Category: Faculty Story

As the 2025-26 school year begins, the School of Art is welcoming five faculty and staff members to new positions.

Dr. Mont Allen

Position: Assistant Professor of Practice, Art History

Bio: Allen came to the School of Art a year ago as a principal lecturer in Art History before being promoted to a full-time faculty member in July. He teaches courses ranging from ancient Greek and Roman to Renaissance and Baroque art. He is the winner of five teaching awards, including both the Liberal Arts Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award and the Faculty Mentor of the Year Award from Southern Illinois University and the ‘Everyday Hero’ Award from UC Berkeley. With a doctorate in Ancient Art History (UC Berkeley), master’s degrees in the History of Religion (Syracuse University) and Modern European History (UC Berkeley), and a bachelor’s degree in Geography, his interests range widely, from Greco-Roman sculpture and painting, ancient sculptural tools and techniques, and the archaeology of the classical world, to Greek mythology and its visual depictions, early Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist art, and the long history of western art, as well as intellectual history and urban geography.

Quote: “Nothing brings me greater joy than discussing art and sharing ideas with other minds afire in the university classroom.” — Dr. Mont Allen

Okyoung Noh

Position: Assistant Professor of Practice, First Year Experience

Bio: Noh completed her MFA at the University of Michigan, where she served two years as Graduate Student Instructor for the year-long Integrative Project capstone course and was recognized as an Elilse Choy Lee scholar. Noh’s work spans community engagement, performance, video and installation in exploring issues of identity and mis/dislocation related to the experience of Asian women. Her work has been exhibited and/or performed in the U.S. and internationally. She will also be an artist in residence at MASS MoCA.

Quote: ”Informed by her experience in art education, Okyoung invites audiences to participate in and interact with her installations, performances, and discussion-based workshops in order to reflect on questions of immigration, identity, language and value creation.” — Laura Braverman, former Curatorial Assistant of the Museum of Modern Art

Website: oknoh.com

Kaitlyn Jo Smith

Position: Career-track lecturer in Photography, Video and Imaging (PVI)

Bio: The interdisciplinary artist received her MFA in Photography, Video and Imaging from the U of A School of Art and taught courses as an adjunct instructor the last few years. Inspired by a rural upbringing, Smith’s practice explores the intersections between work and worship by considering the implications of automation on labor and religion in relation to America’s working class. Through both traditional photographic means and the implementation of automated technologies and machine learning, her work challenges the authority of algorithms while fostering a dialogue around future applications of artificial intelligence. Smith’s work has been shown nationally and internationally. She is the 2023 recipient of the Alice C. Cole ’42 Fellowship in Studio Art, was longlisted for the 2021 Lumen Prize in Art and Technology (London) and received the College Art Association’s Services to Artists Committee Award for her video Lights Out.

Quote: “Kaitlyn has been a great asset to our extensive image/photography program. She has the ability to uniquely link established artistic techniques with cutting-edge technologies for relevant purposes.” — Sama Alshaibi, Regents Professor

Website: kaitlynjosmith.com

Megan McNulty

Position: Undergraduate Academic Advisor

Bio: McNulty advises majors and minors and prospective students in Studio Art, Art History and Art & Visual Culture Education. From 2022-24, she was a full-time Degree Auditor for various graduate programs (including the School of Art) across the University of Arizona. Originally from Mesa, Arizona, she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science in May 2022 from the U of A, with a concentration in Law and Public Policy and a minor in Criminology. She received a certificate in Risk Management and Insurance from Rio Salado College in April 2025.

Quote: “I find advising especially rewarding because it allows me to build meaningful relationships with students, meet them where they are, and help them navigate their path towards achieving personal and academic goals.” — Megan McNulty

Ginette Gonzalez

Position: Program Coordinator, Student Services

Bio: Gonzalez supports the school’s advising office, including helping students with internships and independent study. A native Tucsonan, she was the School of Art’s Administrative Associate from 2016 to 2022. She is a first-generation college graduate and earned a BA in Classics in 2012 and an MBA in 2020 from the University of Arizona. She also earned an MA in Classics from Villanova University in 2014.

Quote: “I’m excited to streamline processes in advising to and support the advising office, students and faculty.” — Ginette Gonzalez

• Full School of Art Directory

Editor’s note: As the University of Arizona School of Art moves closer to its 100th anniversary in 2027, we’re profiling former faculty and students.

Judith Greene Golden, a powerful voice in contemporary photography who taught at the School of Art in the 1980s and ’90s, engaged with themes of gender, identity, popular culture and the influence of the media.

