The Department of Art and Design and the University community is honored to announce the visit of scholar and artist Dr. Marta Bożyk from October 14-21.

The visit serves as the first exchange between the Department and the Academy of Fine Arts of Kraków, the oldest university of the arts in Poland, established in 1818, and one of Europe’s premier art and design schools. This exchange is the product an initiative spanning several years, led by former Department Head and emerita Carolyn Cárdenas and an invaluable team including Art and Design Department Senior Instructor Iwona Zalewska-Duszek and Steve Robinette, the Associate Vice President for International Programs, through which relationships were forged between MSU and a number of art and design academies in Poland. These efforts formed the basis for the Academy to successfully secure an Erasmus+ grant, a program managed by the European Union Commission to support a broad range of educational opportunities. This grant will help fund a series of exchanges: over the next two semesters two faculty members and two students will travel from Missouri State to Kraków to present workshops and to study, as the Academy of Fine Arts sends additional faculty and students to Springfield in return; the first planned exchange will send Assistant Professor Joshua Albers, who will present at the Academy of Fine Arts next Spring on the topic of “Creating Virtual 3D Scenes with Physically-Based Rendering”. Dr. Bożyk’s and Prof. Albers’ visits represent the beginning of what is hoped will become a strong and lasting cooperation between MSU and the Academy of Fine Arts.

Dr. Bożyk holds a Doctorate in Visual Arts in Fine Arts, and has exhibited extensively, including solo shows in Poland, Japan, Serbia, and the United States; her work is held by a variety of museums and collections across the globe. During her artistic career she has been active in printmaking and graphic arts, ceramics, performance art, exhibition curation, and film, has held art residencies in Japan, Serbia, Scotland, and Wales, and has presented lectures and workshops worldwide.

In addition to student and faculty workshops on Japanese woodblock printing techniques, Dr. Bożyk will present two lectures that are free and open to the public: “Printmaking in Poland” on October 15, 4pm in room 312 of Brick City building 1, and “A Touch of the Phenomenon,” discussing her own artistic production, on October 16 at 6pm, also in room 312 of Brick City 1. An informal exhibit of her landscapes will be on view in the second floor atrium of Brick City 4, October 17-19.

Brick City is located on Mill Street between Campbell and Boonville in downtown Springfield, three blocks north of Park Central Square, at 327 W. Mill Street (Brick 1) and 215 W. Mill Street (Brick 3 and 4).