Studio Art and Art History Faculty

Paul Ryan , Professor of Art
A painter and art critic, Paul Ryan is Professor of Art in the Department of Art and Art History at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. He teaches all levels of drawing and painting, and courses in art criticism and contemporary art. He is also the Director of Hunt Gallery, the college’s art gallery. Paul has an MFA in painting from the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BA in English from Principia College. Since 1983 Paul has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in a variety of venues, including Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA), 1708 Gallery (Richmond, VA), Hartell Gallery at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), The McLean Project for the Arts (McLean, VA), The University Gallery at The University of South Carolina (Spartanburg, SC), Fine Arts Building Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA), The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, VA), Leeds Gallery at Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana), and the Armory Gallery at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA). Paul has been a contributing editor for Art Papers Magazine since 1990. Since 1989 he has contributed to Art Papers Magazine, Sculpture Magazine, Artlies Magazine, and the New Art Examiner. He is represented by Reynolds Gallery , and his paintings are in numerous public, corporate, and private collections. His web site address is: http://www.mbc.edu/faculty/pryan/ .

Jim Sconyers , Assistant Professor of Art
Jim Sconyers, Jr. is an artist in a variety of media, including printmaking, photography, and digital media. In 2002, he received his MFA in Printmaking with Distinction from Indiana University's Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts. Since that time, his work has been selected for both national and international exhibition, including, in 2007, Rentas Sempadan:  An International Print Exhibition at the Penang International Art Festival in Malaysia and, in 2008, NO DANGER 3-Dimensional Airplane Prints, an international exhibition at Richmond International Airport, Richmond, Virginia, and at Robert L. Ringel Gallery, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. Jim’s new body of work made its debut at Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, in January 2009 and is scheduled to be shown in a solo exhibition at Main Art Gallery, Richmond, Virginia in May 2010. Most recently, Jim was honored to be invited by Professor Edward Bernstein of the Henry Radford School of Fine Arts at Indiana University to participate in an exhibition at IMPACT: International Multidisciplinary Printmaking Conference, which took place from September 16-19, 2009. IMPACT was hosted by the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. The show was comprised of 15 artists working with the title “Old Traditions in New Clothes”, loosely focusing on the interface between tradition and technology, both technically and conceptually.

http://web.me.com/sconyers

Marlena Hobson , Associate Professor of Art History
Marlena Hobson has a PhD in art history from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Her dissertation focused on the work of the Novecento group of painters in 1920’s Italy and their relationship to Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Party. Marlena’s minor concentration was in Pre-Columbian art and architecture. She takes frequent trips to Mexico, including the Yucatan, Chiapas, Campeche, and Oaxaca regions to study ancient Mayan and Zapotec archeological sites. In May 2004 Marlena took a group of Mary Baldwin College art students to Oaxaca as part of an interdisciplinary May Term abroad course with the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Marlena began teaching at Mary Baldwin College in fall 1987. She teaches courses in modern art, women in the arts, history of photography, American art and architecture, pre-Columbian art and architecture, and twentieth century Latin American art. She has published exhibition reviews in the New Art Examiner and the Art Papers Magazine.

Sara Nair James , Professor of Art History
Sara Nair James, Professor of Art History, holds a BA in art from Mary Baldwin College, an MA in humanities (Medieval Studies) from Old Dominion University, and a PhD in art history (Italian Renaissance) from the University of Virginia. She teaches art history and interdisciplinary courses in Ancient, Medieval, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, and early English art and architecture. During May Term, she leads groups of Mary Baldwin students on a trip --- usually to Italy --- to share her knowledge of, and enthusiasm for art, history, and contemporary culture. Dr. James has received travel grants for research from the Kress Foundation and the Ross and Yum Arnold Fund. For spring 2007, she has received her second appointment to the American Academy in Rome as a Visiting Scholar. She contributes regularly to the Sixteenth Century Journal,the Renaissance Quarterly,and Historians of British Art as a book reviewer. Her publications include a chapter, "Vasari on Signorelli: The Origins of the Grand Manner of Painting," in Reading Vasari (Philip Wilson, 2005) and a book, entitled Signorelli and Fra Angelico at Orvieto: Liturgy, Poetry and a Vision of the End-time, (Ashgate Publishing, 2003). Her web site address is: http://academic.mbc.edu/sjames/

