Alumni Spotlight: Mindy N. Besaw

My career path and graduate school are deeply intertwined. Before deciding to go back to school to get my PhD in American Art History, I was working as a curator at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. I was able to complete my coursework and residency in Lawrence through an educational leave of absence (something of a curatorial sabbatical!). I focused my dissertation on objects and artists of the American West that took advantage of my location back in Cody after coursework was complete. While I was ABD, I took a job as curator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. In the last 10 years, and since finishing my PhD, my position and duties have grown and expanded into my current role overseeing our fellowship program and liaising with the University of Arkansas’s new MA program in Art History.

Rigorous researching and writing, and then more writing, is something I use all the time in my career. I also always learn a lot when I am part of a cohort of students and faculty—from the multiple perspectives included therein, and through navigating dynamics and relationships.

Go to as many lectures by visiting scholars and artists as you can—both inside and outside your area of interest and focus—and introduce yourself! See art in person, including art made by MFA students at KU. Visit museums and galleries often. Take classes outside Art History. Find and take advantage of grant writing workshops. Set aggressive deadlines for yourself when you are writing a seminar paper, a thesis, or a dissertation chapter. You can accomplish so MUCH MORE than you think you can, and you can do it faster than you realize! Don’t over think things.