Heather Hole
Professor, disciplines of Museum Studies and Art History
Professor Heather Hole teaches museum studies and art history in the School of Library and Information Science. Before Simmons, Dr. Hole was a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. She is the author of Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for an American Modernism, published by Yale University Press, and curator of the traveling exhibition of the same name. Dr. Hole is a former Chair of the Department of Art and Music and Director of the Arts Administration Program.
Education
- PhD in Art History, Princeton University
- BA in Art History, Smith College
Courses
- LIS 432 Concepts in Cultural Heritage Informatics
- LIS 436/ART 347 Art of the Gardner Museum
- LIS 507/AADM 234 Introduction to Museum Studies
- ART 100 Objects and Ideas
- ART 245 American Art
Research/Special Projects
Professor Hole researches the history, theory, and practice of art curation in the United States. Publications include "The Home-Coming: Nativism and the Period Rooms of Wanamaker’s New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1919-1925" (Winterthur Portfolio, Winter 2024), examining Colonial American period rooms created in a time of mass immigration and cultural nationalism. Another article, "'Stain’d with Divers Paints': Transatlantic Slavery in John Smibert’s Boston Studio, 1737" (Source: Notes in the History of Art, Fall 2023), explores a portrait painted by Smibert of a wealthy Salem merchant in the same year the artist advertised a reward for the return of an enslaved Black man named Cuffee. Countering the erasure of Cuffee’s experiences in the archive, this article reconsiders Smibert’s painting as a material manifestation of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, the wealth it created, and the culture it funded.
Her ongoing research focuses on the visual and museum culture of the 1926 United States Sesquicentennial.
Awards
2022 Best Advisor Award, Student Government Association, Simmons University
Shout-outs from Students and Alums
Practicing Social Justice via Arts, Archives, and Community
Aislinn Doherty ’25 reflects on expanding her leadership skills as a Bonner Leader, and making it her mission to get involved with as many organizations and opportunities as possible while at Simmons.
Encountering Art, in Boston and Abroad
Elizabeth Addesso ’25 reflects on her time as a college student in Boston and the opportunities she had at Simmons, from working in the Trustman Art Gallery to studying abroad in Italy.
Discovering Purpose and Community through Art, Service, and Song
Arts Administration major Calla Savelson ’24 shares how she gained professional experience and build a community for herself during her time at Simmons.
Jane Carney ’17 Supports Living Artists as Art Consultant at Boston Art, Inc.
Arts Administration major Jane Carney '17 on her pivot from auctioning "old master's" art at Christie's New York to selling the work of living artists at Boston Art, Inc.
Bailey Hilt '18 Uses Arts Administration Skills in Marketing and Photography Position
Bailey Hilt '18 is a Marketing and Photography Specialist at Elkus Manfredi Architects in Boston, MA. She spoke to us about the Arts Administration skills she learned from Simmons, her past internship experiences, and how she applies this knowledge in...
Ifill Scholar Anek Yen ’24 Finds her Passion in Arts Administration from a PR Perspective
Congratulations to Anek Yen '24, recipient of the Ifill Scholarship! We spoke with Anek about how she plans to use her PR skills to support her passion for art and art museums. What are you studying at Simmons? I'm studying...