Press Releases |
FIRST HIXSON-LIED PROFESSORSHIPS AWARDED
 (left to right) Department of Art and Art History Chairman Ed Forde, Gail Kendall, Christin Mamiya and Hixson-Lied Dean Giacomo Oliva at the College Honors Day Dinner, where the first Hixson-Lied Professorships were presented. The Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts has begun a Hixson-Lied Professorship program to recognize the work of its most outstanding faculty. Two professors from the Department of Art and Art History, Gail Kendall and Christin Mamiya, were named as the first Hixson-Lied Professors at the College's Honors Day Dinner on April 22. "It has been our goal all along to implement a faculty recognition program with the Hixson-Lied funding that recognizes outstanding faculty accomplishment over a sustained period of time," said Hixson-Lied Endowed Dean Giacomo Oliva. Eligibility for consideration of these prestigious fellowships is limited to tenured faculty in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at the rank of Associate or Full Professor who do not already hold a named professorship, who have demonstrated exceptional overall performance over an extended timeframe, and whose accomplishments have gained significant recognition beyond the University. The Hixson-Lied Professorships carry a $3,000 annual stipend that can be used to augment the recipient's salary or to support the recipient's creative or scholarly work. Funding was made possible through the Hixson-Lied Endowment. Hixson-Lied Professorships are awarded for a three-year term, and faculty can be re-nominated for a second consecutive three-year term. "The selection committee had a tough job this year, as the pool of nominees was very strong," Oliva said. "Christin and Gail are most worthy to receive this special recognition, and we feel strongly that their selection will bring increased national recognition and visibility for them, as well as for our College." Members of the Hixson-Lied Professorship Committee included Peter Bleed, UNL Professor of Anthropology and Geography, Ellen Weissinger, Executive Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Professor of Theatre Tice Miller, Cather Professor of Art Karen Kunc and Steinhart Professor of Music Education Glenn Nierman. The first two faculty members to be named as Hixson-Lied Professors are: Gail Kendall, Hixson-Lied Professor of Art. Kendall is a ceramic artist and dedicated teacher, who has shown her work in more than 22 solo and two-person exhibitions and more than 150 group exhibitions, including the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Wisconsin, the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and the Fusions Gallery in Australia. Her ceramic work is included as part of the collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the General Mills Corporation in New York City. Kendall has presented more than 80 workshops and lectures nationally and internationally. She was selected last spring to present a Nebraska Lecture on her work as part of the 2006 Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture Series. Christin Mamiya, Hixson-Lied Professor of Art History. Mamiya is an authoritative voice on contemporary art. Her book, Pop Art and Consumer Culture: American Supermarket led to invitations nationally and internationally to write and speak about artists of the later 20th Century. She also wrote "Renaissance to Postmodern Art" for Gardner's Art Through the Ages, an award-winning textbook that has introduced a generation of students to the issues and works of modern aesthetics. Mamiya was selected for membership in the Academy of Distinguished Teaching at UNL in 2005 and has received an Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities in 2001. |
