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Convocation features address by 1992 alumna Kimberly Masteller
John Glenn Gym

Muskingum University held its Convocation on August 31 in the Recreation Center on the campus, featuring an address by 1992 alumna Kimberly Masteller, the Jeanne McCray Beals Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

In her address to the faculty, staff and more than 500 new students, Ms. Mastellar said, “In an ever-changing world, you need a place of peace, and Muskingum is that place. Muskingum gave me the freedom to chart my own path, and it will do that for you. Cast your net wide, be active, question everything and seize the day.”

As the Jeanne McCray Beals Curator of South and Southeastern Asian Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Ms. Mastellar oversees an internationally-respected and historic collection of South and Southeastern Asian art, encompassing nearly 1,000 sculptures, paintings, and textiles. Through the reinstallation of the permanent collection and the creation of traveling exhibits, she provides museum visitors with the opportunity to experience art treasures from 2,000 years of world history and to gain a greater understanding of the cultural and political forces which have shaped the vast Asian region of the globe.

Ms. Masteller was previously Assistant Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Harvard University. She co-authored From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection (Yale University Press and the Harvard University Art Museums, 2004) and was co-curator of an acclaimed traveling exhibition featuring works from this renowned collection.

She is the recipient of prestigious fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the Social Science Research Council for study in India and is fluent in several languages.  She has taught art and art history at the Art Institute of Boston, Ohio University, The Ohio State University, Denison University, and the Pembroke Hill School (Kansas City, MO). She has published her work in an extensive array of catalogues, anthologies, and periodicals, and is a frequent guest lecturer, conference presenter, and peer reviewer. 

Ms. Masteller graduated from Muskingum in 1992, earning her Bachelor of Arts with a double major in art and English and minors in philosophy and biology. She holds a master’s degree in art history from Ohio University, with a major in Indian art and a minor in Italian renaissance art. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in the History of South Asian Art at The Ohio State University, she is completing her dissertation on Kalachuri Mandala: A Study of Temple Construction, Iconography, and Royal Identity in Central India. 

She and her husband, Donovan Dodrill, reside in Kansas City, Missouri with their daughter Lois Olivia.

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