WEBINAR: Where to Start: Frederic Church’s Early Career in Wider Contexts

Where does a legacy like Fredric Church’s begin? Learn more about Church’s earliest works and their broader contexts during this webinar with Joseph Mizhakiiyaasige Zordan, PhD Candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University and contributor to forthcoming publication, Frederic Church: Global Artist. This presentation will reexamine the role of local, national, and familial mentors in establishing Church’s artistic career, particularly through his painting Hooker’s Company housed in the collection of The Wadsworth. This presentation will be moderated by Erin Monroe, Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Wadsworth and is offered in conjunction with Frederic Church 200, the bicentennial celebration of Church’s birth. Frederic Church 200 highlights exhibitions, installations, and programs nationwide. Learn more at olana.org/fc200. 

Joseph Mizhakiiyaasige Zordan’s work broadly examines the intersections of European/Euro-American and Indigenous North American art and history, and the material legacies of settler colonialism. His research has been supported by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Gallery, among others. Currently, he is a Henry Luce/American Council of Learned Societies Pre-Doctoral Fellow in American Art. Zordan is an enrolled member of the Bad River Ojibwe.

Erin Monroe is the Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Wadsworth, in Hartford, CT, where she has led the American art department since 2016. She oversees an extensive collection encompassing colonial portraiture, Hudson River School landscapes, neoclassical sculpture, modernism/surrealism, and mid-century abstraction. Drawing upon the breadth of the museum’s American art collections, Monroe has curated a range of exhibitions including Andrew Wyeth: Looking Beyond; Gorey’s Worlds; Paul Manship: Ancient Made Modern; and served as the in-house curator for Frederic Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage, organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Monroe holds an M.A. in art history from Hunter College (CUNY), concentrating in modern art, and obtained a B.A. in art history from Northwestern University, with a minor in African studies.