The Arts in Society Journal Collection offers an annual International Award for Excellence for new research or thinking that has been recognized to be outstanding by members of The Arts in Society Research Network.
This article addresses how research can uncover and amplify long-marginalized histories to transform the field of art education through examination of the life and work of Dean Murry DePillars. Dr. DePillars is the longest serving dean of the School of the Arts (VCUarts) at Virginia Commonwealth University (1976–1995) and the first African American to serve as dean of VCUarts. Little research exists on art educators as artists, specifically Black art educators as artists, administrators, and leaders of universities/art programs. DePillars was not only an administrative leader, educator, and scholar, but a renowned artist and arts activist. In presenting this research, we hope to broaden and deepen the knowledge of DePillars as artist, art educator, scholar, and administrative leader and create a model for similar critical portraiture research on other marginalized artist/art educators.
The impact of Black Excellence in Art/Art Education: A Critical Portrait of Murry N. DePillars on the field of art education is critical. As a field art education has very few scholars researching the history of art education. In 2015 three well-known U.S. art education historians developed a conference, Brushes with History at Teachers College, Columbia University (my alma mater) to specifically address histories of art education and in particular histories of marginalized art educators. In 2023 Teachers College held an international art education history conference where I presented our research on Murry N. DePillars. The only other time such a conference took place was at the Pennsylvania State University (Ryan Patton’s alma mater) in 1985 and 1989. The result of the 2015 conference was an anthology of articles based on presentations and a special call for articles on the history of art education in the Studies in Art Education journal.
A colleague asked me about the history of art education for Black students in Washington, DC, where I am from and am a fifth-generation educator. I decided to do some research and published an article (2017) in the special issue of Studies in Art Education that has since put Thomas Watson Hunster (1851-1929), back on the radar for his extraordinary contributions to the field of art education for Black learners and educators. This article was cited by art historians and curators for the Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful exhibition in 2021-22. Thomas was a student of Hunster’s. In conducting research for this article, I developed the Critical Portraiture framework used in Black Excellence in Art/Art Education: A Critical Portrait of Murry N. DePillars. In writing the DePillars’ article I had the opportunity to deepen and expand my theory and put it to practice on a more recent subject. When Ryan and I decided to do a presentation on Dr. DePillars for Virginia Commonwealth University’s 50th anniversary, we had no idea how far that research would go. Since that presentation on campus in 2018 a building has been renamed in his honor and a statue put up. Additionally, our professional organization, the National Art Education Association (NAEA), has developed a special interest group, History & Historiography in Art Education, for art education scholars interested in art education history. Since 2015 several publications have been produced on global histories in art education, providing the field with a wealth of scholarship on diverse art educators. Prior to 2015, there was one text, A history of art education: Intellectual and social currents in teaching the visual arts, most of us used that made no mention of the contributions of BIPOC art educators and programs. Prior to my research on Hunster I had not done any art education history research. With the success of both articles, I plan to continue history research and testing out the Critical Portraiture framework.
—Pamela Harris Lawton
Artistic Biography as Field Theory: The Case of Ithell Colquhoun—Magician, Surrealist, Feminist?
Michael Grenfell, The International Journal of Arts Theory and History, Volume 17, Issue 1, pp. 39-54
Sonic Fictions: Shaping Collective Urban Imaginaries through Sound
Eleni-Ira Panourgia and Guillaume Dupetit, The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts, Volume 16, Issue 4, pp. 35-48
Christine Scoggin,The International Journal of New Media, Technology and the Arts, Volume 15, Issue 2, pp. 1–16
Climate Change Art: Examining How the Artistic Community Expresses the Climate Crisis
Shauna Doll and Tarah Wright, The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts, Volume 14, Issue 2, pp. 13–29
Teaching from the Left: Visual Literacy and Social Transformation for the Twenty-First Century
Kristin Vanderlip Taylor and Lynette Henderson, The International Journal of Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 13, Issue 1, pp. 11–22
So, Sue Me: Legal Actions as a New Staging Ground for Performance Art
Courtney Davis, The International Journal of Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 12, Issue 1, pp. 25–30
Between Two Earthquakes: Gazing Beyond Kant’s Sublime in Humanitarian Disasters
Sally Cloke, The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp. 1–18
Aleksandra Kunce, The International Journal of Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 10, Issue 1, pp.1–18
Interrogating Women’s Experience of Ageing: Reinforcing or Challenging Clichés?
Susan Hogan, The International Journal of Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 9, Issue 1, pp.1–18
Facsimile and Originality: Changing Views of Classical Casts in Arts Education and Art History
Joseph Basile, The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 8, Issue 1, pp.11–30
Art in a Hidden World: Creative Process and Invisible Anomaly
Dawn-joy Leong, The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp.29–39
The Handed Self: Reaching Toward Individuation
Cherie Redwood, The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 6, Issue 5, pp.221–234
Public Memory, Private Truths: Voices of Women and Visual Narrative in Post-apartheid South Africa
Annette Blum, The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 5, Issue 6, pp.13–32
The Arts in a Time of Recession
Marque-Luisa Miringoff and Sandra Opdycke, The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, Volume 4, Issue 5, pp.141–168
To ensure that researchers in developing nations have access to publication pathways that enhance the visibility of their research, the Common Ground Author Fund awards a limited number of fee waivers for Gold Open Access (CC-BY) each year for excellent research.