Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art is hosting an exhibition of works by Diane Edison, a Fulbright scholar and UGA professor, and Ekaterina Russiniova of the New Bulgarian University fine arts department. The exhibition, titled “Drawing Across Borders,” is on display in Gallery 307 of the school of art through March 9.
A closing reception for the exhibition will be held March 8 at 7 p.m., and the public is invited to attend.
A professor of painting and drawing in the school of art, Edison was selected by the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board for a Fulbright Award to Bulgaria in 2010. She served as a senior lecturer and research scholar from October 2010 to March 2011 at New Bulgarian University in Sofia where she met and worked with Russinova, chair of the university’s fine arts department.
“I taught beginning and advanced painting and drawing, took field trips with the students and even traveled to Istanbul with students and faculty from the New Bulgarian University,” Edison said.
The artwork she created during that time grew out of her Fulbright proposal, “Portraiture Redefined: Interdisciplinary Approaches in the Classroom.” Some of this work is featured in “Drawing Across Borders,” which was originally presented at the Republic of Bulgaria Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia.
“Just as we encourage our students at UGA to have a study abroad experience, it is important for our faculty to take part in programs such as the Fulbright,” said Georgia Strange, director of the school of art. “The opportunity to learn more about your discipline while you create new collaborative partnerships is great for everyone involved and puts our work in its true global context.”
Edison agrees. “The Fulbright experience was a very good one for me, one that allowed me to step outside of myself, completely outside of my comfort zone. I was ‘other’ in a very different way than being other in this country, as a person of color. It’s important for my teaching because I bonded with these students; even with a language barrier, I discovered there are many ways to communicate without language with art.”
The Lamar Dodd School of Art is located at 270 River Road on the UGA campus. Gallery 307 is located on the third floor of the building. For more information, see http://art.uga.edu.