Eric Anderson is a visiting professor from the Rhode Island School of Design, and he recently visited Macon to speak at the fourth biennial Frances Sewell Plunkett Lecture Series in the Decorative Arts.
The lecture series is an event that takes place every other year and is dedicated to the exploration of decorative art throughout history, as well as in modern times. Anderson delivered three lectures.
Anderson received a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and a doctorate in art history from Columbia University. Previous speakers for this lecture series include Chinese art historian Stanley Murashige, Pierce College Professor of Art History Constance J. Moffatt, and chief curator and vice president of collections and research at Old Salem Museums and Gardens Robert A. Leath.
The title of this year’s lecture series was, “Living on the Edge: Homes, Belongings and Modern Design,” and it was held at the McEachern Art Center in downtown Macon.
The three lectures were held on Feb. 20 and 21, and the events were open to the public. The first lecture was titled “Making Home: Interior Decoration from the Cult of Domesticity to Queer Critique.”
On Feb. 21, there were two lectures, titled: “Breaking Down Walls: The Psychological Interior from Freud to the Fallout Shelter,” and “Lost and Found Homes: Nomads, Refugees and Homelessness from 1960s Counterculture to 21st-Century Global Migration.”
“The Art Department (was) excited to bring Anderson to Mercer for the Frances Sewell Plunkett Lecture Series,” said Erin McClenathan, assistant professor of art history at Mercer University. “These lectures provide a wonderful opportunity for members of the Mercer and Macon communities to join us downtown at the McEachern Art Center, if they haven’t already.”
Once Anderson joined Rhode Island School of Design’s staff in 2012, he became the director of the Master of Arts program at the university. He has a wide range of research interests, and he is even writing a book, titled “Material Visions: A Cultural History of Design and Media.”
Anderson has also served as a visiting professor at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.
The Frances Sewell Plunkett Lecture Series has been held every other year since 2013, made possible in part by an endowment from the Plunkett Family, in memory of Frances Sewell Plunkett.
Mercer welcomes Eric Anderson for Frances Sewell Plunkett Lectures
Dr. Eric Anderson was the recent keynote speaker for Frances Sewell Plunkett Lecture Series at Mercer. Photo provided by Erin McClenathan, assistant professor of art history.
