Awards
2007 Distinguished Teaching of Art Award
Margot Lovejoy, Purchase College, State University of New York
Margot Lovejoy
It would be hard to imagine a better role model than Margot Lovejoy, professor emerita of art and design at Purchase College, State University of New York. Her efforts as an educator, artist, writer, activist, and mentor have made an immense impression on the world of art and an army of students. Testimonials by former students consistently highlight her sense of humanity, teaching by example, and her ability to share “her wealth of knowledge and life experiences without arrogance or judgment.” One student notes that she taught him “that there is no ‘right’ way to be an artist today.” Another states, “She is a ceaseless learner whose art and published works are as provocative as they are probing. She has broken new ground and made resonate works that have expanded our understanding of print media to include interactive media, book works, performance, installation, and most recently, web-based art.”
Colleagues point out that Lovejoy’s influence has gone well beyond the classroom. Her book Postmodern Currents: Art and Artists in the Age of Electronic Media (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989; 2nd ed. 1997) is a standard in the field, and Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age (New York: Routledge, 2004) is recognized as a textbook. She fosters student growth through interdisciplinary curricula and an atmosphere “of openness and inquiry.”
Margot Lovejoy, TURNS TABLE, 2000, five computers, router, and overhead data projection connected to the internet, installation aspect of the generative website www.myturningpoint.com, 48 x 36 in. This work is produced with Hal Eagar, Jon Legere, and Marke Walczak (artwork © Margot Lovejoy)
Lovejoy’s work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She has received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and her website TURNS was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. The old saying about “those who can’t, teach” certainly does not apply to Lovejoy.
Jury: Michael Aurbach, Vanderbilt University, chair; Muriel Magenta, Arizona State University; Yong Soon Min, University of California, Irvine; and Lester Van Winkle, Virginia Commonwealth University.
