Art Professor Named Honored Educator by Society for Photographic Education

Photo Submitted

From the collection: Drive by Shootings by Michael Peven

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Michael Peven, professor of photography in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has been named the 2014 Honored Educator for the Society for Photographic Education, South Central Region, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Peven will receive the award at the society’s regional conference to be held Oct. 2-5 at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

The award is given to a full-career educator who is a member of the Society for Photographic Education and has made a significant contribution to the field of photographic education. Contributions to the field may be made through classroom teaching, writing, publishing, museum education or other areas of professional practice in photography. Another member of the society must nominate recipients and most awardees have spent at least 15 years in the field.

Peven will present the Honored Educator’s lecture at the meeting where he will discuss his and his students’ work. In conjunction with the meeting, the Baldwin Photographic Gallery in Murfreesboro will host a two-person exhibit featuring works by Peven and Huger Foote, the conference’s keynote speaker.

His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is collected by several public institutions including the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, the International Museum of Photography in New York City, the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Franklin Furnace Archive in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. He has received two Arkansas Arts Council Photographer’s Fellowships and fellowships from the Mid-America Arts Alliance and National Endowment for the Arts.

Peven joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 1977. He directs the photography program and teaches studio photography, the history of photography and bookmaking classes in the Department of Art. He received the Fulbright College Master Teacher Award and teaching grants and awards from the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy, the Wally Cordes Faculty Teaching and Support Center, Fulbright College and the Office of International Student Awards.