Newswise — SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (April 20, 2017) – Heather Hurst, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Skidmore College, and Skidmore alumna (’97), has been named a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
As a Guggenheim Fellow, Hurst will be illustrating a new corpus of Maya murals from San Bartolo, Guatemala. These recently reassembled broken fragments expand the corpus of known wall paintings and provide new insights into the origin of Maya religious beliefs.
Guggenheim Fellowship winners are appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. This year, after considering the recommendations of panels and juries involving hundreds of distinguished practitioners in the competition fields, 173 scholars, artists, and scientists were chosen for the award from among almost 3,000 applicants.
Hurst is an archaeologist specializing in ancient Mesoamerica. She has investigated and illustrated Maya murals, monumental sculptures, and architecture at sites including Bonampak, Copán, Holmul, Oxtotitlán, Palenque, Piedras Negras, San Bartolo and Xultún. By documenting ancient artworks, Hurst’s creative work has contributed significantly to scholarly analysis and to cultural heritage preservation. Hurst’s interdisciplinary work facilitates dialogue between archaeologists, materials scientists, conservators, and art historians, and at the same time disseminates images that engage both academics and the public in the study of Maya culture.
The intimate knowledge and precision required to articulate a calligraphic line in a manner that was true to original Maya murals inspired Hurst to explore the artists behind the paintings. Her goals as a scholar are driven by the human experience captured in the lines themselves. By characterizing how Maya artworks were created, Hurst strives to make visible the diverse roles of ancient Maya painters, scribes and sculptors.
Hurst’s work has been published in National Geographic, Science, Antiquity, and The New York Times, and exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
In 2004, Hurst was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, a five-year grant awarded to individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for more in the future.
"First a MacArthur ‘genius grant,’ and now a Guggenheim Fellowship; it is wonderful to see the world recognize what we at Skidmore have known all along -- that Professor Heather Hurst is an extraordinary human being,” said Beau Breslin, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Political Science, Skidmore College.
“The Guggenheim is a prestigious academic award that recognizes Heather for her distinguished work in archaeology, particularly by expanding knowledge of ancient Maya art and artists,” said Michael C. Ennis-McMillan, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology at Skidmore College. “A Guggenheim Fellowship draws attention to a scholar who shows promise of future contributions, and Heather is breaking new ground on our understanding of ancient mural traditions among Native Americans.”
“Skidmore faculty and students have been fortunate that Heather has shared her talents with us, and we are delighted and proud to witness this well-deserved recognition of Heather’s achievements,” Ennis-McMillan continued.
Skidmore College alumna Laura Harrison (’91), of Chicago, IL, has also been named as a recipient of a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship.
United States Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife established the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1925 as a memorial to a son who died in 1922. The Foundation offers Fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions and irrespective of race, color, or creed. The Foundation receives approximately 3,000 applications each year. Although no one who applies is guaranteed success in the competition, there is no prescreening: all applications are reviewed. Approximately 175 Fellowships are awarded each year.
RSS