New Director Appointed to Lead SDSU School of Art + Design
Annie Buckley, MFA, to replace retiring director and local architect, Kotaro Nakamura
by Mara Parker
June 25, 2019
San Diego State University announced today that Annie Buckley, MFA, has been appointed incoming director of the SDSU School of Art + Design, effective July 31, 2019.
Annie Buckley has been a practicing artist, writer, curator, and educator with an emphasis on art and social justice for the past 25 years. She is coming to SDSU from CSU San Bernardino, where she is Professor of Visual Studies in the Department of Art and the founding director of Community-based Art and the Prison Arts Collective (PAC) initiatives, which permit students, alumni, and faculty to facilitate arts programming at sites that would not otherwise have access, including numerous California state prisons. This work is supported in part by the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The author of more than 200 published essays and reviews on contemporary art and culture in publications including Artforum.com, Art in America, and The Huffington Post, Professor Buckley is also a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her art and participatory research embrace image, text, and social practice, and have been included in public and gallery exhibitions around the world.
Just last month, Professor Buckley was named CSUSB’s 2018-19 Outstanding Professor, the university’s top faculty honor; the selection also conferred upon her the John M. Pfau Endowed Professorship, named for that university’s first president. Previously, Professor Buckley was honored with the inaugural CSUSB Community Engaged Scholar Award, the CSUSB College of Arts and Letters Outstanding Faculty in Service Award, and First Place in the first university-wide Innovative Teaching Contest.
“Professor Buckley brings an accomplished research and creative practice to the university, one that aligns well with other researchers and creative artists within and beyond the College of Professional Studies and Fine Art,” said Donna Conaty, interim dean of PSFA. “I have found her to be enthusiastic, positive, and creative in her way of thinking about art, its influence on our society, and its ability to tackle big questions and offer innovative solutions.”
The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.
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