Art + Art History Dept.
University of Texas at Arlington
July 2007

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New Media Consortium and the Marcus Digital Education Project
The University of Texas at Arlington Department of Art & Art History has been recognized for its innovative approaches in the use of technology by the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of more than 200 prestigious colleges, universities, and museums across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

The New Media Consortium serves as a catalyst for the development of new applications of technology to support learning and creative expression and sponsors programs and activities designed to stimulate innovation, encourage collaboration and recognize excellence among its member institutions.

The focus of the recognition and department project, funded by the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation, is to stimulate visual arts education in Texas by increasing the capacity of Texas museums to use digital storytelling tools and techniques. Faculty and students in Art History, Art Education, Graphic Design, Photography, Film/Video and Design Texas will have outstanding opportunities to participate in this program.

The Gallery at UT Arlington, through the direction of Benito Huerta, annually provides a series of exhibitions that will be interpreted, digitally designed and presented on the gallery website. The first exhibition material will be available this summer. The Marcus Digital Education activity is the third phase of the department’s digital research initiative. Starting this fall the department will offer a Digital Conversion track for Art and Art History students

Dr. Ingrid Furniss Joins the Art History Faculty
Dr. Furniss is currently completing her first book, The History of Musical Instruments in Early China: An Archaeological Study of the Eastern Zhou (770-221 BCE) and Han (206 BCE-220 AD), to be published by Cambria Press (New York). This book will be the first to explore thoroughly the archaeology and history of wooden musical instruments in China and their role in ancient Chinese social and musical life. Dr. Furniss has also worked on a number of research- and exhibition-related projects at museums in the U.S., including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Louis Art Museum, Seattle Asian Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has written articles on Asian art for museum journals and exhibition catalogues, including Princeton University Art Museum's Recarving China's Past: The Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the Wu Family Shrines (2005). Dr. Furniss graduated in 2005 with her Ph.D. in Chinese art and archaeology from Princeton University, and she is currently on a quest to develop specialties in Indian and Japanese art and archaeology as well. (She recently returned from a research trip to India, where she visited museums and explored archaeological monuments.) As a nonwestern art professor at UTA, she has enjoyed working with students from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and artists who bring a fresh perspective and personal interest to the study of art history. Her work has been enhanced greatly by opportunities to collaborate with and to learn from fellow faculty members in art history, art, archaeology, and architecture.

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