News 2019: UMass Dartmouth announces new Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts

News 2019: UMass Dartmouth announces new Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts
UMass Dartmouth announces new Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts

A. Lawrence Jenkens to become Dean

Headshot of new CVPA Dean

UMass Dartmouth appointed A. Lawrence Jenkens as UMass Dartmouth’s Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Jenkens currently serves as the Interim Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Previously, Jenkens served as Associate Dean (2016-2018), and as Department Head (2010-2016) at University of North Carolina Greensboro and as Department Chair of Fine Arts (2006-2010) at the University of New Orleans in Louisiana. He was the founding director of the University of New Orleans - St. Claude Gallery, the only off-campus university gallery in New Orleans and located in the recovering St. Claude-St. Roch neighborhood and, in downtown Greensboro of the interdisciplinary Greensboro Project Space.

Professor Jenkens was the recipient of an NEH Fellowship of College Teachers (1997-98) and more recently, a residential fellowship at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti) in Florence, Italy (2001-02). His most current research interests focus on the avenue of cultural exchange between Central Italy and the Kingdom of Naples in the fifteenth century.

In his cover letter, he wrote, "I am particularly interested in working at a vibrant university that is deeply rooted in its community and has a mission that mirrors my own belief in the transformational role of the visual and performing arts in our culturally rich and diverse society.”

A. Lawrence Jenkens received his A.B. from Harvard University, his MA and Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) is a comprehensive arts college with Bachelor's and Master's programs that prepare students for careers in art, design, music, and other creative endeavors. To assure that its programs meet appropriate standards, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), the national accrediting body for the visual arts.