Golden, who died on Jan. 27, 2023, at age 88, described herself as an “alchemist.”

“With the magic of photography, I transform reality into the mystical realm of myth, dreams and spirit,” said Golden, one of the early feminists working in self-portraiture, role-playing and media critiques.

When she retired from teaching in 1996, the university’s Center for Creative Photography honored her legacy by establishing the Judith Golden Archive, which houses a comprehensive collection of her photographic prints and archival materials and an online gallery of her work.

Judith Golden in 1992: Students hosting a “Patterns of Influence” symposium at the Center for Creative Photography took the professor and others out to “Downtown Saturday Night,” where Golden tried on various hats in a local antique shop. (Photo by Colleen Mullins)

Jacinda Russell, a 1999 MFA School of Art graduate in photography, learned about bookmaking from Golden and helped transfer the photographer’s slides to the CCP archive from 1997 to 1999.

“Judith’s method of artmaking was hands-on — a mixed media approach — something that is viable and sought-after today when people want to create outside the digital space,” Russell said. “She collaged, hand-painted, assembled and reinvented portraiture.”

Born on November 29, 1934, in Chicago, Golden was raised on the city’s multicultural South Side, an experience that sparked her lifelong interest in global cultures and human complexity. As a child, she took art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she later earned her BFA in 1973 from the School of the Art Institute. In 1975, she completed her MFA at the University of California, Davis, studying under notable artists William Wiley, Manuel Neri, Roy DeForest, Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson — central artists in the California Funk movement who instilled in Golden a sense of play and a need to mix mediums. 

Judith Golden, untitled, 1975, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: 1979 National Endowment for the Arts Museum Purchase, © Judith Golden 1975

Golden taught at UCLA, where she worked closely with acclaimed artist Robert Heinecken from 1975 to 1979. The Hollywood influence of that time subtly shaped her visual style, blending traditional photographic technique with multimedia elements to offer a satirical commentary on celebrity culture and the constructed nature of identity.

Her “Chameleon Series” included 50 three-dimensional, hand-colored self-portraits, which transformed her from a delicate woman into “tough street guy,” said Arthur Ollman, who organized Golden’s solo retrospective “Myths and Masquerades” at San Diego’s Museum of Photographic Arts in 1986. She did a series of movie posters, where she rephotographed posters from “B” films and replaced the heroine’s heads with her own. Golden also made some artist books, one of which copied pages from an illustrated Kama Sutra and the Hindu book on erotic love by Vatsyayana — incorporating her face in the place of some females.

In 1981, Golden moved to Tucson to join the School of Art faculty. Immersed in the area’s rich Native American cultures, she began to explore spiritual and mythical themes, particularly the use of masks in ceremonial rituals — a motif that would become central in her later work.

“Her photographs during this period reflected a deeper, more symbolic approach, combining personal introspection with her unique take on cultural storytelling,” said Fern Martin, a Los Angeles producer and author who was Golden’s daughter-in-law.

Judith Golden, Juliette Man-Ray, 1979, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Gift of Fern Martin and David Thomas Golden, © Judith Golden 1979

In 1990, Golden was awarded an Honorary PhD from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, recognizing her contributions to both photography and arts education.

Golden’s photographs have been exhibited internationally and are part of prestigious museum collections, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Her work is featured in seminal texts such as “The History of Women Photographers” by “The History of Women Photographers” by Naomi Rosenblum and “Seizing the Light: A History of Photography” by Robert Hirsch.

“I was never one of her students, but Judith taught me a subject close to her heart … bookmaking,” said Russell, a retired associate professor of art who taught at Ball State University. “I learned many methods of binding, something I would take with me in both my MFA thesis exhibition and eventually the classroom in the years that followed. I would grow to love this medium and consider it is an essential part of my art practice.”

One of Russell’s jobs at the CCP involved scanning Golden’s slide collection — including the photographer’s “Ode to Hollywood,” “People Magazine,” “Julia’s Braid” and “Chameleon” series — and the task helped make Golden’s work memorable for years afterward.

Judith Golden, Carrot Top, 1988, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Gift of Terry Etherton, © Judith Golden 1988

“It was the ‘Portraits of Women’ series that struck me though,” Russell said. “Judith photographed women in photography who were known at the time but would make an indelible mark in the future, including Barbara Kasten, Judy Dater and Susan Rankaitis.”

Throughout her life, Golden received numerous grants and honors, including support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Polaroid Corp.

