Aehee Shin, Tong Su, Yuanjin Wei, and Jennifer Yoo. The free event and discussion will be held in the Brown Center, Room 320, at MICA’s Baltimore campus. MICA virtual exhibitions will then be posted on the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies website in mid-May.
About the MFA in Illustration Practice Program:
The MFA in Illustration Practice Program at The Maryland Institute College of Art prepares artists to elevate their artistic and business abilities, blend media within new cultural contexts, and integrate research and critical analysis into their work. Students are encouraged to find new directions for the practice in the 21st century and actively initiate projects. This intense program of study helps students revisit their creative process and use of materials while awakening their abilities to chart their own course as entrepreneurs. The program embraces existing models of illustration practice while seeking what is new on the horizon and beyond into new markets. Learn more at: www.mica.edu
About the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies
The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies is the nation’s first research institute devoted to the art of illustration. Officially launched in 2009, Norman Rockwell Museum’s 40th anniversary year, the Rockwell Center brings new scholarly attention and resources to the art of illustration, a hugely influential aspect of American visual culture that is only now being studied and appreciated. Through creating new online research tools and collections access, supporting scholarship, and spurring the collection and preservation of important artworks, the Center will establish a context for understanding the role of illustration art in shaping and reflecting American culture. Visit the Rockwell Center website at: www.rockwell-center.org