Dr. Heidi Hornik, Professor of Art History and Chair and Armstrong Browning Library Collaborate to Provide Unique Experience for Students

This fall Dr. Heidi Hornik, Professor of Art History and Chair (pictured in group shot with students), is teaching a class that takes a unique approach to the study of art history at the Armstrong Browning Library (ABL) on Baylor’s campus.

ABL is home to five paintings from the Kress Collection, a collection of over three thousand European Renaissance and Baroque paintings that were amassed by businessman Samuel H. Kress between 1929 and 1961. Kress donated the works of art to museums across the United States, including Baylor’s Armstrong Browning Library. Kress wished to “share the artistic legacy of Europe with the American people”. (From the Kress Foundation website.)

ABL is also the home to Italian pictures collected by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning while they lived in Florence.

The combination of these works provides a wonderful opportunity for Art History and Studio Art students to become student-scholars working with primary materials and documentation housed in ABL. This is a unique experience not usually possible for undergraduates to experience.

The students are granted special access to the Scholar’s Room (not open to the public) where the curatorial files and library materials are reserved for their use. The students’ research and work will contribute to the history of these pictures and will be preserved in Armstrong Browning Library curatorial files for future scholars and historians to access.

We wish our ‘student-scholars’ well this semester and extend our warm thanks to Associate Dean Jennifer Borderud, Director of the Armstrong Browning Collection and Museum (pictured here explaining works to the students), and ABL staff for the amazing gift and opportunity they are affording our students.

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