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Brooke White has been named the next director of the School of Art and Design. This appointment comes after an extensive national search. White will begin working in the school in July and her term as director starting August 1, 2024.
White comes to Illinois from Oxford, Mississippi, where she served as Professor of Art, Associate Chair, and Head of Imaging Arts at the University of Mississippi. White’s artistic practice is characterized by a cross-disciplinary approach to image-making, incorporating both analog and digital photographic techniques, experimental processes, digital video, and bookmaking. For over two decades, her work has explored themes such as the landscape, nature, and human connection to place. Her latest projects delve into the impact of climate-related weather events on rising water levels in regions such as the Gulf South, the Caribbean, and the Maritimes. Additionally, she examines the significance of photography and travel as acts of resistance for women, drawing from multigenerational archives.
White’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; and the Mamia Bretesche Gallery, Arles & Paris, France. She has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Bangalore, India, and her work has been published in Give and Take: Motherhood and the Creative Process, Aint-Bad Magazine, Southern Cultures UNC Press, Reckonings and Reconstructions: Southern Photographs from the Do Good Collection, and the Oxford American. She is the recipient of the National Council of Arts Administrators Fellowship; Sarah Isom Fellowship, Sarah Isom Center for Women’s and Gender Studies University of Mississippi; and has been an artist in residence at the Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC; and SlowE in Zebulon, GA.
White’s leadership, experience, and insight will benefit both the School of Art and Design and the college. Please join us in welcoming Brooke to this important leadership role in Art and Design!
We wish to also recognize the service of Professor Alan Mette. Alan joined the School of Art and Design in 1981 and has led the school as director since 2015. He served the campus, school, and college in many leadership roles including that of interim associate dean of Academic Affairs in FAA, member of the Siebel Center for Design’s executive committee, and fellow in the Big 10 Academic Alliance’s leadership program. We will greatly miss Alan’s leadership and vision. He has left an indelible mark on the School of Art and Design and the College of Fine and Applied Arts, for which we are most grateful.