The University of Arkansas Department of Art is pleased to announce the Visiting Artist Lecture by Peg Speirs. The lecture will take place at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Hillside Auditorium, room 206.

Peg Speirs, Ph.D., is a professor of art education in the Department of Art Education & Crafts at Kutztown University. From 2008-2011, as well as in 2016, Speirs served as interim associate dean in the College of Visual & Performing Arts at KU. In addition, she continues working with the Early Intervention Program to support student retention in the college. Her areas of interest include feminist art, theory and pedagogy; issues-based art education; and digital narrative/storytelling.

Speirs co-edited the text, Contemporary Issues in Art Education, and her other publications include various co-authored articles, chapters and an essay on teaching art for social justice, art and ritual, and a national study investigating curricular influences of new art teachers. In addition, Speirs co-authored the The Dinner Party Curriculum Project, an on-line resource for K-12 teachers. Speirs is an artist, curator, and co-owner of Gallery 908 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Morgan's Retreat, a creative research community under development in Kensington, Ohio.

As an artist, Speirs' current work involves the use of video as a means to explore and raise awareness of social justice issues. Her videos include the personal and social narratives of children and adolescents related to their independent creative expression. In addition, Speirs' educational videos address subjects that often dissolve traditional boundaries of art and creative expression. The presentation at the University of Arkansas will share Speirs most recent video on the art of tattoo, specifically uncovering the role of women in tattoo history and providing examples of current practices. The video is the culmination of a 2½ year research project that offers new narratives that disrupt the assumptions surrounding western interpretations of tattoo.

The McIlroy Family Visiting Professorship in Performing and Visual Arts, established in 2005 through the philanthropy of Hayden and Mary Joe McIlroy and the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, supports the teaching and work of a professional artist who imparts highly specialized knowledge essential to students' artistic, educational, and career enrichment and valuable to the community at large.

All visiting artist and scholar lectures are free and open to the public. The Department of Art, as well as the Joy Pratt Endowment Fund, provides additional support for the Visiting Artist/Scholar Series.