James Cartwright, MA Class of ’17, Teaches and Explores Cross-Cultural Art

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Why are people driven to make art? This is the question that sparked and continues to fuel James Cartwright’s passion for art history. He wants to know what makes people express themselves through art.

James explores the reasons behind art-making with his students at USF. He earned his MA in Art History from the University of South Florida in December 2017, and was hired immediately after by the School of Art & Art History as adjunct faculty. Teaching feels natural to James. When he was a graduate teaching assistant, he was entrusted to lead a class on his own once a week. Through what he considers his first real challenge as a graduate student, he discovered that he loves helping his students to develop a curiosity for art. He teaches History of Visual Arts I and II this summer, and in the spring semester he taught 19th Century Art.

James received his Bachelor of Arts in Art History from USF as well. He went abroad for the first time when he joined classmates and faculty on the school’s well-known Paris Summer Art Program. He was amazed to see famous works of art in person. Yet there was even more to experience. “My favorite memory from the Paris program is the nine-mile hike outside the city in the French countryside. You get to walk through a ruined abbey and all of these other structures that make you feel like you're wandering through some fantasy landscape, or someplace forgotten by time. The hike is a nice challenge, but there is also a peaceful, serene quality to the trip,” he shares.

Always drawn to other cultures and perspectives, James found that what the USF Art History program had to offer was right up his alley. A number of the highly regarded art history faculty at USF specialize in non-western art. He was inspired by Dr. Esra Akın-Kıvanç’s classes on Islamic art and architecture. Her teachings opened his eyes to a new realm of art history and tied into his interest in cross-cultural art, which is now his specialty. He explains that studying cross-cultural art affords him more flexibility: “I have a greater range of cultures and time periods I can research. For example, I can write about something like European collectors of East Asian art, then Christian and Muslim artists working together to decorate a cathedral, then Hungarian noblemen visiting the Ottoman Empire, and so on. I have a lot of freedom to explore different types of artwork, and different dynamics between multiple cultures.”

For his Master’s Qualifying Paper, James investigated and wrote about the hybrid artwork created by Muslims and Christians living in the same cities. Working on the final paper challenged him to think deeper and more theoretically: “There’s more historical context to understand. It’s taking an idea and adding layers upon layers of research.”

James attributes his decision to stay at USF to pursue his master’s degree to the relationships he had built with the art history faculty. He worked the closest on his qualifying paper with Dr. Akın-Kıvanç, who was his primary reader and advisor, “She’s always available and helpful.” He felt like there was more for him to do still at the School of Art & Art History. “[The school] has something that you gravitate towards. The people genuinely care about you and invest in you to help you become a better student.” In addition to Dr. Akin-Kivanç, James also names Dr. Elisabeth Fraser as a faculty member whose mentorship influenced him. He expresses respect for how Dr. Fraser knows when to guide students and when to give freedom, and learns from her as a professional role model.

Reflecting on the graduate art history program at USF, James describes it as comprised of intensive seminar courses based in research and discussion. “You take a lot of responsibility and are given challenging material about art history to grapple with and understand. The professors challenge you to create original scholarship.” He adds that he was always writing research papers. His practice and hard work paid off: In his first year as a graduate student, James won first place in an art history paper competition held by the school, and presented his paper to peers and faculty. This is his favorite memory of studying at USF. Since then, James has gone on to present his research at two international conferences: the International Graduate Student Conference at Central Michigan University, and the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) International Graduate Conference in Budapest, Hungary.

Together with fellow graduate art history students, James collaborated with third-year Master of Fine Arts candidates at USF to produce a catalog. The art historians interviewed the studio artists as they created master’s thesis artworks for the school’s MFA Graduation Exhibition. James enjoyed doing the interviews due to the insight it provided, “You see why they do something. I’m lucky everyone I’ve worked with has been great.” Comparing this process to the academic research he usually does, it is different because he has the opportunity to work with a living person. There is immediate interaction and a back-and-forth with the artist.

Because art is so easily accessible here, James thinks Tampa is a great place to study art. “There are multiple museums in downtown Tampa and nearby in St. Pete. In addition to the museums, there is a strong gallery scene in Tampa where you can see many local artists and support their work: at Tempus Projects, CUNSTHAUS, QUAID, Gallery 221 at HCC, the list goes on.“

USF and Tampa abound with opportunities to study art and the reasons why people are driven to make art. To new students considering art history as a major and/or career, James says “You’ve got to love learning about the reasons why something is made. More than just looking at a work of art, it’s who commissioned it, what was going on politically, socially and with religion.” He encourages you to bring your curiosity.