As an educator, Golden was “fiercely committed” to mentoring young artists, Martin said.

“Her decades of teaching at UCLA and the U of A left an indelible mark on generations of students, many of whom cite her as a foundational influence in their creative lives,” Martin said. “Her teaching combined technical excellence with a deep philosophical engagement with art as a form of social and personal inquiry. She insisted on a rich blend of technical expression and meaning in all finished pieces, no matter beginner or grad student.”

Martin said Golden was a “deeply loving and caring mother” who struggled as a single parent to balance her artistic and academic pursuits while trying to be a grounding presence to her family.

Judith Golden with former assistant Sue Van Horne, left, in Albuquerque. (Selfie by Sue Van Horne)

Golden is survived by her son, David, and daughter, Lucy, and grandchildren Julia, Joseph, Jonathan Joshua and Camille, and a wide community of friends, colleagues and former students.

“Judith leaves behind a body of work that speaks with clarity, courage and compassion — a legacy that will continue to inspire and challenge the way we see the world,” Martin said. “She was a fearless advocate for the truth and power of art and or constant reinvention of her art and herself.”

Fern Martin, Colleen Mullins, Arthur Ollman and the Center for Creative Photography contributed to this story.

Assistant Professor Marcos Serafim has been named a 2025-26 Udall Center Fellow — the first faculty member from the University of Arizona School of Art to receive the prestigious scholarly honor since the program began in 1990.

The fellowship will help Serafim expand his fine arts research project, “SEMIPERMEABLE,” through new installations, performances and funding opportunities. His project blends digital art, data visualization and documentary strategies to address the HIV/AIDS crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In its 36^th year, the Udall Center Fellows Program supports University of Arizona faculty pursuing public policy-related research by giving them time and resources to focus on their work. The 2025-26 cohort includes five U of A faculty members representing six schools and departments.

“The Udall Fellowship is an important program that explores the intersection between various disciplines (including fine arts) and public policy,” School of Art Director Colin Blakely said. “It’s a great opportunity to showcase the broad impact the arts can have, and Marcos’s work is a perfect example of the relevance of studio practice to cultural and societal concerns. He’s a deserving recipient of the fellowship.”

A Brazilian artist and documentarist, Serafim works with audiovisual media across theatrical exhibition and installation. He’s part of the School of Art’s Photography, Video and Imaging program, which ranks No. 3 in the nation among graduate schools according to U.S. News & World Report.

Serafim’s project, “SEMIPERMEABLE: Data, The Ongoing HIV/AIDS Crisis and the U.S.-Mexico Border,” focuses on how issues like healthcare access, race and class intersect, especially for queer-mestiza/o individuals living with HIV. Using interactive digital tools, he and his team create real-time visual and sound experiences that explore the idea of “semi-permeable” barriers — physical, social, and informational — that shape life in border communities.

“My main goals are to make a sensible set of entangled membranes … as the (HIV) virus can penetrate the geographic borders and the digital membranes that structure our lives,” Serafim told Arizona Arts.

Serafim said his artistic methodology challenges traditional scientific paradigms, proposing that “human relationship to data is generally and intensely determined by aesthetics, sensoriality and emotional connection.”

His project has already produced multiple artworks and performances, including last summer in Brazil.

“I’m trying to understand how we deal with technology and data in regard to ethnicity, queerness, and health,” he told Arizona Arts. “A piece of data that is scientific and that shows us part of a reality and of how we organize socially can be easily distorted and misunderstood.”

Serafim has exhibited work at the 5th and 6th Ghetto Biennale in Haiti; the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Brazil; the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), the Queens Museum, and Flux Factory in New York. His work has been screened in film festivals in multiple countries. He holds a BA in Film and Video from Parana State University in Brazil, an MA in Studio Art from Eastern Illinois University and an MFA in Studio Art from Michigan State University.

• Arizona Arts story about Serafim: Making sense out of the senseless
• Artist’s website: marcosserafim.art

The 2025-26 Udall Fellow cohort

(Above, from left)

• Stacey Tecot, Professor, School of Anthropology, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Director, Laboratory for the Evolutionary Endocrinology of Primates 
• Carolyn Barnett, Assistant Professor, School of Government and Public Policy & School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies
• Maria Porter, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Economy and Moral Science, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Marcos Serafim, Assistant Professor, School of Art, College of Fine Arts 
• Adriana Zuniga-Teran, Associate Professor, School of Geography, Development and Environment

School of Art Assistant Professor Nicole Antebi, whose cross-cultural work centers on animation as a form of community-engaged storytelling, has been named a 2025 Early Career Scholar Award recipient by the University of Arizona.

