Professor Barbara Walter was recently named interim director of the School of Art and Design in Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. Walter has taught in the school since 1979, spending most of her career in the Department of Foundation and later heading up the school's metalsmithing program in the Department of Studio Arts.
Walter recently formed a School of Art and Design Task Force that is charged with investigating the school's future direction. The task force will research the structure and curricula of other schools and discuss such issues as departmental structure and multidisciplinary possibilities available both within the school and across campus. The task force also plans to look at corporate models that reflect the changing roles of artists and designers in the workplace.
"The task force is one of several steps we are taking in a process designed to evaluate where we are and where we want to go," Walter says. "One of the goals is to organize the school in a way that can quickly adapt to changes in educational needs."
As interim director, Walter will also help prepare and guide the school through the National Association of Schools of Art and Design accreditation review next year. In addition, she plans to look at the process of recruiting art and design students.
"I am incredibly excited to be working with someone of Barbara's stature during this time of transition," says Carole Brzozowski, interim dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. "The School of Art and Design has so much potential for national prominence. We hope to accomplish that through the work of the task forces and in the appointment of a new director within the next year."
Brzozowski says that a national search for a permanent director will be announced in the fall.
A graduate of Northern Illinois University, Walter's artwork has been exhibited internationally and reviewed in major magazines including "Metalsmith" and "American Craft" as well as in newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Korea Times. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
Before coming to Syracuse University, Walter was an assistant professor of art at Oklahoma State University, where she started a program in jewelry and metalsmithing.
The College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University is dedicated to providing a nurturing environment where faculty help students develop their creative and scholarly abilities. The college contains the School of Art and Design; the Department of Drama; the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music; the Department of Retail Management and Consumer Studies; and the Department of Speech Communication. Together, students and faculty play a vital role in the academic and cultural life of the University as well as the greater Syracuse community.
Officially chartered in 1870 as a private, coeducational institution of higher education, Syracuse University is a leading student-centered research university. Syracuse's 11 schools and colleges share a common mission: to promote learning through teaching, research, scholarship, creative accomplishment and service while embracing the core values of quality, caring, diversity, innovation and service. The 680-acre campus is home to more than 18,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and 90 countries.
