News Archive - Fall 2005 to Spring 2008
Fall 2005 
September
Colloquium: Edith Balas
"The Body Image in the Art of Constantin Brancusi"
October
Lecture: Roy Graham
"A Tale of Two Cities"
Lecture: David Summers
"A Discussion of Real Spaces"
Lecture: Xu Hong, National Art Gallery
of China "Contemporary Chinese Women's Art"
Reception in Cloister to celebrate the launch of major new website on Chartres Cathedral
November
Artist's Talk: "The Art of Willie Cole"
Guest Lecture: Ms. Elizabeth Asche Douglas
Mixed media artist, Women of Visions, Inc.
Artist Lecture: Tanja Ostojic
"BODY - KNOWLEDGE - PASSPORT"
Spring 2006
January
Lecture: Judy Scott Feldman
"Designing for Democracy: A Third-Century National Mall"
March
Graduate Student Symposium a Success» The Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Cultural Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh hosted a national graduate symposium, "Natural Selections: Art and Exchange with the Natural World."
April
Lecture: Hung Keung
"The Interactive works by Hung Keung and innov+media lab in Hong Kong"
Fall 2006
September
Schenley Plaza Opens »
Schenley Plaza, a $10 million urban greenspace project sponsored by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and designed by Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass., formally opened June 8 to great fanfare.
"Water and the City: The Regent Square Gateway Project for Frick Park »
Michele Adams, Principal Engineer, Cahill Associates and Marijke Hecht, Executive Director, Nine Mile Run Watersheed Association
October
"Disappearing Element/Disappeared Element: Cannibalism, the Non-object, and Institutional Critique" »
Alexander Alberro's teaching and reserach interests include the history of modern and contemporary art, photography, film, and video art.
Joint lecture series with Chatham University »
November
"Architecture/Memory/Trauma" »
Julian Bonder is an architect and teacher who has concentrated on investigating the relationships between memory, trauma, and public space.
Resounding Spirit: Japanese Contemporary Art of the 1960s »
In conjunction with this University Art Gallery exhibit, Tsukioka Kôgyo prints were on view in the Frick Fine Arts lobby.
December
Department Field Trips Highlighted in the Pitt Chronicle »
Two HAA undergraduate field trips were featured in the December 4, 2006 issue of the Pitt Chronicle.
New Summer Fellowship Program » HAA is pleased to announce a new summer fellowship program funded by the Graduate Dean for Arts & Sciences. Under the program, the department will award annually approximately six Dissertation Development Grants of up to $3,000 each.
Spring 2007
February
HAA Reception at CAA Conference
Friday, February 16, 2007, there was a departmental reception for HAA attendees at the College Art Association Conference in New York. (Hilton, Lincoln Suite, 4th floor.
5:30-7:00 PM
Symposium: Current Directions in Historic Preservation Education »
As part of a comprehensive planning exercise to address changes in architecture education, the department sponsored a national symposium on how historic preservation is taught in professional programs, featuring an outstanding panel of participants from a variety of schools, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Belmont Technical College, Columbia University, Cornell University, the Pratt Institute, the University of Mary Washington, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Univeristy of Virginia.
March
Terry Smith Talk at the Warhol »
As part of the exhibit "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race," Terry Smith gave a gallery talk at the Andy Warhol Museum on March 1, 2007. Prof. Smith's talk was titled "Death in America: Art and Life" and was in conjunction with "Art, Science, Ethics and the Pursuit of Perfection - An Evening Forum."
April
Architecture Lab Inauguration
The inauguration of the Architectural Studies Program design studio (M-12 Thaw Hall) was held on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 from 4-6 p.m. This was an informal opportunity to learn about the program, to meet students and faculty, and to preview work from the spring semester system design studio.
Majority of HAA Majors Graduate with Honors
Congratulations to our April 2007 graduating seniors - an impressive class! Of the 39 History of Art and Architecture majors, 77% graduated with university honors (9 cum laude, 14 magna cum laude, and 7 summa cum laude). Seven of these graduates completed an honors independent research project in our department. The average GPA of this prestigious group was 3.55 and 25 students graduated with an additional major from another department.
Golden Daffodil Graduation Brunch »
The HAA department and the department of Studio Arts hosted the Golden Daffodil Graduation Brunch on Sunday, April 29, 2007.
Terry Smith Named a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in Durham»
Terry Smith, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh, has been named a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in Durham, N.C., for the 2007-08 academic year.