Antebi, a member of the school’s Illustration, Design and Animation (IDA) program, joins three other U of A assistant professors being honored. The award recognizes outstanding early career faculty who are at the forefront of their disciplines and make valued contributions to the teaching, creative activity and service priorities.

“I see this award as a validation of the work I’ve done to reframe animation as a critical tool of inquiry and connection and the potential of animation to visualize what is unseen,” Antebi said. “I frequently talk about the way in which individuals, working in community, can make change in a more impactful way in the same way individual frames work together to form an animated sequence or a complete action.”

She is quick to credit her students, including her fall 2024 class that produced an animated feature about Eveli Sabatie, an acclaimed jeweler now based in Tucson who was mentored by Native American artist Charles Loloma. Arizona Public Media will profile her students in a May 18 segment, “Eveli, A Jeweler, A Dreamer,” on PBS channel 6 at 6:30 p.m.

Antebi is co-director of the Wonder Studio at Biosphere 2, which serves as an animation, data visualization and film production laboratory dedicated to developing solutions for environmental change. Her collaboration with Aaron Bugaj, senior research technologist at Biosphere 2, has provided numerous opportunities for Antebi’s students — including class projects, internships, residencies and freelance jobs. The studio is the culmination of four years of seed funding and collaboration between Antebi and Bugaj.

“Nicole is an amazing teacher who encourages her students to build better communities through storytelling, animation and collaboration,” said Professor Kelly Leslie, who chairs the School of Art’s Illustration, Design and Animation program.

An affiliated faculty member of Latin American Studies, Antebi grew up in the borderlands of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad, Juárez. In the years since she graduated from high school in 1993, following the signing of NAFTA, she watched the two cities become increasingly dissected by federal political, social, economic and environmental policies designed to obstruct the movement of people, culture and the river.

She earned her BFA from the University of Texas at El Paso and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Antebi taught at CUNY Queens College, SUNY Albany, and in 2019 she was a visiting professor at la Universidad de las Américas, Puebla.

In 2020, she began teaching an online beginning animation class at the U of A during Covid as an adjunct instructor. She also applied for a full-time position that same year and was hired in 2021 on a tenure track as the school was changing its program name from “Illustration and Design” to “Illustration, Design and Animation,” requiring students to understand the time, sequence and storytelling that animation explores.

“Nicole has supported our program’s evolution with her offerings of beginning and advanced animation courses and contributed to its growth,” Leslie said. “Students from IDA and Design Arts Practice (DAP) and art minors clamor to take her classes. Her students are making a significant impact in the community using what they are learning and taking advantage of the opportunities for collaboration she presents to her students.”

Antebi’s collaboration with the “Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project,” for instance, had a profound impact on her students, outgoing School of Director Colin Blakely said in a nomination letter signed along with others.

“Students learned of the many challenges and dangers immigrants face in their home countries and the U.S.,” he said. The students created illustrations of these stories which were then used in the “Florence Project” newsletters, social media posts and website, creating empathy and connecting readers to the non-profit organization’s members. The illustrations are now also part of the “Ford Foundation Border Narratives” archive in The University of Arizona Special Collections. The project resulted in additional freelance opportunities for three of Antebi’s students.

“Nicole is committed to sharing the importance of empathy and community building to elevate the stories of our region and the people who live here. To date, through community engagement and experiential learning, she has served more than 90 undergraduate students in arts research and science communication projects,” Blakely said in the nomination letter.

Antebi coordinated a meeting between “Amal,” a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl and an international symbol of human rights and “Esperanza,” a 12-foot cardboard puppet created by students Esperanza D’Gloria Ries, Olivia Cabelli and Truman Adams. This event and interaction with Amal during her visit to campus and the border region brought attention on the urgent needs of refugees and highlighted the rich cultures that immigrants bring to the U.S.

As a Diana Liverman Scholars mentor, Antebi presented “Science in Motion,” a talk to Liverman Scholars, at a retreat at Biosphere 2. She also coordinated a collaboration between the Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing, an award- winning documentary filmmaker Lisa Molomot, and three of her advanced animation students to work on the educational film Semiconductor USA (2024).

