Bruce W. Ferguson, dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, American University in Cairo, will give a series of public lectures as the Institute for the Arts and Humanities Distinguished Visiting Professor. His visit is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and the Penn State School of Visual Arts’ Anderson Endowment and all lectures will take place on Penn State's University Park campus.
-- Breakfast and conversation with Ferguson and Graeme Sullivan, director of Penn State School of Visual Arts, about the role of art schools in higher education, 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 3, 121 Borland Building, RSVP to alb5231@psu.edu;
-- “The World is Coming to an End,” a lecture about the issues of literacy and post literacy in an environment of proliferating images and virtual technology, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3, Palmer Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art;
-- “Not in the Age of the Pharaohs,” a lecture on pre-revolutionary Egyptian art, specifically four examples of art prior to the revolution loosely known as the Arab Spring in Egypt, to show how good art is symptomatic of political and societal issues and ills, at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4, Palmer Lipcon Auditorium.
-- “The Catalogue is Out,” a lecture on the advantages and disadvantages of the catalogue and its status within the art discourse, particularly as it impacts curators and artists, at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 5, Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.
These free events are co-sponsored by the School of Visual Arts John M. Anderson Endowment, Department of Communications Arts and Sciences, Department of Art History, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Palmer Museum of Art, Arts and Architecture Office of Research and Graduate Studies, and the College of Communications.
Ferguson is an arts leader with extensive experience in curatorial and entrepreneurial leadership, institutional development, with a demonstrated passion for facilitating artists and intellectuals with their research and works. He has experience in serving multiple constituencies and creating effective working environments. He is devoted to producing institutional measures to generate new works of art, new knowledge and new forms of presentation.
As part of a proven record of curatorial innovation and academic research on the subject of exhibition theory and practice, his early anthology edited with two other scholars, titled "Thinking About Exhibitions," was seminal in opening the field of curatorial studies. He has specialized in discovering and nurturing artistic talent internationally; creating arts organizations from the ground up; and remaking and rebranding disorganized or static arts organizations through infrastructural means and strategic planning.