Art and mass media: The Art History Symposium

Out of twenty submissions, five students and three faculty members have been selected to present their unique scholarly paper contributions in the second annual Art History Symposium on March 11.

This year’s topic is art and mass media. In the fall through the early winter, the Art History faculty had a call for papers and received submissions from all over the state. This year, the symposium is luxuriant with UVU submissions compared to last year, when many more U of U and BYU papers were selected.

The symposium topic was designed to include every branch of the art department. It is based in traditional art, but it also brings in graphic design and web design.

“We had so many of our students really step up to the plate with some amazing topics,” said Courtney Davis, an Art History lecturer.

Davis is the creator and planner of the Art History Symposium. After collaborating with Associate Dean for the School of the Arts Dr. Steven Bule – who is also the Symposium’s keynote speaker – they came up with this way to give students opportunities to present papers in a more scholarly setting, as well as inspire more creative ideas to others.

The selected papers “show that they [the presenters] have done research in a field that nobody else really has,” Davis said.

This symposium covers a wide range of topics, from the historical to the modern. The morning session is principally faculty members, with featured speaker Bule presenting a paper that focuses on the Renaissance, followed by Howard Fulmer, lecturer of design, presenting, “Flying Circus Creativity: A Lesson from Monty Python.” Also, Roger Tuttle, photography lecturer, is presenting the photographic analysis of mug shots.

The afternoon session will be all student presenters. Four UVU students and one BYU student will share their original research. This community and university-wide event will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Library auditorium.