Joni Kinsey papers

Collection

Identifier: UA10018

Staff Only
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Content Description

The Joni Kinsey papers, 1984-2024, consists of class syllabi, transcripts of "talks," selected correspondence, and planning material from art exhibitions related to her work as a professor of American Art History at UI from 1991 to 2024.

Notably, the collection contains photographs, printed materials, reviews, and planning documentation relating to the exhibition "Plain Pictures: Images of the American Prairie." a 1996 loan exhibition at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum in Fort Wroth, and Joslyn Museum in Omaha. This was a major event, funded by the NEH, and connected Iowa's sesquicentennial. There were numerous related events, such as a symposium, several small exhibitions (prairie book displays in the main library and the Education Department library), prairie grass plantings on campus, a film series, a show at Hancher by musicians Riders in the Sky and cowboy poet Baxter Black, and an art installation (inspired by Grant Wood's paintings) by Stan Herd planted on six acres near the Cedar Rapids Airport. The exhibition was feature on "CBS Sunday Morning." A VHS tape of the show and printed transcript are in the file, along with exhibition checklists, correspondence about the exhibition's planning, the NEH grant, noteworthy publicity, and an audience response book.

This scope and content note was provided in part by Joni Kinsey.

Dates

Creation: 1984 - 2024

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Biographical / Historical

Joni Kinsey is a Professor Emerita of art history at the University of Iowa. Her reseach specialities include nineteenth-century landscape painting and art of the American West and Midwest.

In 1981, Kinsey recived a B.F.A. in Graphic Design and Art History from the University of Tulsa. She recieved both her M.A. (1984) and Ph.D. (1989) from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. For her M.A. thesis, Kinsey co-curated the exhibition "The Spirit of Antiquity: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Robert Adam, and Charles-Louis Clérisseau." Her dissertation was entitled "Creating a Sense of Place: Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the American West."

In addition to teaching courses, Kinsey also was the curator of the Eve Drewelowe collection at the Iowa School of Art and Art History. In 2014, she was selected as a Fulbright Fellow in the United Kingdom.

In 1996, Kinsey was the curator of "Plain Pictures: Images of the Amreican Prairie," a NEH-funded loan exhibition at the University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA), Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX, and Joslyn Museum in Omaha, NE. The exhibition coincided with the state of Iowa's sesquincentennial and the 14,000+ visitors broke UIMA attendance records. The Amon Carter exhibition was featured on "CBS Sunday Morning."

Kinsey is the author of four books, Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the American West (1992), Plain Pictures: Images of the American Prairie (1996), The Majestic Grand Canyon: 150 Years in Art ((1998), and Thomas Moran's West: Chromolithography, High Art, and Popular Taste (2006). She has also published numerous articles and is a frequent lecturer.

Source: "Joni Kinsey." University of Iowa School of Art, Art History, and Design. Retrieved October 2024.