UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Carmenita Higgenbotham

“I will make comments about my own racial background. I will say, ‘You know, as a black woman.’ And that usually gets a chuckle. If you just put it right in front of somebody’s face, you’ll usually get the hehehe.

“It’s almost like sucking the air out of the room a little bit, like some pressurized issue like race is there, and it’s this balloon and it’s getting bigger and bigger. If I can pull some of that out, I will.

“And I’ll speak pretty plainly. I’m like, This is what it is, and this is what we have to deal with. Issues about race and identity, whether it’s in art or any other field, are woven into everything that is this country, what we do, and how we speak. So why can’t it be woven into how we learn?”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Carmenita Higgenbotham

“I will make comments about my own racial background. I will say, ‘You know, as a black woman.’ And that usually gets a chuckle. If you just put it right in front of somebody’s face, you’ll usually get the hehehe.

“It’s almost like sucking the air out of the room a little bit, like some pressurized issue like race is there, and it’s this balloon and it’s getting bigger and bigger. If I can pull some of that out, I will.

“And I’ll speak pretty plainly. I’m like, This is what it is, and this is what we have to deal with. Issues about race and identity, whether it’s in art or any other field, are woven into everything that is this country, what we do, and how we speak. So why can’t it be woven into how we learn?”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Carmenita Higgenbotham, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Program in American Studies

Interviewer: “So do you believe in a hierarchy of art, though, that some art is definitively better than other art?”

Higgenbotham: “Yes. I’m an art historian, I’m not a hippie.”

“Art historians love hierarchy, our whole field is committed to it. That’s what we enjoy talking about as we sip our wine, staring at that work on the wall.

“We love that, what gets in the gallery space, what ends up in the museum. What works are we going to use our pseudo-European accents on?

“So one of the great things about being an art historian, officially, with a degree, is getting to say the phrase, That’s bad art. And when anyone questions you on it, it’s not a matter of taste, it’s a matter of academic training.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Carmenita Higgenbotham, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Program in American Studies

Interviewer: “So do you believe in a hierarchy of art, though, that some art is definitively better than other art?”

Higgenbotham: “Yes. I’m an art historian, I’m not a hippie.”

“Art historians love hierarchy, our whole field is committed to it. That’s what we enjoy talking about as we sip our wine, staring at that work on the wall.

“We love that, what gets in the gallery space, what ends up in the museum. What works are we going to use our pseudo-European accents on?

“So one of the great things about being an art historian, officially, with a degree, is getting to say the phrase, That’s bad art. And when anyone questions you on it, it’s not a matter of taste, it’s a matter of academic training.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Brian Hogg, Senior Historic Preservation Planner:

“The Rotunda, it was the library until Alderman Library opened in 1938. The library’s opening left the Rotunda without a purpose. And what had been the most important building at the university had become a building people walked past but rarely into.

“And so we started looking at ways to integrate it into the daily life of the University, rather than just return it to this sort of icon.”

“So we brought teaching back into the building. We put three classrooms into the building. And now I think there’s something like 50 or 60 classes a year that are taught in the Rotunda.

“And that — more than any of the physical changes or improvements we made — that was the real success of that project.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Brian Hogg, Senior Historic Preservation Planner:

“The Rotunda, it was the library until Alderman Library opened in 1938. The library’s opening left the Rotunda without a purpose. And what had been the most important building at the university had become a building people walked past but rarely into.

“And so we started looking at ways to integrate it into the daily life of the University, rather than just return it to this sort of icon.”

“So we brought teaching back into the building. We put three classrooms into the building. And now I think there’s something like 50 or 60 classes a year that are taught in the Rotunda.

“And that — more than any of the physical changes or improvements we made — that was the real success of that project.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Carmenita Higgenbotham, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Program in American Studies

“It’s always good advice if you’re going to be an art historian to not study the work you love. Because eventually you’ll kill it.

"Through your analysis, through your critique, through your reading of various responses to it, it’ll lose the magic of being something beyond words. Art that you truly love, at some point it’s beyond words. It is very much something that you stop speaking about. You give people that look, like, Isn’t it amazing? You don’t have the terminology to describe it.

"That’s the last thing you want to study for academic study. Because you will kill it. Dead, in the ground.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Carmenita Higgenbotham, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Program in American Studies

“It’s always good advice if you’re going to be an art historian to not study the work you love. Because eventually you’ll kill it.

"Through your analysis, through your critique, through your reading of various responses to it, it’ll lose the magic of being something beyond words. Art that you truly love, at some point it’s beyond words. It is very much something that you stop speaking about. You give people that look, like, Isn’t it amazing? You don’t have the terminology to describe it.

"That’s the last thing you want to study for academic study. Because you will kill it. Dead, in the ground.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Brian Hogg, Senior Historic Preservation Planner:

Hogg: “The luncheon for the Queen was the first event in the dome room after the 1970’s renovation was finished.”

Interviewer: “You said the Queen, do you mean the Queen of England?”

Hogg: “Yes, she came to Charlottesville, and she got a tour of the Lawn and the then president's wife, Mrs. Hereford, cooked up a turkey salad for the lunch. So it was Mrs. Hereford's turkey salad, and the recipe was circulated widely in Charlottesville after that, so you could replicate the luncheon.

“It's kind of a horrifying recipe, but it calls for using turkey loaf, I think, rather than real turkey, but, you know, that was the seventies. Anyway, so yes, that was what the goal was for that particular renovation project: have it ready for the Queen.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Brian Hogg, Senior Historic Preservation Planner:

Hogg: “The luncheon for the Queen was the first event in the dome room after the 1970’s renovation was finished.”

Interviewer: “You said the Queen, do you mean the Queen of England?”

Hogg: “Yes, she came to Charlottesville, and she got a tour of the Lawn and the then president's wife, Mrs. Hereford, cooked up a turkey salad for the lunch. So it was Mrs. Hereford's turkey salad, and the recipe was circulated widely in Charlottesville after that, so you could replicate the luncheon.

“It's kind of a horrifying recipe, but it calls for using turkey loaf, I think, rather than real turkey, but, you know, that was the seventies. Anyway, so yes, that was what the goal was for that particular renovation project: have it ready for the Queen.”

For more: www.uvastories.org