Cather Professor of Art Karen Kunc has been accepted for a Fulbright Specialist Project Grant to teach a contemporary woodcut printmaking workshop at Dhaka University in Bangladesh in May.
Kunc will be in Bangladesh from May 5-25.
“I am really excited for this opportunity to return to Bangladesh and to see the artistic developments since my first visit there in 1995,” Kunc said. “In particular I want to refresh my knowledge of the artists I worked with from around the country. Many are now professionals and teachers, and have accomplishments, recognitions and development of their own personal approaches.”
Kunc will be accompanied by Camille Hawbaker, a graduate printmaker in the Department of Art and Art History, who will also engage with students and demonstrate her own research directions, serving as a role model and visual explorer in this new cultural environment.
“Camille will enable close relationships with students and add to the teaching atmosphere of collaboration in the printmaking studios,” Kunc said.
Kunc feels a kinship with the artists in Bangladesh.
“I feel that we share cultural sympathy and artistic expression on issues of ecology, interest in natural materials, patter and color and storytelling,” Kunc said.
Kunc has taught at UNL since 1983. She became full professor in 1998 and was named Willa Cather Professor of Art in 2003. Her work has been shown in more than 350 exhibits nationally and internationally. In 2007, she received the prestigious Printmaker Emeritus Award from the Southern Graphics Council.
She received her BFA from UNL and her MFA from The Ohio State University.