Category: Graduate Students
Art History Student News
May 01, 2025 Written by Department of Art History Staff
Over the past year, University of Delaware art history students have gained valuable experience presenting research, delivering gallery talks and in fellowships. Several Ph.D. candidates have accepted positions where they are curating thought-provoking, resonant and dynamic exhibitions.
Rachel C. Allen joins Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
Ph.D. candidate Rachel C. Allen (Nimiipuu [Nez Perce]) joined the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture as the new curator of modern and contemporary art. Read the inspiring story in The Spokesman-Review.
Allen co-curated the museum’s current exhibition, Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky, a retrospective of the artist’s prints, glass, weaving and ceramics, with an important accompanying catalogue published by the University of Washington Press.
Supported by The Henry Luce Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, the exhibition opened at the Northwest Museum on September 28, 2024, and will travel to the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, (September 27, 2025 – January 18, 2026) and the Missoula Art Museum in Montana (September 2026 – December 2026).
Emily Francisco co-curates southwestern art
As curatorial associate for the collection at the National Gallery of Art (NGA), art history Ph.D. candidate Emily Francisco proposed and co-curated Borderlands: Expanded Views of the Southwest, an installation of works on paper by artists of the region. The project centered works by Indigenous, Mexican and women artists whose practice challenges mainstream narratives about modern art in the borderlands. The show included a selection of watercolor paintings by Awa Tsireh and other Indigenous artists, on view for the first time at the NGA. The exhibition was partly inspired by Emily’s training in Jessica Horton’s fall 2021 curatorial seminar.
Julia Hamer-Light is the Barra Fellow in American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Julia Hamer-Light began the fall semester as the 2024–2025 Smithsonian American Art Museum Predoctoral Fellow in American Craft. While in D.C., Julia conducted archival research at the National Archives, National Museum of the American Indian and Archives of American Art for her dissertation on Oglala Lakota artist-educator Arthur Amiotte. In February, Julia began a new position at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she is now the Barra Fellow in American Art. While there, she will be assisting with a major reinstallation of the American galleries covering work from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. The galleries will reopen in early 2026 in time for Philadelphia's celebration of the semiquincentennial.
Victoria Kenyon presents at the College Art Association Conference
Victoria Kenyon recently presented a paper titled "Unobservable: Eunice Newton Foote and Photographic Evidence" at the 113th Annual College Art Association Conference in New York on February 14, 2025. Kenyon's project, adapted from a paper for Dr. Jason Hill's fall 2023 seminar, "Photography and Belonging," examines the documented lack of verifiable photographs of Eunice Newton Foote, a 19th-century climatologist. Kenyon interrogates how Foote's long-overlooked contributions to climate science reveal the role of photographs as a legitimizing factor in the legacy of popular figures from the 19th century to today and argues that Foote's story can aid our understanding of the limits of photographic representations of gender and invisible labor. Their presentation was part of the panel "Troubling the Archive: Reassessing Women's Artistic Production in the Long Nineteenth Century."
Leah Mackall works on “Artist Interview” Project
In the summer of 2024, M.A. student Leah Mackall was one of two graduate students selected to document stories of contemporary artists as part of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s ongoing “Artist Interview” Project. The project records conversations between conservators, curators and artists with the goal of documenting nuances of artist intent as related to the long-term collection care and interpretation of their work. Over the course of three months Leah, alongside University of Maryland American studies scholar Hannah Brancato, were tasked with developing guidelines and transcripts for these interviews. Throughout the summer Leah participated in various workshops, tours and talks hosted by the museum, including a staff weaving workshop led by Joyce J. Scott, accompanying her retrospective in-house exhibition. The project also allowed Leah to visit various local artists and educators around the Baltimore region, helping to maintain long-term connections between the museum and Baltimore’s cultural scene. At the conclusion of the summer session Leah and Hannah’s work was presented to the museum’s contemporary curatorial team.
Foluke Oyawole uncovers story of the first Black janitor at Old College Hall
Ph.D. student Foluke Mary Oyawole delivered a gallery talk at the opening of the Colors of Old College exhibition on February 18, 2025. Her talk focused on the marginalization of Black individuals who contributed to the history of Old College but have largely remained overlooked. As part of a seminar class, Foluke conducted archival research on Black individuals at the University, leading to the discovery of George James's photo, the first Black janitor at Old College. Her finding, recognized among the most compelling in the course, was selected for inclusion in the exhibition. Through her gallery talk, she brought visibility to James’s story and shed light on the broader marginalization of Black figures in the early history of the institution.
Leah Stephenson joins Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Ph.D. candidate Leah Stephenson is joining the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as the new Kenneth R. Woodcock Curator of Historical American Art. She continues a proud Blue Hen tradition, as the position was formerly occupied by Anna Marley, Ph.D. ’09.
Sasha Thompson curates the work of Emmanuel Aboagye
Sasha Thompson worked with the Delaware Art Museum and the John William Gallery as the emerging curator fellow. She is thrilled to announce her second exhibition, Tracing Clouds of Memories: Emmanuel Aboagye, featuring the paintings of Emmanuel Aboagye, a talented artist from Newark, Delaware, with Ghanaian heritage.
Aboagye’s art explores the language of painting to trace the gaps of memory that shape human identity, heritage and belonging. For example, the artist uses his creative expression to reconstruct his familial relationships through imagination to fulfill an emotional need for closeness and belonging.
Curating this exhibition has been an incredible journey, allowing Sasha to work closely with Aboagye, whose deeply introspective paintings navigate the fragmented nature of memory. Additionally, this project is especially meaningful as she continues to grow as a curator, exploring how art bridges memory, identity and belonging. The opening reception took place on Friday, April 4, 2025, at the John William Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware.
Genevieve Westerby spends summer internship at Biggs Museum
Curatorial-track Ph.D. candidate Genevieve Westerby was the proud recipient of a 2024 curatorial summer internship at the Biggs Museum of American Art, which was generously funded by the Choptank Foundation in partnership with the University of Delaware and the Biggs Museum. Working with curator Laura Fravel and registrar Emily Carnwath, Genevieve had the opportunity to complete a range of rewarding and intellectually challenging projects that allowed her to learn about the chronological scope and diverse histories the Biggs collection contains.