Antebi facilitated “Ingrained,” an animated film collaboration with Flowers & Bullets Community Garden in Tucson. Her Animation 1 students worked in the garden to build community and learn how to cultivate corn as the basis for their short, fully animated documentary. She also held animation workshops for the gardeners in order for them to contribute to the film. The film premiered at the 2022 “What’s Up Docs?” at the Loft Cinema and was subsequently screened at The UA Wonder House at the 2023 Southwest by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and at the university’s 2023 TEDx event.

Antebi remains active as a creator and animator herself, showing her creative work in over 20 exhibitions and screenings since 2022, including the Oaxaca Film Festival, in Mexico, the 26^th annual AntiMatter in Victoria, BC, Canada; The Border Biennial at the Museo de Artes de Ciudad in Juarez, Mexico; Cinetoro Experimental Film Festival, Toro Valle del Cauca, Colombia; and her work has recently been acquired by The El Paso Museum of Art’s permanent collection. In 2023 she received a prestigious Anthem Award for her animated “Covid Explainer Series,” a collaboration with The American Museum of Natural History and the City of New York.

In 2024, Antebi wrote and illustrated an article for The Texas Observer, “Reclaiming Friendships Across Borders,” and was interviewed for the Growth Podcast in Berlin, Germany. Also in 2024, she presented “Vecinas” with collaborator Ingrid Leyva at the INVERSE Performance Festival in Bentonville, Arkansas, commissioned by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and The Momentary, an extension of the museum for exploring contemporary art and experiences.

In April 2025, Antebi presented her animation work in Video Art Night in downtown Dallas. She also produced animated sequences for “Ternura Radical,” a short documentary about the rise in activism around gender violence in Juárez, Mexico, with director Celina Galicia and funded by Femme Fronterain El Paso, Texas.

Antebi’s work “100 Partially Obscure Views/100 Vistas Parcialmente Oscurecidas 2015-2023” was acquired by the El Paso Museum of Art’s permanent collection, and was included in the official selection 20 Festival Transterritorial de Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the 2023 Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art.

She also was the Principal Investigator for “STITCHING IDENTITIES: Rarámuri Dressmaking and Resistance in Chihuahua City,” an archive based on Victoria Blanco‘s book, “Out of the Sierra.” The book was published by Coffee House Press in collaboration with siríame or governor of El Oasis, Amalia Holguin, and London-based filmmaker Irene Baqué. It was funded by a Digital Borderlands, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant through Special Collections at The University of Arizona Library. As part of the project, she conducted workshops in animation with community members so that they could serve as collaborators and co-authors.

“Nicole will continue to foster cross-border collaborations in her research, service and teaching, and will continue to receive accolades as a stellar teacher, ingenious and gifted artist, and an engaged community builder,” Leslie said.

In addition to Antebi, other University of Arizona assistant professors receiving the Early Scholar Award are Kerri Rodriguez, College of Veterinary Medicine; Melanie McKay-Cody, Disability and Psychoeducational Studies, College of Education; and Elizabeth (Beth) Tellman, School of Geography, Development and Environment.  

• 2025 University of Arizona Distinguished Faculty Awards
• Nicole Antebi’s website: https://nicoleantebi.net/
• Instagram: @nicoleantebi

Professor Karen Zimmermann has been named interim director of the School of Art for the 2025-26 academic year, University of Arizona College of Fine Arts Dean Andrew Schulz announced.

Zimmermann, currently the school’s associate director, will take over in July for Colin Blakely, who is stepping down as director after 10 years. Blakely has accepted the position of associate provost at the Rhode Island School of Design.

A professor in the school’s Illustration, Design and Animation (IDA) program, Zimmermann also leads the Book Arts & Letterpress Lab. She served as the school’s acting director during the fall 2023 semester while Blakely was on sabbatical.

“I’d like to express my gratitude to Director Blakely, an outstanding leader and mentor with whom I have collaborated for nearly a decade,” Zimmermann said. “I appreciate the support of Dean Schulz, Arizona Arts and the faculty and staff of the School of Art, as I step into the interim director position.

“I feel fortunate to work with such a fantastic group of colleagues and students, and I look forward to collaborating with them in this role throughout the upcoming academic year. I’m also eager to assist the school during this transitional year and in the search for a permanent director.”

The College of Fine Arts will conduct a national search during the coming academic year, Schulz said in a note to faculty and staff.

“Karen brings to this new assignment a wealth of experience from her years as the school’s associate director, as well as from the semester during which she served as acting director,” Schulz said. “I am confident Karen will do an outstanding job, and with your support and collaboration the school will move forward in important ways under her leadership.”

