Art History associate professor Kristin Dowell has received a Fulbright Scholar Award for a semester of research in Ireland sponsored the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies, University College Cork, in Spring 2026.
“I am honored to have been selected for this Fulbright Scholar Award at the esteemed University College Cork, which prioritizes the belief that ‘the university is in the community, of the community, and for the community,’” said Dowell. “This ethos strongly aligns with my own research ethics, interdisciplinary scholarly and curatorial practices, and long-term professional commitment to community engagement.”
The award, titled “Investigating Impact through Innovative Research Dissemination,” is centered on public engagement projects and investigating fresh ways of sharing publications beyond the traditional academic environment and into wider communities.
For her research project, “Interwoven: Cultivating Community Engagement through Curating Irish Art,” Dr. Dowell will work on a new curatorial project. Building on her 2024 exhibition Talamh agus Teanga: Land and Language in Contemporary Irish Art at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts, she plans to develop a new exhibition which she hopes to install in Ireland.
In Cork, Dowell will have various avenues for research and preparation of this curatorial project. The Glucksman Gallery at University College Cork is an award-winning art gallery known for public programming and community engagement, with an extensive art library. The College also is a great resource for archives, special collections, and faculty with expertise in Irish art, culture, language, folklore, and Celtic studies. Dowell will also visit studios and conduct interviews with artists based in Cork. During her time at UCC, Dowell will also teach seminars on collaborative research practices, Indigenous art history, and curatorial practices for the Department of the History of Art as well as participate in several public talks.
Asked about the theme of the planned exhibition, Dowell explains, “My curatorial work is carried out in collaboration with artists, community members, and cultural advisors, and the themes may shift as I connect with the people involved.” Key themes she investigates are environmental ethics and ecological sustainability, and artists who work with materials from the land and sea, focusing on the deep interconnected relationships to place that exist in Irish culture.
Another key theme of Dowell’s research is the Irish language. Irish language tenets and ways of being guide her distinctive curatorial process:
“I’m a proud speaker of the Irish language and the Irish language is a very understudied aspect of Irish art in general. My curatorial research in Irish art has always been through the lens of the language and the ways language itself can be a part of the work. For example there’s a concept of meitheal, which is collectively coming together to complete a task,and tabhair aire, the idea of taking care, which shows up both in terms of how I approach my relationships with artists and also how the artists themselves are building connections between their work and the environment.”
Dowell has traveled in Ireland the past three summers to conduct research; her 2023 work led to the development of Talamh agus Teanga, and her subsequent research laid the groundwork for her Fulbright project. Her summers in Ireland always involve multiple components: conducting art historical work in archives and collections, artist interviews, and participating in language immersion workshops. These workshops also involve going on walks in the land and visiting historic and sacred sites; reinforcing a central theme of Dowell’s work in Ireland: “The land, the language, the history, the cultural ways of life, and the art are all—fite fuaite—very interconnected.”
“I must add a huge míle buíochas – my deep gratitude – to Florida State University, because this project was supported by the Seed Grant and the Summer Research Support grant from the FSU Council on Research and Creativity. The Seed Grant specifically enables faculty to take their research in new directions. All of the work I have done in Irish art is a relatively new direction for me. But there are also many interconnections between Irish art and my wider practice with Indigenous art and filmmakers. There is overlap in terms of the environmental issues, language revitalization, and historic connections between Ireland and Native American Nations and the Choctaw Nation in particular. The collaborative work that I have done for over 20 years with Indigenous artists and filmmakers has deeply informed and enriched this project in Ireland.”
