The Art of Separation

The Department of Art and Art History is no more. But never fear, art lovers—in its stead stand two new depatments: the Department of Art History and the Department of Visual Arts.

The split recognizes the different teaching and research methods used by artists and art historians. “Artists tend to be visual and conceptual, while art historians tend to be analytical and discursive,” says Gale Stokes, the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of History and former dean of humanities. “Artists create space, line, color, and shape; art historians analyze those creations, placing them in context.”

The move will enhance each department by making it more “effective, efficient, and responsive to student and faculty instructional and research needs,” says Hamid Naficy, the Nina J. Cullinan Professor of Art History and chair of the art history department. The change will not affect current academic programs, and no professors will be added to either department. However, the art historians, who currently are housed in Sewall Hall, will move their offices into Herring Hall during the 2003–04 winter break.

Naficy said he hopes each department can now concentrate its efforts on developing its own local, national, and international identity to attract top students, visitors, scholars, and artists. Each department also can develop more rigorous undergraduate and graduate majors in its area, create closer ties with local and national museum and arts communities, increase interdisciplinary collaborations, and promote its own intellectual, programmatic, and artistic growth at Rice.

The reorganization will help define the goals of visual arts professors, says Karin Broker, professor and chair of the visual arts department. One problem the departments encountered, she says, was that the two disciplines had grown too large to be managed together effectively. Art professors also have different needs than art history professors, such as dealing with heavy equipment and chemicals, safety procedures, and adequate space for working.

The division already has created a new energy among the visual artists, Broker says. When students returned in the fall, they felt that they were studying and working in a real “art school.” The mission of the visual arts department is to give students the best opportunity to study painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, design, filmmaking, and printmaking at the undergraduate level. In turn, this will create more collaborations with the School of Architecture and the Houston arts community.

“We believe the creation of this new department, which will include the Rice Media Center, is the first step in elevating the role of the visual arts at Rice,” says Broker, “but equally important is the creation of a new spirit of camaraderie and dedication on the part of each and every studio faculty member and staff person. We hope to create an atmosphere of cooperative work and interaction among all of our various art disciplines, the kind of camaraderie that characterizes the best art institutions.”

The split does not signal the end of collaboration between art historians and artists and may even encourage more partnerships. “From the enthusiasm that the change has already stirred among the artists and historians,” Stokes says, “it is clear that the sum of the two separate departments will actually be greater than when they were together.”

—Ellen Chang