Mitzi Kirkland-Ives Archives - Reynolds College Blog

Art history and museum studies students bring research to the public

June 3, 2025 by Reynolds College

Several art history and museum studies students from Missouri State University spent a busy Spring 2025 semester showcasing their research at several conferences.

The students appeared at the Missouri Archaeological Society, the Catherine Reed Jolivette Art History and Visual Cultural Symposium and the Missouri Academy of Science.

The art history and museum studies programs are part of the BA in Visual Art and Culture in the Department of Art and Design.

Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives publishes new book on Hans Memling

May 6, 2025 by Reynolds College

The Department of Art and Design’s Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, professor of art history and visual culture, has published her latest research on the fifteenth-century German painter Hans Memling.

Released in April 2025 through Reaktion Books and the University of Chicago Press, “Hans Memling and the Merchants,” takes readers into Memling’s world in Bruges, Belgium, far from the courts and churches that usually defined artistic success.

Vibrant career in fifteenth century Bruges

Book cover featuring artwork of Hans Memling — Click book cover image to learn more.

Kirkland-Ives noted that instead of painting for kings or cardinals, Memling found his audience within the rising urban middle class among bankers, politicians and artisans. He subsequently built a thriving career in Bruges.

“He’s an interesting figure,” she said. “He’s not originally from the Low Countries, but he shows up in Bruges and winds up being one of the most called upon painters of his moment there.”

The book builds on Kirkland-Ives’s long-standing interest in the intersections of art, ritual and society in late medieval Europe. Her previous book, “In the Footsteps of Christ: Hans Memling’s Passion Narratives and the Devotional Imagination in the Early Modern Netherlands,” offers a close study of Memling’s narrative strategies and the ways viewers engaged with images as part of their devotional lives.

In that book, Kirkland-Ives invites readers to consider how a single panel painting could guide the imagination through complex religious experience.

She expands on this theme further in her new book by exploring the social and material realities of Memling’s world.

This includes how his workshop operated, how he sourced his pigments and how his portraits and altarpieces reflected the politics and power plays within Bruges. In fact, Memling’s works often elevated an individual’s or a family’s status or publicly demonstrated status that they already had.

Bruges was an international hotspot at the time, Kirkland-Ives noted. Memling’s client list reflected this. His work traveled across Europe—from Castile to Florence—thanks to a system of patrons who often ordered pieces while visiting and had them shipped home. [Read more…] about Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives publishes new book on Hans Memling

Vonda Yarberry, professor and head of Department of Art and Design, to retire Aug. 1

April 27, 2025 by Lynn M. Lansdown

After 36 years, Vonda Yarberry says it’s a good time to retire.

Yarberry has served as head of Missouri State University’s Department of Art and Design since 2016. She started teaching digital art and animation for the department in 1989.

During her nine-year tenure as department head, Yarberry oversaw several momentous changes. She assisted with helping the department move from the main campus to its current downtown location, Brick City. Under her guidance, the department increased its campus and community presence with new exhibition galleries and collaborative programs. And, Yarberry navigated the department through its darkest days during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yarberry admitted that she had never imagined herself in this role. But as it turns out, it has been the most rewarding time of her life.

“Being a department head has been the most fun of any of my roles over the last 36 years.”

A creative and inspirational “legacy leader”

Dean Shawn Wahl of the Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (RCASH), described Yarberry as a “legacy leader.”

“Under her leadership, the Department of Art and Design has expanded in numerous ways, including new graduate programs, gallery expansion, robust community arts partnerships and fundraising,” Wahl noted.

Man and woman at an awards ceremony — Yarberry accepting the Judy Award for “University Citizenship” from Dean Wahl. Photo credit: Jesse Scheve/Missouri State University.

Yet even before she became department head, Yarberry displayed innovative leadership, according to Angela Barker, Director of Information Technology and Operations for RCASH.

Barker, who started working for Missouri State in 1999, recalled how Yarberry developed a long-range technology equipment plan. The plan created a workflow that maintained and redistributed state-of-the-art computer technology to standard computer labs.

“It laid the groundwork for the technology standards we continue today,” Barker said.

In addition to being innovative, Yarberry’s leadership is inspirational, according to Dr. Steve Willis, professor of art.

“In my 49 years in the profession, I have never known a more conscientious educator with such an incredibly high work ethic than Professor Yarberry,” Willis said. “She has the ability to motivate people to achieve at their highest level.”

Professor Sarah Williams also described Yarberry’s leadership as inspirational.

“I’ve found it truly is rare to work with someone whose first instinct — when faced with a problem or difficult situation — isn’t to bristle or go into panic mode but rather to view it as an opportunity to learn something, investigate in a new context and problem solve in a calm yet professional manner,” Williams said. “She’s been an amazing role model.”

MSU’s Dr. Andrew Wasserman publishes book on public art

December 18, 2024 by Reynolds College

Public art serves as a powerful medium for expressing cultural identity, fostering community connections and engaging with our environments.

That’s according to Dr. Andrew Wasserman, assistant professor in Missouri State University’s Department of Art and Design.

In his new book, “The World Atlas of Public Art,” Wasserman embarks on a global survey that highlights the diverse practices of public art over the past six decades.

The landscape of public art has become increasingly complex, Wasserman said. The book was thus inspired by a desire to document how artworks interact with public spaces, as well as the meanings public artworks hold within different contexts.

As a result, the book goes beyond documenting the visual appearance of works to explore what public art signifies for various communities.

Published by Yale University Press, “The World Atlas of Public Art” was recently mentioned in The New York Times.

MSU art and design students assist with new exhibition

April 20, 2024 by Reynolds College

Several students from Missouri State University’s Department of Art and Design assisted with the Springfield Art Museum’s special exhibition, “Renaissance Works on Parchment and Paper.”

The students conducted research and developed written descriptions to focus on individual objects or thematic elements.

Professor of art history Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives will discuss the exhibit June 6, 2024, from 6-7 p.m. at the museum.

The exhibit is on view April 20-Sept. 1. It is free and open to the public.

Exhibit highlights historical “information-technology” shifts

Kirkland-Ives guest-curated the exhibit, selecting items from the museum’s collection to document the transition from manuscript production to the dawn of printing press technology.

“The exhibit focuses on an information-technology shift and some aspects of how both script/typography and visual imagery adapted to the new formats possible during the advent of mass reproduction,” Kirkland-Ives said.

Exhibit visitors will encounter visual elements of fifteen printed images—woodblock prints, engravings, and one etching—by German masters of the sixteenth century, including several works by Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Renaissance print artwork — Detail: Saint Jerome in His Study, Albrecht Dürer, 1514.

The exhibition provides a historical overview of how these works were produced—tools, equipment, and style—and covers a range of other subject matter.

“A half dozen examples of texts produced using the early printing press in several languages and typefaces are also included—early Bibles and other texts—and a number of leaves from medieval manuscripts on parchment as examples of the range of scripts and approaches to ornamentation seen in the unique hand-produced works of earlier centuries,” Kirkland–Ives said.

Kirkland-Ives wants viewers to consider contemporary issues in parallel with the development of print in Renaissance times, especially major changes in information technology, such as the internet and artificial intelligence (AI).

She hopes the exhibit encourages visitors to think about “big fundamental changes in how we get our information, whose voices can be heard, and how we negotiate, basically, questions of media literacy, legitimacy and authority.”