Profile
Jeffrey Abt
313-993-6785
ad5565@wayne.edu
3118 Old Main
Biography
Jeffrey Abt received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from DrakeUniversity and studied at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. He first went into curatorial and exhibitions work at the Wichita Art Museum, then in the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago, and finally at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, before coming to Wayne State University where he is an Associate Professor in Painting and Drawing. He has exhibited his artwork throughout the United States and abroad, and his paintings and drawings are in the permanent collections of several museums including the Des MoinesArtCenter, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, as well as several private institutional collections including Dow Automotive, Polk Technologies, and the Federal Reserve Bank.
Abt is also a writer, his most recent publications focusing on museum history and criticism. His book, A Museum on the Verge: A Socioeconomic History of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1882-2000, published by Wayne State University Press, received the 2002 Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan. His most recent essays appeared in A Companion to Museum Studies, published by Blackwells in the United Kingdom 2006, and Curator: A Museum Journal, 2009. Abt’s next book, tentatively titled: AmericanEgyptologist: James Henry Breasted and His Oriental Institute, is under contract with the University of Chicago Press and projected for publication in 2009.
Abt teaches regularly scheduled courses at the undergraduate level in Drawing and Painting, accepts directed study proposals from undergraduates, as well as supervises Undergraduate Research Program projects. He periodically teaches the Senior Seminar in the Visual Arts and he is also an active adviser and review committee member in the graduate program.
Abt is also a writer, his most recent publications focusing on museum history and criticism. His book, A Museum on the Verge: A Socioeconomic History of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1882-2000, published by Wayne State University Press, received the 2002 Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan. His most recent essays appeared in A Companion to Museum Studies, published by Blackwells in the United Kingdom 2006, and Curator: A Museum Journal, 2009. Abt’s next book, tentatively titled: AmericanEgyptologist: James Henry Breasted and His Oriental Institute, is under contract with the University of Chicago Press and projected for publication in 2009.
Abt teaches regularly scheduled courses at the undergraduate level in Drawing and Painting, accepts directed study proposals from undergraduates, as well as supervises Undergraduate Research Program projects. He periodically teaches the Senior Seminar in the Visual Arts and he is also an active adviser and review committee member in the graduate program.
Office hours
2:15 - 2:45 p.m, Tuesday & Thursday
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