This October, three undergraduate seniors from UTC\u2019s Department of Art – Arden Craft, Alyson McGowan, and Hannah Wimberly Lowe – will present their original research at the SECAC 2019 Conference. SECAC is the country\u2019s second largest national non-profit organization devoted to education and research in the visual arts, with individual and institutional membership of a global scope. Hosted by the UTC Department of Art, the 2019 Conference in Chattanooga (October 16\u201319, 2019) will be the largest in the organization\u2019s history, with 140+ sessions and 650+ chairs and presenters exploring a multitude of topics.<\/p>\n
Craft, McGowan, and Wimberly Lowe will share work they developed as part of special projects and seminars at UTC. Both Craft and McGowan\u2019s presentations tie into the work they are conducting towards their Honors theses.\u00a0Craft is a double major in Studio Art and Art History.\u00a0Her paper,\u00a0Constructions of Personhood: An Exploration into Artist James Luna\u2019s Work, The Artifact Piece (1986),\u00a0<\/em>engages in a postcolonial critique of the popular exploitation of Native American imagery. Focusing on one performance from Luna, Craft uncovers the entangled nature of identity, consumerism, and difference embedded in American culture from the 1980s to today. McGowan\u2019s paper,\u00a0<\/em>A Psychoanalysis of Caravaggio,\u00a0<\/em>reflects her academic interest in the Italian Baroque period, while delving into historiography, Lacanian theory, and her own visual analysis of the acclaimed artist\u2019s self-portraiture. She conducted on-site archival research in Italy to develop this project, and currently works with the Hunter Museum of American Art as a Gallery Assistant.\u00a0<\/em>McGowan was the recipient of the Gavin Townsend Memorial Award for Art History majors last year, and presented preliminary research towards this project at URACE\u00a0Research Dialogues\u00a0<\/em>in April 2019. Wimberly Lowe is also an Art History major, and her paper,\u00a0National Parks 2050: Reinventing American Landscape to Communicate Environmental Urgency<\/em>, draws from research conducted during her curatorial internship at the Hunter Museum and an upper level Art History seminar. She examines the intersection of landscape imagery and ecocritical theory to explore how the arts have advocated for environmental action from the 1840s through today.<\/p>\n