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the philosophy and methodology of aesthetic education under Voorhees’ direction. As director of Arts Are Basic Voorhees has worked collaboratively with every Lincoln Public School seventh grade teacher and student in collaboration with the LPS curriculum consultants to create a language arts/social studies curriculum module that will help students develop the concept of culture. She also served as the Co-Principal Investigator in the research project to understand how preschool children develop visual spatial intelligence. One major initiative included the development of a core curriculum-supporting arts education program in the most rural schools in central and western Nebraska, which is now in its 12th year. During her 15 years as AAB Director, Voorhees was the recipient or co-recipient of grants in excess of $1,000,000. Since her retirement in September 2003, she has served as an arts ed consultant to the William Inge Festival in Independence, Kan. and is the Education Director for the Venice Opera Guild, a support organization for the Sarasota Opera. JOSEPH RUFFO Joseph M. Ruffo, Chairman and Professor of Art in the Department of Art and Art History since 1984, retired last Fall. His tenure at UNL is filled with numerous accomplishments. “I think what I’m most proud of is the group of faculty we have put together here,” Ruffo said. “They are hard-working, creative and excellent researchers.” Other accomplishments during his tenure include rebuilding the art and art history curriculum, receiving National Association of Schools of Art and Design accreditation, the renDAVEovation of Richards Hall and bringing the faculty together to create the Visual Literacy READprogram. He is also proud to have established a departmental gallery [which is now the Eisentrager•Howard Gallery] to house the department’s own academic exhibitions. Ruffo received his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and his BFA from the Pratt Institute. Most of his higher education career has been spent in administration. Prior to UNL, Ruffo served as Head and Professor of Art in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa from 1976-1984 and also worked at Barry University in Miami, where he was Chairman of the Division of Fine Arts and Chairman of the Department of Art; Florida Memorial College in Miami, where he was the Coordinator of the Department of Art; and the Memphis College of Art in Memphis, Tenn., where he was the Coordinator of the Department of Graphic Arts and Printmaking. DAVE READ Dave Read, who began teaching photography at UNL in 1978, retired at the end of the academic year. Read received his BFA and MFA from Ohio University in Athens. Prior to UNL, he was an Associate Professor of Art at Miami-Dade Community College-South in Miami and a Lecturer in mass communications at the University of Miami. His exhibitions include “Napooli” at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 2002 and “Family Pictures” at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 2001. In 1996 he received a University of Nebraska Research Grant of $3,500 for “Photography in Maine.” In 1994, he was an Honored Educator at the Midwest Regional Conference of the Society for Photographic Education. His collections include the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the Photographic Archives of the University of Louisville in Louisville, Ky.; and the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden.
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JOSEPH RUFFO