Alumni

Casey Stangl, Art History, BA, '17

MA student, Art and Museum Studies, Georgetown University

After completing her degree and her honors thesis in art history, Carey interned for the Seattle Art Fair and worked as the Educations Programs Assistant at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.  She is currently pursuing a degree in Art and Museum Studies at Georgetown University with a focus on museum education and interning in the education department at the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington D.C.  Carey reflects on how her art history education has helped her launch a career in museum education: 

“The resources that were available to me during my time at Seattle University such as the three galleries on campus, the partnership with the Frye Art Museum, and the amazing professors that were more than willing to share their expertise, advice, and connections, have all been extremely valuable to me and have helped me grow my professional and educational goals. Despite the program's small size, the Art and Art History Department has so many opportunities for students to get involved and make connections. The Department's interdisciplinary approach to art history has been extremely influential to me and the way I approach art and social issues, and has made me confident in my ability to tackle difficult current issues that arise both in and out of the workplace.”

Veronica Eldredge, Visual Art, BA, '16

I am currently working as a professional freelance illustrator, thanks to my wonderful art instructors. I was lucky to have taken several visual art courses of different media at Seattle University, mostly with adjunct professors and instructors–who were incredible and vital to my education; Gretchen Bennett, Fr. Trung Pham, Wynne Greenwood, Frank Guerrero, Sam Franada and Tiffany Ta were all very influential in my years at Seattle University, and helped me find a voice and space in the department.

Naomi Hume, whom I also had as a professor, helped me to add my minor in my final year, since I had met the requirements up until then, which has been and will continue to be so important for me as a professional artist.

Since I graduated, my work has been published on the cover of Seattle University professor Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs' most recent book, Word Images, and I am currently illustrating at least two children's books. I moved back to San José, CA, where I have been collaborating with a social justice media magazine, Silicon Valley De-Bug, who will be publishing my art in 2018; through them I was also able to participate in San José's 3rd annual All-Womxns Showcase of artists and performers in October.

Maya Lall, Visual Art, BA, '16

I'm currently in my second year of living in Japan, and teaching English & Foreign Studies at eight elementary schools. My passion for my Japanese minor and volunteering to teach at the Japanese Cultural Community Center of Washington Seattle weekly to be my biggest influence. I've realized that teaching and the educational field is my passion, so I am working on getting certified as a teacher, and hopefully moving on to teaching Art here in Japan or back in America.

This year I also plan on working on fluency and acquiring the a certificate in highest levels of the Japanese proficiency test. I'm not sure what you specifically mean by achievements, but I was a speaker at a Conference on English and Foreign Studies courses, and recently I worked on a project on the implementation of iPads and English Language Acquisition that was reviewed and observed by Principals of different schools across the prefecture as well as the Board of Education from the Prefectural Office.

I also worked on a project with one of my schools where my parents were invited as guest speakers, and we presented to each grade level of students about the life and culture of India to give students exposure to people of different upbringings and cultures other than their own and to give them an opportunity for cultural exchange.

This summer I had the opportunity to work, plan and lead an overnight camp for middle school students who wanted to immerse themselves into English, as well as an English camp for adults.

David Strand, Visual Art, BA, '16

Head of Exhibitions and Publications at Frye Art Museum, Seattle
BA, Visual Art and English-Creative Writing, 2015

David has worked in arts journalism in Seattle and well as in arts education at the Gage Academy and began curating with the non-profit Aktionsart in Seattle.  He explained the way his Art and Art History coursework prepared him for his museum career in this way:

“Seattle University’s excellent location in the heart of the city coupled with its knowledgeable and well-connected Art & Art History faculty helped me build a bridge from the classroom into the galleries and offices of the museum...During my time at Seattle University, I was able to pursue my own creative work while honing my research and writing skills in tandem with gaining vital professional experience. As the Head of Exhibitions and Publications at the Frye Art Museum, I work closely with local and international artists in bringing their work wider audiences, serving the community through free access to new ideas and ways of thinking.”

Laura Stowell, Art History, BA '14

PhD Candidate, Art History, University of Washington
MA, Contemporary Art, Sotheby's Institute of Art, New York, 2015
BA, Art History, Seattle University, 2014

Graduate Curatorial Assistant at the Henry Art Gallery during 2017–2018.
Wikipedia Fellow at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery during 2017–2018.
Selected by the Division of Art History to receive a 2018 de Cillia Teaching with Excellence Award.

Laura reflected on how her BA in art history prepared her for graduate work in the field: “the rigor and depth of some of the higher-level offerings [in art history such as Theory and Methods, 4000-level seminars and 3000-level electives] are something I'm very grateful for having.”

She found that in the Theory and Methods in Art History course in particular she had already been exposed to content that some of her peers were only experiencing for the first time.  She also appreciated “the smaller, seminar-based classes and how our paper topics were often flexible and open to our own interests [which] allowed me to get deeper into material that interested me and helped prepare me for graduate study.”

Finally, extra-curricular opportunities enriched her education and the Art & Art History department’s “connection to the Frye's gallery guide program is also a definite strength, as it gave me a fluency to talk about art with a wide range of people which I continue to find invaluable working in a public programs, teaching, and curatorial capacity.”

Jasmine Magaña, Art History, BA, '11

PhD Candidate, Art History, Duke University
MA, Art History and Theory, with distinction, University of Essex, UK, 2015
Fulbright-University of Essex Postgraduate Award, 2014
BA, Art History & Strategic Communications, Seattle University, 2011

Before starting her PhD at Duke University in the fall of 2018, Jasmine spent two years as Curatorial Assistant at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY.  When asked about how her art history degree prepared her for this museum position, she responded: “I first encountered a number of works from the Albright-Knox's collection in my undergraduate courses, so it has been absolutely amazing to get to know them more intimately. We are actually preparing an updated collections handbook for which I will be a contributing author, so I expect to be thinking back to those first encounters. Given the nature of the Albright-Knox's collection and the scope of their exhibitions program, I rely heavily on my art historical training to identify connections between historical and contemporary artworks and movements so that I can more easily put the works into productive dialogue.”

Here are some of the projects that Jasmine has worked on at the Albright-Knox: 

• Claudia Joskowicz: Every Building on Avenida Alfonso Ugarte–After Ruscha 
• Stop Me If You've Heard This One: Humor and Satire from the Collection
• Out of Sight! Art of the Senses
• We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-1985.