The University of Wisconsin–Madison Arts Institute and University Housing is announcing Faisal Abdu’Allah’s appointment as the faculty director of The Studio: Creative Arts & Design Community in Sellery Residence Hall. He replaces John Hitchcock, who was named associate dean for the arts in the School of Education earlier this fall. Both professors are faculty in the Art Department.
“This is a great opportunity for us to extend the notion of arts practice within the university and beyond,” says John Baldacchino, director of the Arts Institute. “With Faisal on board, students, faculty and guest artists will participate in a wider range of opportunities underpinned by the great work done in The Studio, First Wave and our Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program.”
Abdu’Allah is an internationally acclaimed artist who creates iconographic imagery of power, race, masculinity, violence and faith to challenge the values and ideologies attached to those images. He came to UW–Madison in 2013 as the Arts Institute’s Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence. Originally from the United Kingdom, Abdu’Allah received his bachelor of fine arts degree from Central Saint Martins College, a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art and a Ph.D. from the University of East London.
Hitchcock has served as faculty director of The Studio since 2014. He is an award-winning artist who uses the print medium to explore relationships of community, land and culture. He has taught at UW–Madison since 2001. Prior to that he was at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He holds a master of fine arts degree from Texas Tech University.
“As associate dean for the arts in the School of Education, Professor Hitchcock will work with the Arts Institute directly to enhance an understanding of the arts that is both open-ended and implicitly critical as a form of academic practice,” says Baldacchino. “With the addition of Faisal, and with John in his new role, many pieces are falling into place, helping us continue to build a fresh, dynamic approach to the arts at UW–Madison.”
Abdu’Allah also is among the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s twenty-five recipients of the 2016 Painters & Sculptors Grant Program in the amount of $25,000 each.The Painters & Sculptors Grant Program was established in 1993 to acknowledge painters and sculptors creating work of exceptional quality through unrestricted career support. The first year of grants was awarded in 1994 and the Foundation has funded individual artists annually since that time.
Nominators from across the country are invited to recommend artists whom they feel deserve more recognition for their creative achievements and whose practice would significantly benefit from the grant. The candidates’ images were viewed for consideration through an anonymous process by a jury panel that convened this fall at the office of the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Nominators and jurors include prominent visual artists, curators, and arts administrators.