November 28, 2007
Two art history students share annual award
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Two art history students share the Tony Fehm Memorial Achievement Award in Art History this year.
The competitive award annually goes to a Southern Illinois University Carbondale advanced undergraduate art history student who submits a paper demonstrating excellence in critical analysis and research. This year, the art history faculty judged two students worthy of the recognition and cash prize that goes with the $1,000 award.
This year's winners are Amanda Cook from Metropolis and Alison Dunleavy from Chicago. The students, both senior art majors, divide the cash prize between them, each receiving $500 awards for their winning art history papers.
Cook's paper, "Virtue and Vice in William Hogarth's 'Industry and Idleness,'" included a visual analysis the art history faculty called "compelling." Hogarth was an 18th Century painter and print-maker. Cook suggested that the series of moralistic prints "Virtue and Vice" may have been influenced by his near contemporary, the philosopher Bernard Mandeville.
Dunleavy's paper, "Secrets Revealed: Curtains and Private Imagery in Late Medieval Secular Manuscripts and Ivories," went further back in history. According to the art history faculty, Dunleavy's paper had a "clear thesis, good visual analysis of images, and clear writing style" with an analysis that was "original and important." Her paper dealt in part with depictions of private and public space.
Study of art history at SIUC can be a major or minor for undergraduates, and a graduate certificate program is also available. Successful applicants for this undergraduate award must have at least 86 credit hours. The faculty prefers applicants from students with a 3.0 overall grade point average and a 3.5 grade point average in art history.