Join us Tuesday, October 1, at 6 pm, for a Dunkerley Dialogue with artists Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman, whose works are on view in the exhibition Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld, and professors Heather Hurst, Associate Chair and Professor of Anthropology, and AJ Schneller, Associate Director and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Sciences.

Dunkerley Dialogues pair Skidmore professors with artists in a conversation format, which is often a catalyst for new connections and understandings across disciplines, and can spark new ideas for all participants. Dunkerley Dialogues are made possible by a generous gift from Michele Dunkerley ’80.

This Dunkerley Dialogue is co-presented with the American Federation of Arts, who organized the exhibition.

This event is free and open to the public. The program will include ASL interpretation.

About the Speakers

Mark Dion is a conceptual artist whose works have been shown at numerous institutions, including the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018), the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2017), and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004), among others. His awards include the ninth annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award (2001), The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2007), and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lucida Art Award (2008). He has created large-scale public projects internationally, including at Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany, and at the Bienal de Montevideo in Uruguay. He is a graduate of the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, the School of Visual Arts, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He is currently the co-director of Mildred’s Lane, an innovative visual art education and residency program in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania.

Alexis Rockman is a cinematic oil painter who has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2022), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2010), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (1990). His work is held in numerous collections, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is the recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (1987) and Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence (2008) awards. Rockman is a graduate of the Art Students League, Rhode Island School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts, New York.

Heather Hurst, PhD, specializes in Mesoamerican archaeology with a focus on the study of art production, iconography, materials analysis, identity, and the role of art in society. She has ongoing fieldwork on Maya mural painting in Guatemala, as well as research on Olmec rock art in Mexico. Her publications and illustrated volumes include The Murals of San Bartolo, and The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak. She collaborates with chemists, conservators, and epigraphers, resulting in recent articles including, “An Early Maya Calendar Record from San Bartolo, Guatemala,” “Strategies for 14C Dating the Oxtotitlán Cave Paintings, Guerrero, Mexico,” and “Maya Codex Book Production and the Politics of Expertise.” She earned her doctorate in Anthropology from Yale University and is currently holds the Courtney & Stephen Ross Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies at Skidmore College.

AJ Schneller, PhD, has been a Skidmore College Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies and Sciences Department since 2012, where he is also the Associate Director. His research sites include Baja California Sur, Mexico; Belize; Costa Rica; and Upstate New York. Schneller explores topics such as community outcomes and perceptions of environmental muralism; experiential environmental education; service learning and voluntourism; civil society access to decision-making in developing nations and environmental justice communities; and innovative approaches to environmental communication to promote marine protection and public lands ecosystem restoration efforts. Selected publications include: “For-profit environmental voluntourism in Costa Rica: Teen volunteer, host community, and environmental outcomes” in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism; “Environmental Art in the Hudson River Watershed: Outcomes of Place-Based Experiential Environmental Education” in the journal Applied Environmental Education and Communication; and “Imaging conservation: Sea turtle murals and their effect on community pro-environmental attitudes in Baja California Sur, Mexico” in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management.

About the American Federation of Arts

The American Federation of Arts is the leader in traveling exhibitions internationally. A nonprofit organization founded in 1909, the AFA is dedicated to enriching the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts through organizing and touring art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishing exhibition catalogues featuring important scholarly research, and developing educational programs.