History of Arts and Architecture

Over the last several years, universities and museums have partnered with commercial technology firms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, who have promised that their AI products will enhance both historical research and accessibility to historical collections. These promises, however, are not supported by the reality of what computer vision—the branch of AI most relevant to the history of art—can achieve. So why have major institutions in education and the arts been so quick to take up these firms’ offers?

This practice-based activity is open to anyone on campus, but especially those interested in thinking about ecology beyond traditional Western disciplinary lenses. We will use drawings and sound to consider the boundaries between more-than-human nature and embodied experience that Gloria Anzaldúa set out in her mediations, which proposed a feminist approach to the spaces and places at the U.S-Mexico border.

Nguyen Hà, co-founder of ARB Architects, emphasizes finding “serenity” in architecture. Her projects reflect the progression of culture, history, and religions in different regions and ethnicities in Vietnam. She pays special attention to the formation, disappearance, and transitional processes of Vietnamese traditional craft villages. Hà worked with artisans from such villages to preserve traditional production methods and to create new materials. She is also known as a designer of lighting installations. 

On October 18, 1951, Robert Rauschenberg wrote a letter to his gallerist, Betty Parsons, announcing a new series of work “dealing with the suspense, excitement, and body of an organic silence.” Despite an initially negative reception, his White Paintings have since been recognized as a critical precursor to Conceptualism and Minimalism. Rauschenberg felt it essential to maintain the pristine, white surface of the paintings, and, as such, allowed the series to be repainted and refabricated.

Peter Lovell Memorial Lecture in Architecture and Design:

Kevin Chu, Executive Director of Vermont Futures Project gives a lecture on “Housing and the Economic Health of Vermont”. The lecture will be followed by a Panel Discussion and Q&A.

Please join us in celebrating the fantastic work of all Studio Art and Architecture students in Fall 2024 classes.  Small bites and refreshments will be served.

Hear from HARC majors about their experiences and why they decided to major in History of Art/Museum Studies and Architectural Studies.  You can meet the faculty and hear about the exciting WT & Spring 2025 classes offered.

Pizza will be served.

Open to Middlebury students only.

Theresa Fairbanks Harris, Senior Conservator of Works on Paper at the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, and Josephine Rodgers, Curator of Collections and Director of Engagement at the Middlebury College Art Museum, will lead a discussion on the conservation treatment and history of Edwin Austin Abbey’s (1852–1911) drawings at Yale University. The treatment was completed in preparation for the ‘The Dance of Life: Figure and Imagination in American Art, 1876–1917’ exhibition now on view at the Yale University Art Gallery.