James Broderick
Art department hosts retirement reception for James Broderick
(April 8, 2003)--James Broderick, former chair of the UTSA Public Art Commission and department chair, division director and professor of art for 19 of the 28 years of the UTSA visual arts program, will be honored on his retirement at a reception from 4 to 5:30 p.m. April 11 at the Arts Building gallery on the UTSA 1604 Campus. The reception is free and open to all.
A native of Chicago, Broderick earned degrees from St. Ambrose University and the University of Iowa. He has taught in higher education since 1966 and administered three university's art programs since 1970.
"During this past year, the university provided me with research opportunities, valuable uninterrupted studio time and other essential support for enhancing my creative productivity. Whatever success the visual arts programs have had during my time at UTSA is clearly due to the great working relationships that I have enjoyed with all departmental, college and university colleagues," said Broderick.
"Administrative support of the university, when combined with many outstanding friends and supporters in the San Antonio community, have helped to keep us at the top of our form in all things that the department strives to do through its teaching, research and service," he added. "This great Department of Art and Art History will continue to flourish under the guidance of its chair, Frances Colpitt, and the many contributions of its dynamic and talented faculty."
In 2001, The Texas Observer described the blooming of San Antonio's art scene in an article by Alix Ohlin. Ohlin credited UTSA's art department with supplying much of the raw energy behind the city's outstanding contemporary art scene. "For one thing, the graduate studio program at UT San Antonio regularly produces artists and many of them stay in town after graduating," she wrote.
As chair of the department, professor of art and as artist, Broderick has been a major presence at the local, regional and national level. During his tenure, the department added three tenure-track faculty positions, the number of undergraduate and graduate art majors increased, and a master of arts degree in art history and criticism was added to the existing B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees. Additonally, many adjunct faculty were hired to teach in the department.
The UTSA Art Gallery, Student Gallery E in the Arts Building, the UTSA Satellite Space gallery at Blue Star Arts and an art gallery in the Durango Building at the Downtown Campus have all been added to the department's service mission.
Presenting up to twenty important professional art exhibitions annually, the department's exhibition spaces provide educational and challenging experiences for the San Antonio metropolitan community.
Broderick presided over the department's successful visiting-faculty program, which consistently brought in nationally prominent visiting artists and art critics for semester-long faculty appointments. Additionally, he was instrumental in raising thousands of dollars in scholarship funds for UTSA visual arts students and over $50,000 in private support for the UTSA Satellite Space at Blue Star.
With administrative encouragement and support, he worked to form the UTSA Public Art Commission in 1994 and has chaired the commission and managed all aspects of the university public art program's operations since then. He has overseen the commission and installation of 12 major public art projects at the 1604 and Downtown campuses. Four additional contracted public art projects will be installed in the next two years.
Over the past 24 years Broderick's major external leadership contribution has been to the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. NASAD is the only national professional accrediting agency for educational institutions in the visual arts and design recognized by both the U.S. Department of Education and the Council in Higher Education Accreditation. He is currently president of NASAD, and a member of its executive committee and board of directors.
Since 1978, Broderick has served NASAD in a number of capacities including: chairman of the Commission on Accreditation, chair of the committee on research, as well as program evaluator, consultant, and accreditation visit team director on campuses of over fifty institutions of higher education.
Broderick was elected as the first chair of the National Council of Arts Accrediting Organizations and its board of trustees. A member of the National Council of Art Administrators (NCAA) since 1971, Broderick actively served on the NCAA board of directors and has planned, organized and co-hosted two of their national conferences.
He served on the boards of directors of the Texas Association of Schools of Art and the Texas Art Education Association. For four years he served on the art discipline screening committee for Senior Fulbright Scholar awards through the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.
Broderick taught undergraduate and graduate classes in a variety of studio disciplines including drawing, printmaking, photography and mixed media. He is an artist with a national exhibition record spanning 40 years. He has exhibited his artworks in group shows throughout the U.S. and in solo shows in Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Texas and Peru.
He currently is concentrating his efforts in various forms of photography including type-C prints, Cyanotype and electrostatic color prints. Several of Broderick's recent photographs will be part of the upcoming "Fotoseptiembre U.S.A." Texas photographers exhibition at San Antonio's Blue Star Art Space.
The Department of Art and Art History is establishing the James A. and Cindy
G. Broderick Endowed Scholarship in Art and Art History to provide scholarships
for qualified graduate and undergraduate students. To make a donation toward
the scholarship, contact Janice Odom, UTSA Development Office, at (210)
458-5160 or Jane in the Department of Art and Art History at (210) 458-4352.
----------------------------------------------------------
TODAY'S HEADLINES (Sunday, July 6 2008):
UTSA-Air Force biotechnology center to be dedicated Aug. 26Portions of Buena Vista Street Building closing this weekend
UTSA community invited to Week of Welcome activities
Unprotected personal computers put UTSA network at risk
New UTSA Web page: And now for something completely different
----------------------------------------------------------
© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2003