BCMA Announces New Curatorial Fellow and Artist-in-Residence Appointments
By ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art
The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art (BCMA) announces the appointment of Anne Strachan Cross as the Museum’s next Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, and Gerald Clarke as the halley k harrisburg ‘90 and Michael Rosenfeld Artist-in-Residence for the upcoming academic year. Cross will begin her three-year appointment in August 2025, while Clarke will be in residence during the 2025-26 academic year.
“We are thrilled to welcome these two exceptional individuals to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾,” said Frank Goodyear, the Co-Director of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art. “Anne Strachan Cross brings extraordinary scholarship on American art, photography, and visual culture that will enrich our curatorial program and campus academic partnerships. In particular, her extensive research on an important period in the history of American visual culture, when mass media began to bring distant wartime horrors directly to the public through visual representation, is in alignment with the Museum’s commitment to exploring the ongoing impact of art, and how the power of images remains a relevant topic today.”
Anne Collins Goodyear, the Co-Director of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, added “Gerald Clarke’s innovative artistic practice and deep commitment to indigenous knowledge and cultural sovereignty will provide our students and community with transformative learning experiences. Clarke has noted ‘I don’t make Native American art,’ but instead he draws on his Native identity, and his experiences growing up in inland California, to inform his art-making, producing works that are able to speak across cultures and geographies.”
Gerald Clarke
Gerald Clarke, an enrolled citizen of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, is a visual artist, educator, tribal leader, and cultural practitioner whose innovative work challenges stereotypes about Native American art and identity. He is currently Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California Riverside, where he teaches classes in Native American art, history, and culture. Clarke’s artistic practice spans various media including sculpture, photography, and mixed media installations, often incorporating found objects and cultural symbols to address contemporary social and political issues facing indigenous communities.
Clarke has exhibited his work extensively throughout the United States, with pieces in numerous major museum collections. His recent accomplishments include a Distinguished Artist Award from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums (2024), the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Visual Artists (2023), and a major retrospective at the Palm Springs Art Museum titled “Gerald Clarke: Falling Rock” (2020). He is also a contributor to the National Gallery of Art’s 2023 exhibition “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans” and has participated in the 2023 Desert X biennial in Coachella Valley. In addition to his artistic and academic work, Clarke oversees his family's cattle ranch on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation, where he lives in the home his grandfather built around 1940.
“My work has always centered on challenging preconceptions about Native American art while exploring the intersection of traditional knowledge and contemporary issues,” said Clarke. “This residency provides a meaningful platform to engage with students and faculty while developing new work that responds to this particular moment and place. I am excited to bring my practice, and which is so informed by my life in California, to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾’s vibrant Maine community, including engaging with indigenous voices from the region.”
Anne Strachan Cross
Strachan Cross comes to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ from Pennsylvania State University, where she has served as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Art History since 2023. Her research focuses on American visual culture, with particular emphasis on photography, illustrated newspapers, and the representation of violence during the Civil War era. She completed her Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Delaware in 2023 with a dissertation titled “‘Features of Cruelty Which Could Not Well Be Described by the Pen’: The Media of Atrocity in Harper's Weekly, 1862 – 1866.” Cross has published in notable journals including History of Photography and Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art.
Prior to her position at Penn State, Strachan Cross has held fellowships and positions including the Lynn Herrick Sharp Curatorial Fellow at the Delaware Art Museum and a Luce Fellow in American Prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is currently completing a book manuscript titled “Mediating Atrocity: Photography, Violence, and the Civil War Press” and recently received a Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society for 2025-2026, which she will pursue alongside her curatorial work at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾.
“I am honored to join the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art as the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow,” said Strachan Cross. “The museum’s exceptional collection provides an extraordinary foundation for exploring American visual culture in all its complexity. This fellowship offers a unique opportunity to bridge my academic research with curatorial practice that engages diverse audiences and perspectives.”