The Board of Trustees approved a change in the Visual Arts Department that includes the art history faculty moving to the College of Humanities and the remaining faculty and staff in the department being split into the Art Department and the Design Department.
Academic Vice President Brent Webb has appointed two new department chairs. Their work will begin officially on January 1, 2015, coincident with the above-named reorganization.
The new chair of the Department of Design, Eric Gillett, is an associate professor of graphic design. He has taught at BYU since 1998 and holds an MFA in Design from the University of Utah. His work is regularly featured in national and international design publications including Communication Arts, Print, How, Eye, Creative Quarterly, Graphis, NY Art Director’s Club and The One Show. His commissioned work has included many Fortune 500 companies, although his work as the department Rank & Status Committee Chair and Futures Committee Co-chair have recently occupied his time. He is the father of six, three of whom attend BYU, and who he says 'regularly borrow his car and debit card to do their grocery shopping.'
The new chair of the Department of Art is Gary Barton. Gary is a professor of art and has taught at BYU since 1994. He holds an MFA degree from Ohio State University where he was the recipient of a University Fellowship. He has previously served as associate chair of the Department of Visual Arts as well as associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications. He has shown his work extensively in regional, national and international exhibitions and has received numerous grants and awards including the Utah Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship.
Linda Reynolds will step down as chair of the Department of Visual Arts on January 1, 2015. Stephen Jones, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications, expressed his gratitude for her work.
“Her record of distinguished service has sustained the department through a period of significant faculty turnover, guided and managed its resources with great effectiveness, established an atmosphere of transparency and equity, and helped advance its faculty and students to new levels of success and achievement,” Jones said. “For her significant personal investment and her dedicated service in this assignment I extend my unreserved praise and my deepest gratitude.”