The OU School of Art and Art History named a new director this afternoon.
Bette Talvacchia, an expert in Italian Renaissance art and culture, was named the new director replacing Mary Jo Watson.
Talvacchia holds a doctorate in art history from Stanford University and previously served on the faculty at the University of Connecticut where she was named a Board of Trustees distinguished professor.
“(Talvacchia) brings a wealth of expertise as an experienced educator and distinguished scholar to her new position and it has been my great pleasure to work with her over the past several weeks. Under her leadership, the School of Art and Art History is poised to rise to a new level of excellence and stature in higher education,” said Mary Margaret Holt, Dean of the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts in a press release.
Talvacchia has been a Fulbright Fellow in Rome, a Guest Scholar and has held Fellowships at The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery, Washington; and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to the press release.
Talvacchia has also studied and published works on matters of sexuality and gender in the 15th and 16th centuries.