Katherine Brown , Adjunct Professor of History

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Music Faculty

Lise Keiter-Brotzman , Professor of Music
Pianist LISE KEITER-BROTZMANhas performed nation-wide and is active as a solo recitalist, collaborative artist, and soloist with orchestra. In the summer of 1998, she was awarded a fellowship to study at the Internationale Academie de Musique in Gargenville, France, where she appeared several times in performance. In the fall of 2006, she returned to France and performed two concerts as part of the International Roussel Festival. In November of 2006, she was the featured soloist in a performance of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto at Elon University, and other recent performances have taken her to Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Davidson College, Emory and Henry College, and West Liberty State University (West Virginia).

Dr. Keiter-Brotzman joined the faculty at Mary Baldwin College in the fall of 1998 and is currently the music department chair. Her work at Mary Baldwin has led her to develop an interest in the music of women composers, and in 2005, she developed an all-women composers program of solo piano works, in honor of the bicentenary year of pianist and composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847). This highly popular recital has become her most requested program, and she has performed it over a dozen times to date.

Frequently called upon as a lecturer, adjudicator, and masterclass clinician, Dr. Keiter-Brotzman is active in many organizations. She is the MTNA Competitions chair for Virginia and serves as vice-president of the Charlottesville Music Teachers’ Association (CMTA). In addition, she is president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the College Music Society (CMS) and recently represented her chapter at the CMS National Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, as a panelist on the topic of “Education in Music is Every Musician’s Responsibility.” She is also committed to local groups, serving on the boards of the Valley Symphonic Concerts and the Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra.

Originally from Charleston, Illinois, Dr. Keiter-Brotzman has a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, where she received several top prizes. She completed a Master’s Degree and the Doctorate of Music at Indiana University, where she also received the Award for Outstanding Teaching. Her teachers have included Leonard Hokanson, Gyorgy Sebok, Robert McDonald, Emile Nauomoff, and Evelyn Brancart.

Robert Allen , Associate Professor of Music

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Theatre Faculty

Theresa K. Southerington '72 , Professor of Theatre
Theresa K. Southerington, professor of theatre, is an alumna of Mary Baldwin College. She holds the MA and MFA degrees in theatre from the University of Virginia, as well as the MS is mathematics from James Madison. Her primary field is costume, and she studied authentic Elizabethan costume practice at London's Globe Theatre. Her designs are frequently seen onstage at the Blackfriars Playhouse and Ash Lawn Opera. Ms. Southerington teaches acting and directing as well as the technical and design courses: basic production, costume, makeup, stagecraft, scene design, and lighting. She has an extensive resume of acting and directing ranging from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, and Noel Coward to modern British farce.

Virginia R. Francisco , Professor of Theatre
Virginia Royster Francisco, a theatre historian, actress, and director, is professor of theatre at Mary Baldwin College. She teaches theatre history, drama, play analysis, and stage management. Her work as a director appears regularly in the college’s theatre, where she alternates musicals with plays emphasizing social issues.

In 2006 “Dr. Fran” headed a team of translators and musicologists who created an English version of a neglected French operetta. Performances at MBC were the operetta’s first in English since 1874. Her recent research examines visual evidence for performances of Shakespeare's time. A lifetime research interest is the acting and directing of Charles Kean, a nineteenth century actor-manager who was one of Queen Victoria’s favorites. She has published a number of articles on these topics.

Dr. Francisco also held administrative positions in which she focused on new program creation and advising for the diverse populations of MBC. She holds the BA degree in theatre from MBC, the MA in English from the University of Virginia, and the PhD in theatre history from Indiana University.

“Dr. Fran” has been a member of the MBC faculty since 1970. She is the mother of Sarah A. Francisco, '98.

Dr. Francisco's Web site: http://academic.mbc.edu/vfrancisco/

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