Zimmermann has taught Typography, Information Graphics, Motion Graphics, Design History, Design, Culture and Language, Design Studios, Visual Narratives, and Letterpress and the Multiple. Her art practice examines print and book production and visual communication.

She has received numerous grants and awards for her design and artwork, including a School of Art Professional Development Grant, an Arizona Project Grant by the Arizona Commission of the Arts, and the UA Deans Fund for Excellence.  She was a 2020 UA Academic Leadership Institute recipient. Most recently she has  been selected  to be in the 2025 cohort of the Digital Borderlands in the Classroom Faculty Fellowship program.

Her writing has been published in “The Education of a Graphic Designer,” “The Education of an E Designer,” “The Education of a Motion Designer,” JAB (Journal of Artists’ Books), “Design Education in Progress: Methodology and Process,” American Institute of Graphic Arts, Adobe Magazine, FATE, SIGGRAPH, and Zed.

Zimmermann has been on the boards and planning committees to organize several conferences, panels and events for the Amalgamated Printers Association (APA), College Book Arts (CBAA) Annual Meeting and AIGA Geopgraphics. She has presented work in: “Action/Interaction” Panel, Columbia College; Design Studies Forum (DSF) College Arts Association “Collaboration in Design” Panel; the UA Digital Arts Education Symposium; “Women, Identity and Borders” video screenings and presentations; “Alternate Routes” Video Art Series; and “Departure/Arrival A Reflection on Diaspora” Lecture and Visiting Artist.

Blakely took over as director in July 2015 as a professor in the school’s Photography, Video & Imaging program. He ramped up fundraising and oversaw major capital construction and renovation projects; increased undergraduate enrollment and degree programs; helped diversify the faculty and student body; and shifted the school to become more outwardly facing to the campus and community. The School of Art saw its number of majors increase from 500 to over 800 in 2024, including 65 graduate students, thanks to new online and in-person course offerings and degrees and retention efforts.

“Professor Blakely always showed genuine interest toward students and their work,” Studio Art senior Zuly Bustamante said. “Throughout my time here, he attended gallery receptions and events, always interacting with students and engaging with the work. It’s always cherished to have someone interested in your art as a student artist. During one of my  exhibitions, he asked me about the material and process of creating my piece, and I was excited to share this not only with the director of the School of Art but an artist, too.”

With major capital gifts stewarded by Blakely, the school renovated the Art Building, the plaza in front of it and the Graduate Studios from 2022 to 2024. The results included renovated galleries to showcase student work and the First-Year Experience program; an atrium common space which is well-used by students and faculty for informal events; an open plaza that is a gateway to Arts District, including the University of Arizona Museum of Art and the Art Building; a newly conceived Visual Resource Center; and a new office space for the School’s administration. The School of Art is now more visible from Olive Road and amid the Arts Campus while projecting a more welcoming facade.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the school and all that it has accomplished. During my time here I’ve seen leadership among the faculty and staff blossom,” Blakely said. “This gives me confidence that the exciting evolution we have achieved will well outlive my tenure as director.”

Acclaimed photographer and artist Kenneth Shorr, a retired associate professor at the University of Arizona School of Art, died March 5 in Tucson. He was 73.

Shorr, who received three NEA Photography Fellowships in his career, taught as a tenured faculty member at the School of Art from 1985 to 2012 after earning a BA from Arizona State University and an MFA from UCLA. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Center for Creative Photography and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

“Ken’s own artistic production was prolific and eclectic — photographs, books, performances, videos, screenplays, altered album covers — all provocative and challenging and moderated with wit and humor,” said Professor Emeritus Joseph Labate, who chaired the photography program in the School of Art from 1996 to 2014.

Shorr “was hugely influential on students, and they loved being in his classes,” Labate said.

Some of those students left heartfelt remembrances on Shorr’s Facebook page. “What a wonderful person, and a talented man,” wrote Rebecca Horton, a 1998 BFA graduate in Studio Art. “He had such a huge impact on my life as a photographer and student.”

In 2013, Shorr presented a retrospective exhibition, “Action through Redaction,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson. The show was “a view into the artist’s mind, in his own words, ‘An obsessive, pathological dialog with myself,’ ” MOCA wrote.