"Architectures of Aftermath"»
Anthony Vidler and Terry Smith held a series of events in Pittsburgh in conjunction with Smith's new book The Architecture of Aftermath.
Fall 2007
September
Summersend - HAA faculty, staff, grad students, majors, and prospective majors gathered for Summersend - Monday, September 17, 2007 at 6:30pm in Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. Refreshments were provided and Prof. Frank Toker gave a talk titled, "What E.J. Kaufmann Leanred from H.C. Frick — and What He Forgot.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 6pm in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, the celebrated British art historian John Onians of the University of East Anglia gave a lecture titled "Neuroarthistory: Make More Sense of Art." This lecture was co-sponsored by the Cultural Studies Program and the Departments of History of Art and Architecture, History and Philosophy of Science, and Neuroscience.
October
Friday, October 5, 2007 at 4pm in room 202 Frick Fine Arts, Charles Pearo (HAA-PhD 2002) gave the annual Distinguished Alumna/us Lecture on "Elizabeth Jane Gardner (1837-1922): Defining Her Artistic Identity in the Shadows of Bouguereau."
Early American Architecture Field Trip
On Sunday, October 14, 2007 from 9am - 5:30pm, Prof. Frank Toker led a group of 30 students and Friends of Frick Fine Arts on an in-depth look at masterpieces of Early American Architecture. The trip included a log house from 1769, "Woodville," George Washington's prize gristmill at Perryopolis, a Gothic Revival church, America's oldest metal bridge in Brownsville, the Isaac Meason Mansion, and Abraham Overholt's whiskey plantation.
November
"Revisiting the Gregorian Reform"
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Room 202 Frick Fine Arts, 5:00 pm
Dorothy Glass is Professor Emerita of Art History at SUNY Buffalo and specializes in Italian Romanesque Sculpture on which she has published widely. This talk will form part of her forthcoming book entitled The Sculpture of Reform; Romanesque Sculpture in North Italy, ca. 1095-1125.
This lecture was co-sponsored by the HAA department and the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program and open to the public.
Spring 2008
January
The Art of Folding - Closing Reception
Presented by the Architectural Studies Program - a final viewing of student design work from fall 2007
Thursday, January 24th
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Frick Fine Arts Gallery
Nancy Wicker Lecture
"Who Made it and Who Wore it? Agency and the Individual in Early Medieval Scandinavian Gold Bracteate Jewelry"
Friday, January 25, 2008
5:00 pm, room 202 Frick Fine Arts Building
Current chair of the Department of Art at the University of Mississippi, Nancy Wicker researches various facets of the Viking Age, including Scandinavian jewelry of the early medieval period, animal-style art, female infanticide, runic literarcy, and gendered approaches to Scandinavian art and archaeology.
This lecture was co-sponosroed by the History of Art and Architecture Department, the Honors College, the Medieval & Renaissance Studies Program, the Women's Studies Program, the History Department, and the Germanic Langauges & Literature Department.
February
Edith Balas Lecture
"The Mother Goddess in Italian Renaissance Art"
Friday, February 15, 2008
4:00 pm, room 202 Frick Fine Arts Building
Edith Balas is an alumna of the University of Pittsburgh History of Art and Architecture Department. She has been teaching at Carnegie Mellon University since 1977. In this paper, Balas examines the significance of the Mother Goddess and her cult in Renaissance culture.
This event was co-sponsored by the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, the Women's Studies Program, and the HAA department.
Ann Thomas Wilkins and David Wilkins Lecture
"Strangers in a Strange New Land: How the Immigrant, the Colonizer, and the Conqueror Used Sacred Architecture to Establish Identity"
4:00 pm, February 28, 2008
room 202 Frick Fine Arts
This paper was originally presented last month at the 32nd Congress of the International Committee on the History of Art (CIHA) in Melbourne, Australia. The topic was inspired by the Conference theme of Crossing Cultures" for a session entitled "The Sacred Across Cultures." The paper's subject is diachronological and global, including discussion of the Greeks in Sicily, the Muslims in the Iberian peninsula, the Ottomans in Turkey, and expatriate Russian churches in New Hampshire.
March
Fil Hearn Award for Study Abroad Announced » In recognition of the tremendous contribution of Professor Fil Hearn to the University of Pittsburgh and the Architectural Studies program over twenty-five years, we are proud to announce the first annual Fil Hearn Award for Study Abroad. This award was created to commemorate Professor Hearn’s deep involvement in Semester at Sea and his constant support of study abroad as means to expand the intellectual horizons of undergraduates.