KWC professor to attend Yale seminar, present research paper on teaching European art
By Bobbie Hayse Messenger-Inquirer Jul 18, 2017
Kentucky Wesleyan College art professor Heather Logsdon said a seminar she will attend next week at Yale University on teaching European art is exciting because of what the experience will give her that she can relay to students.
Logsdon, also the KWC art program director, is one of 25 college educators from across the country who have been chosen by the Council of Independent Colleges to participate in the program that will run July 24-28 at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. During the seminar, “Landscape and Identity in Britain and the Unites States,” participants will study painters Thomas Gainsborough, JMW Turner, John Constable, Thomas Cole and Frederic Church.
She is looking forward to visiting the Hudson River Valley, a source of inspiration for many of the artists and “to see their works up close and personal with someone of authority,” she said.
“…Hudson is really where they went to make these wonderful, beautiful paintings,” she said, adding that having the opportunity to see pieces of art in person always changes one’s perspective.
Her ultimate goal will be to bring her findings and experience back into her art history and 2-D classes.
After seeing the area that inspired the paintings, Logsdon will prepare a research paper and present it at the seminar.
Logsdon was nominated for the seminar by Paula Dehn, KWC vice president for academic affairs. Dehn said in a press release from by the college that Logsdon is “an engaging, articulate and upcoming young teacher-scholar” who approaches college education holistically.
Since joining KWC’s faculty five years ago, Logsdon has also increased the number of students majoring in art and graphic design from fewer than five to more than 30, the release said.
“Interacting with other exceptional faculty from across the nation at this seminar will broaden her awareness of what is happening in the collegiate environs nationally, provide ideas for a variety of new pedagogical approaches for her own courses here at Wesleyan, and provide a network of peers who will benefit her throughout her career,” Dehn said in the release.
Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315, Twitter: @BobbieHayseMI