Brooke Wyatt

Brooke Wyatt's research examines art history's disciplinary boundaries with attentiveness to issues of agency and identity. Areas of emphasis include discourses of inclusion and exclusion, material and process-based art and craft practices, and the intersections of art history and mental illness. Brooke's research prioritizes the work of artists alternately identified across the early twentieth century as "primitive," "naïve," popular/folk, and later, as self-taught, art brut, and "outsider," particularly in dialogue with avant-garde movements in the U.S. and Western Europe between the World Wars. 

Brooke is currently working on an MA thesis exploring the materials and working processes of the French artist Séraphine Louis (1864-1942). The project considers the transatlantic reception and exhibition history of Louis's work together with that of other "Sacred Heart Painters," a group of self-taught artists including Henri Rousseau that was conceptualized by the early modernist critic and collector Wilhelm Uhde.

Prior to joining the department, Brooke worked in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as a community-based mental health therapist, art teacher, and teaching artist in public schools. She also has experience working in museums as well as non-profit and commercial arts organizations.