Dr. John Hutton, associate professor of Art at Salem College, is one of 20 art historians from across the United States accepted for a prestigious seminar offered by the Council of Independent Colleges. Nominated for the seminar last fall, Dr. Hutton will travel to Chicago this summer to participate in an intensive study, entitled “The Uses of Antiquity: A Seminar on Using Pre-Modern European Art in Context.”

This seminar will take place at the Smart Museum of Art and will be led by Rebecca Zorach, a distinguished art history professor at the University of Chicago. Participants will have hands-on experience with the collection at the Smart Museum, as well as pay visits to other local sights, including the Oriental Institute and assorted building and murals in town.

“I have a personal as well as professional interest in ancient art and its survival in later periods. I am equally interested in the pedagogical approaches that will be used to cover the material in the seminar… I would love to be able to share what I learn with my undergraduate students at Salem College,” Hutton wrote as part of the nomination process.

John Hutton has been a faculty member at Salem College for the past twenty-two years and has contributed to the Salem community with his popular children’s book series, Sister Maus. The first book in the series, Sister Maus – A Small Tale of Sisters House in Salem, was released in 2006 and tells the tale of a small mouse living in the Single Sisters House of the historic Moravian settlement of Salem. After the popularity of Sister Maus, Hutton went on to write and illustrate three more stories for the series. Sister Maus is beloved on campus and in the Winston-Salem community and has recently reached audiences as far away as Tunisia. Hutton has also contributed illustrations for various storybooks as well as for the White House Historical Association. Painting styles adopted by Hutton include portrait, still life, and landscape.

“Given Salem’s demand for teaching excellence and innovation, Dr. Hutton is eager to learn about new pedagogies to improve what he does in his classroom,” said Dean of Salem College Susan Calovini. “As he studies alongside other hand picked participants, Hutton will not only discover strategies to make art more approachable in the classroom, but also integral ways to share Salem’s resources with the local community. We congratulate Dr. Hutton on this exciting achievement and look forward to seeing the seminar’s teachings in action.”

Published on February 3, 2014