HOUGHTON NY, July 10, 2013 - Houghton College is pleased to announce that art professor Ted Murphy was one of a select group of faculty members nationwide chosen by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) to participate in a special week-long seminar on Teaching European Art in Context. The seminar was held in conjunction with an exhibition of rare traveling masterpieces of Dutch art featuring works by Vermeer, Hals, and Rembrandt. The exhibition, Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis, is on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, and began in June 2013.
CIC selected 21 faculty members to participate in the seminar, “Dutch Art, Patrons, and Markets,” which took place at the High Museum June 23–28, 2013. (See list of participating faculty members below.) The seminar aimed to strengthen the teaching of art history to undergraduates at smaller colleges and universities. Catherine Scallen, chair of the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she has taught since 1995, lead the program.
Dutch art of the 17th century has long been popular for the visual pleasures of its naturalistic scenes, but it also represents a landmark in the development of the modern art world. During the 17th century, the practices of making and buying art boomed as never before. With the creation of the first large-scale open art market, prosperous Dutch merchants, artisans, and civil servants bought paintings and prints in unprecedented numbers. Foreign visitors were astonished that even modest members of Dutch society, such as farmers and bakers, owned multiple works of art. Dutch 17th-century art saw the rise of new subjects as well, where landscapes, still lifes, and scenes of daily life replaced formerly dominant religious images and scenes from classical mythology. Portraiture, too, flourished in this prosperous atmosphere.
“The seminar is especially valuable for faculty members at institutions without large campus museums or proximity to major art museums. Art historians in all fields and studio artists, as well as faculty members who specialize in history, European studies, and related fields found this seminar of interest,” said CIC President Richard Ekman. “We believe that Ted Murphy will played a strong role in the seminar.”
CIC Participants in 2013 Seminar on Teaching European Art
Jeffrey Baldus, Briar Cliff University (IA)
Beverly Carter, Grove City College (PA)
Rick Cary, Mars Hill College (NC)
Garth Claassen, The College of Idaho (ID)
Perry Johnson, Virginia Intermont College (VA)
Libby Karlinger, Escobedo, Aurora University (IL)
Heidi Kraus, Hope College (MI)
Andrea Lepage, Washington and Lee University (VA)
Jane Long, Roanoke College (VA)
Ted Murphy, Houghton College (NY)
Morgan Page, Lyon College (AR)
Sylvia Rhor, Carlow University (PA)
Gabrielle Rose, Curti, Simpson College (IA)
Emily Stokes, Northwestern College (IA)
Montana Torrey, Lane College (TN)
Virginia Troy, Berry College (GA)
Lindsay Twa, Augustana College (SD)
Carolyn Watson, Furman University (SC)
Gregory Winterhalter, Southern Vermont College (VT)
Leanne Zalewski, Randolph College (VA)
Ann Zerger, McPherson College (KS)
For more information, visit the CIC website at www.cic.edu/ArtHistory.
The High Museum of Art was founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association and today is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States, with a membership base of over 50,000 that ranks it among the top ten art museums in the nation. Located in Atlanta’s midtown arts and business district, the High has more than 12,000 works of art in its permanent collection, with holdings and curatorial positions in the following art disciplines: American, European, decorative arts and design, folk, modern and contemporary, and African. The European collection includes the Kress collection of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts.