Laura M. Holzman is professor of art history and museum studies and public scholar of curatorial practices and visual art at Indiana University Indianapolis, where she is also chair of the Department of Art Education, Art History, and Art Therapy. As an internationally recognized specialist in engaged art history, she activates art, its history, and its institutions to strengthen communities, expand democratic discourse, and build a more equitable, sustainable, and critically reflective world. Holzman is the author of Contested Image: Defining Philadelphia for the 21st Century (2019), which analyzes public discourse, historical art, and the struggle to shape Philadelphia’s reputation during an important moment of change in the city. Her writing has also appeared in a range of outlets including academic journals such as Panorama and Public Art Dialogue; edited volumes; and Newsweek Japan.
With support from the IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship, Professor Holzman is developing a new book project. From the Feet to the Eyes: On Walking, Vision, and Place will examine how walking shapes the way we see, how seeing shapes the way we walk, and how walking and vision connect us with place. This project will weave together existing scholarship on walking, new analyses of how artists and others have sought to visually represent the experience of walking, and observations from Professor Holzman’s own embodied research methods of walking and drawing. The resulting book will feature a series of illustrated essays that blend text and image in ways that speak to the intense connections between walking, vision, embodiment, and place. It will address a variety of themes including urban and rural experiences, walking in pain, and the limitations of movement and vision. In addition to offering a new look at widespread practices, the project will model how both the process of research and the work that results from it can be vehicles for engaging more intentionally and meaningfully with the world around us.
The IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship will provide a crucial springboard for Holzman’s research by connecting her with an interdisciplinary cohort of fellows, by enabling her to work with expert interlocutors from outside of IU, and by providing a support structure for thinking big about and following through on this new book project.