Art history and minority representation will meet during the upcoming series of lectures at Hanes Art Center.
Throughout the semester, lectures will feature different prominent artists and art historians for both those interested in art history and those already well-versed in the subject. On Wednesday, Ruth Phillips delivered the first lecture of the semester.
“Ruth Phillips is a very distinguished art historian," said Daniel Sherman, a UNC history and art history professor. "She’s worked both as a professor of art history with a specialty in Native North American art and as a museum director in British Columbia."
Phillips co-authored a leading textbook on Native North American art. Phillips was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Anthropological Association’s Council for Museum Anthropology in 2015.
"She’s going to be mainly talking about art by contemporary Canadian first people, so all artists whom she knows personally,” Sherman said.
Although there isn’t a theme connecting the content and artworks featured in the different lectures, they coincide with material from various upper-level art history courses. However, Sherman said they are open to everyone and students of all levels.
“We’re trying to expose students to scholars from the outside," said Christoph Brachmann, an art history professor and chairperson of the Art History Lectures committee. "I think it’s important for students to see more than just professor X and professor Y and to see a different approach, a different philosophy.”
Graduate students also have the ability to suggest different scholars for the lectures.
Other events and lectures Hanes Art Center will be hosting include a lecture by Sarah Guérin, assistant professor in the Department of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, on Oct. 1 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