“Shorr employs a biting wit to examine diverse subject matter,” MOCA continued. “Nothing is immune to the scrutiny of his arched brow: the influences and abuses of the mass media; familiar cultural images not excluding arcane yet disconcerting racist cartoons; clichés of government bureaucratic culture; the dark psyche of corporate idealism; or what he refers to as ‘the idiotic tautology of the politician’s stump speech.’ ”

Also a playwright, a manipulator of found objects and a large-scaled muralist, Shorr exhibited his work at the New Museum in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His video performance work was shown in La MaMa in San Francisco and the California Institute for the Arts, and three of his plays were presented at theaters in Chicago.

He arrived as a visiting artist at the School of Art in 1984, when Labate was a graduate student. Shorr was on Labate’s thesis committee.

“Although Ken was making very different work than mine, he showed insight and offered highly valued thoughts on my work and he was exceptionally supportive,” said Labate, a 1986 MFA alum. “I witnessed him doing the same during critiques for other students, both grads and undergrads and including all the studio arts.”

When the photography program moved “into the stark institutional basement of the newly built art annex — long empty halls with doors along the way — Ken showed up one day with two radio-controlled race cars he bought at Radio Shack,” Labate said. “We would race them up and down that hall until they eventually stopped working. He made teaching fun.”

Some of Shorr’s work

 

Altered LP covers (1994-2013)

Transparencies (2010-2013)

Untitled from the series Ornamentation for the Marginalized

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In retirement, Labate and Shorr would often meet and share thoughts on each other’s artwork — and life in general.

“Ken had a most brilliant mind and an unmatched sense of humor,” Labate said. “He will always be a presence in my head and heart.”

As a nod to Shorr’s sense of humor, the family listed his cause of death as “osteoflambosis.” The family also took out a short, whimsical obit in the New York Times on March 14. It read: “Shorr, Kenneth. March 2, 1952 – March 5, 2025. Photographer and redactor. Famed supernumerary. Lover of gewgaws and penumbras. Beloved and not to be fauxgotten.”

Shorr is survived by his wife, Alisa Eve Ziprin Shorr; son Reuven Eliot Shorr; grandsons, Elijah Nogales and Benjamin Shorr; sister, Linette Moore (Terry); and nephews, Charles Joaquin Moore and Cassius Mojave Moore. His other son, Ezra Storm Shorr, died in 2014. Alisa Shorr is a 1977 School of Art graduate in Art History.

Services were held March 9 at Evergreen Mortuary.

More about the artist

• “Action through Redaction” MOCA Tucson essay
• ArtForum review (1983) of Shorr’s exhibition at Chicago’s Nancy Lurie Gallery
• Shorr donates colection of sepia prints to Texas Tech University

Colin Blakely will step down as director of the University of Arizona School of Art in June, ending a 10-year tenure that saw him raise the school’s visibility and overall excellence while becoming a recognized campus leader.

Blakely, a professor in the school’s Photography, Video and Imaging program, has accepted the position of associate provost at the Rhode Island School of Design, effective July 1.

After taking over as School of Art director in July 2015, Blakely ramped up fundraising and oversaw major capital construction and renovation projects; increased undergraduate enrollment and degree programs; helped diversify the faculty and student body; and shifted the school to become more outwardly facing to the campus and community.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the school and all that it has accomplished. During my time here I’ve seen leadership among the faculty and staff blossom,” Blakely said. “This gives me confidence that the exciting evolution we have achieved will well outlive my tenure as director.”

With major capital gifts stewarded by Blakely, the school renovated the Art Building, the plaza in front of it and the Graduate Studios from 2022 to 2024. The results included renovated galleries to showcase student work and the First-Year Experience program; an atrium common space which is well-used by students and faculty for informal events; an open plaza that is a gateway to Arts District, including the University of Arizona Museum of Art and the Art Building; a newly conceived Visual Resource Center; and a new office space for the School’s administration. The School of Art is now more visible from Olive Road and amid the Arts Campus while projecting a more welcoming facade.

“As director, Colin has strived to forge a cohesive community of faculty and administrative staff, putting the long-term success of the School of Art and the well-being of its faculty and staff at the center,” Art History Professor Irene Bald Romano said. “Colin has consistently kept his eye on a broad vision for the school.”

Under Blakely, the number of majors increased from 500 to over 800 this year, including 65 graduate students, thanks to new online and in-person course offerings and degrees and retention efforts. He encouraged the creation of the innovative, multi-disciplinary Design: Arts and Practices B.A. program in collaboration with the School of Architecture and the School of Information — attracting some 200 students annually and growing, both on campus and online — and a new B.A. in Live and Immersive Arts with the School of Theatre, Film & Television. He helped the school create a Student Resilience Fund and awarded over $10,000 to those in financial need to help retain majors. He also oversaw significant curricular revisions to the MFA program as well as an expansion of the Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies, with a joint program between the school’s Art History and Art and Visual Culture Education programs.

