Dr. Heidi Kraus of the Hope College art faculty is one of a select group of faculty members nationwide chosen by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) to participate in a special week-long seminar on teaching European art in context.

Kraus, who is an assistant professor of art and director of the De Pree gallery, is among 21 faculty from around the country who will be participating in the seminar “Dutch Art, Patrons, and Markets,” which will take place at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Ga., on Sunday-Friday, June 23-28.

The seminar aims to strengthen the teaching of art history to undergraduates at smaller colleges and universities.  Catherine Scallen, chair of the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, will lead the program.

The seminar will be held in conjunction with an exhibition of rare traveling masterpieces of Dutch art featuring works by Vermeer, Hals and Rembrandt.  The exhibition, “Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis,” will be on view at the High Museum beginning in June.

Kraus joined the Hope faculty this past fall.  Her scholarly and teaching emphasis is on Modern and Contemporary art history.

She received her doctorate in 2010 from The University of Iowa, where her research focused on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French art and architecture.  She has published in “Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture,” published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, and recently co-curated an exhibition at The University of Iowa titled “Napoleon and the Art of Propaganda.”  In addition, she has presented her research at numerous conferences both in the United States and internationally, including the College Art Association Annual Conference and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Meeting.

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is an association of 645 nonprofit independent colleges and universities and more than 90 higher education organizations that has worked since 1956 to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public understanding of private higher education’s contributions to society. CIC is the major national organization that focuses on providing services to leaders of independent colleges and universities as well as conferences, seminars, and other programs that help institutions to improve the quality of education, administrative and financial performance, and institutional visibility. CIC also provides support to state fundraising associations that organize programs and generate contributions for private colleges and universities. The Council is headquartered at One Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.

The High Museum of Art was founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association and today is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States, with a membership base of over 50,000 that ranks it among the top 10 art museums in the nation. Located in Atlanta’s midtown arts and business district, the High has more than 12,000 works of art in its permanent collection, with holdings and curatorial positions in the following art disciplines: American, European, decorative arts and design, folk, modern and contemporary, and African. The European collection includes the Kress collection of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts.

More information about the seminar is available online at cic.edu/ArtHistory.