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New Chair Selected
for UNCP's Art Department
 This
summer, the UNC Pembroke Art Department got its
first new chair in 32 years.
Janette K. Hopper,
a painter and professor from Central Michigan University, takes over
a veteran department from Paul VanZandt, who will return to full-time
teaching duties.
Ms. Hopper said
she is in an enviable position at UNCP.
"This is a
strong and very experienced department," she said. "They are
artists and professors who are very involved in the creative process
themselves and with their students, which is very important."
"There are
many exciting things going on here with John Labadie's multi-media project
and the new Master's of Art Education program," Ms. Hopper said.
For Mr. VanZandt,
the time was right to step back from leading the department he joined
in 1969.
"I appreciate
the opportunity to lead the Art Department, but and it's time for new
leadership and new ideas," Mr. Vanzandt said. "I am looking
forward to teaching full time."
Mr. VanZandt teaches
sculpture, ceramics and three-dimensional design. He has left a visible
mark on campus with bronze statues of university founder Hamilton McMillan,
the school's hawk mascot and Adolph Dial, founder of the American Indian
Studies program.
"I am looking forward to working with Ms. Hopper," he said.
"She has a strong artistic and academic background."
Besides her administrative
duties as department chair, Ms. Hopper will teach art history, drawing,
design and painting in oil, acrylic and water colors. She finds the
environment in North Carolina's stimulating for an artist.
"The light
is very good here, and the heavy atmosphere is emotionally expressive,"
the artist said. "The thick green growth, the changes in the atmosphere
and the huge dramatic skies are appealing for a landscape artist."
Prof. Hopper's scholarly
and artistic activities are numerous. In 1992, she won a Fullbright
Scholarship for a one-man show in Copenhagen, Denmark. This was the
first of several grants and awards, including several grants that have
taken her to France, Bulgaria and Montana.
Originally from
the Pacific Northwest, Ms. Hopper earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
and a Master of Arts in secondary education from Boise State University.
She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon.
She is an member
of the Artists Trust, the College Art Association, the Fullbright Association,
the National Women's Caucus for Art and the Allied Arts Association
among others.
Ms. Hopper has exhibited
her work widely and her student's work has won many awards. She has
written many scholarly articles, and her work appears in many publications.
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