“Colin has brought to the School of Art an unusual combination of an artist’s perspective — that of a photographer — with a special understanding of the work and needs of Studio Art faculty and students, a sensitivity to the academic units of Art History and Art and Visual Culture Education, deft administrative skills, and a keen analytical mind,” Romano said.

The school markedly diversified its student body and faculty of color under Blakely’s leadership, and he led the faculty in developing criteria for more equitable tenure and promotions processes, while actively encouraging DEI efforts in the school and College of Fine Arts. Upon his arrival, just over 10% of faculty came from diverse ethnic backgrounds, primarily concentrated in one program. That rate has grown to over 30%. The diversity of the student body increased from 38% to just under 50%.

To support these populations, Blakely worked with faculty to start mentoring and advocacy groups within the school for both student and faculty of color. He helped make sure the faculty group became an important voice at the college and division level. School of Art faculty are now leading important DEI efforts across the division and university, including Professor Amelia (Amy) Kraehe, who is now serving as Associate Vice President for Equity in the Arts, and Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi, who is co-Director of the Racial Justice Studio.

“Colin has been supportive of faculty recruiting efforts, setting up a mentoring system to ensure junior faculty are nurtured in their early years and supported through the tenure process,” Romano said. “He has also instituted twice-annual undergraduate mentoring sessions in which School of Art majors meet with faculty in their program area to discuss near and long-term progress and goals, alongside meetings with the advising staff.”

To increase the school’s visibility, Blakely forged partnerships on campus by participating on the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation Search Committee, Strategic Advisory Council, Arizona FORGE (now Startup Wildcats) and Advisory Board of Center for University Education Scholarship (CUES). In addition, he supported the Visions Program in Scottsdale, helping underrepresented youth practice and engage with art.

Blakely partnered with the Center for Creative Photography on symposia, searches and committees to improve the connection between the CCP and students in the school’s Photography, Video and Imaging program and Art History program. As such, the school’s MFA program saw its ranking in U.S. News and World Report increase from No. 55 to No. 32 — and from No. 8 to No. 3 in Photography. In addition, he implemented a new brand identity, a redesigned website and new communications strategy for the school, hiring a specialist in communications and outreach. And to raise visibility for the school’s programs, he launched a “Free Graduate School” campaign.

What made Blakely doubly proud during his tenure was watching the School of Art’s graduates move on to successful careers as artists, museum curators, art educators and professionals in other fields.

“Who better understands creativity than art majors?” Blakely asked. “Thus, it’s no surprise to learn that our graduates have seen great success in careers outside the arts as well as inside. When I get asked what you can do with an art major, the true answer is simple: Anything you want.”

In addition to his director duties, Blakely has represented the School of Art at the highest levels of the university. He recently took on the role of co-executive director of HeadsNetwork, representing over 250 heads, chairs and directors across campus — working to foster a sense of community and camaraderie while organizing curriculum and training for new heads.

For three years, he served as Associate Vice President for Strategic Initiatives of Arizona Arts, working closely with the Dean and VP of Arizona Arts to guide some strategic planning for the umbrella unit of the School of Art. He also served on the strategic planning team for the university as co-author of the “Making Arts and Culture Central to the UA Experience” strategic initiative, and he’s been involved with budget planning as a member of the RCM 3-Year Budget Review Committee and AIB Steering Committee. Nationally, he serves on the National Council of Arts Administrators and is a Site Visitor for the National Association of Schools of Art (NASAD). Previously, he served on the Board of Directors for the College Art Association.

“Colin has built a community of trust, with a high degree of mutual respect among the faculty and staff,” Romano said. “He’s represented the School of Art at the highest levels of the university in a positive and constructive way.”

Before coming to the U of A, Blakely was department head and a professor of photography at Eastern Michigan University, where he was on the faculty for 14 years and served as chair of the university’s budget council. His work has been shown at Fotofest Houston, the Society for Contemporary Photography, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Photographic Center Northwest and the Jen Bekman Gallery He was a runner-up for the 2009 Aperture Portfolio Prize and a Winter 2007 Hot Shot. Publications include Pause to Begin, Photography Quarterly, and The Humble Collectors’ Guide to Emerging Art Photography.

Blakely received his B.A. from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with a double major in Math and Studio Art, and his M.F.A. in Photography from the University of New Mexico.