Dr. Christina Smylitopoulos, a professor of art history in the College of Arts, has been named the Ontario Art Education Association’s Post-Secondary Art Educator of the Year for 2023.
“This is a true honour,” said Smylitopoulos, who teaches in the School of Fine Art and Music. “It is a privilege to contribute to University of Guelph excellence by sharing art history’s tools and methodologies with our students, colleagues and communities on and beyond campus.”
“I am grateful for the leadership provided by the OAEA, which advances arts education in the province by providing invaluable support for the work we do,” she said. “The quality and commitment of our students inspire the work that has led to this acknowledgement and so I am doubly honoured to be named the OAEA Post-Secondary Art Educator of the Year.”
An award-winning researcher, Smylitopoulos specializes in 18th-century art and visual culture examining British graphic satire and extended practices of art collections. Among her research interests are the European Age of Exploration and the Enlightenment as well as the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Her students explore the High Renaissance, the Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism and Romanticism along with approaches to artistic production that complicate or defy stylistic categorizations.
Her research examines critical responses to contentious change in the late 18th century, how the aesthetics of graphic satire influenced the development of modern art and how skills in visual observation can be improved by engaging with works in art collections.
Smylitopoulos was the recipient of the University of Guelph Faculty Association Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2019 and a College of Arts Teaching Excellence Award in 2014.
The Ontario Art Education Association is a non-profit organization that provides leadership in the development and support of visual arts and media arts education in the province. It is dedicated to the promotion of exemplary, equitable and current visual and media art practices and learning at all levels in public education, independent schools and teacher education programs.
The award will be presented during a virtual ceremony via Zoom on Nov. 21.
