Meet Peter Barr

Professor of Art History

Art Department Chair

Education

• PhD and MA in Art History from Boston University
• BPhil in Arts Administration from Penn State University

Recent Awards and Achievements

• City of Adrian Historic District Commission
• Adrian Historic District Study Commission
• Adrian Planning Commission
• Adrian Development Regulations Study Commission
• Sister Eileen K. Rice Award for Outstanding Teaching, 2006-07, recipient; 2005-06, nominee.
• Stimson-Tsuji Outstanding Faculty Research Award Winner, 2006.
• McNair mentorship travel grant for CAA Conference, Boston, 2006.
• Who’s Who in America 60th Edition 2006.
• Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (student nominated), 2003-2004, 2004-2005.
• Certificate of Special Recognition from Imagining Michigan for “19th-Century Adrian Architecture” (www.sienaheights.edu/personal./pbarr), 2005.
• Recent Exhibition
  • “Revisiting Adrian, 1907 & 2007,” a then-and-now project in collaboration with Dr. Jan Richardi featuring Amasa E. Metler’s 1907 photographs re-photographed in 2007 by Peter Barr, exhibited at the Lenawee County Historical Museum, Adrian, Michigan, June 2007+, and featured in From the Tower vol. xxx, no. 5 (June 2007), 3, 6-8; and weekly in the (Adrian) Daily Telegram since June, 2007.
• Recent Publications
  • “Five Styles of Architecture on Dennis Street” a worksheet and walking tour for 5th graders at Adrian Public School’s 5/6 Building, October 4, 2007.
  • “The Push and Pull of Christina West’s Ceramic Sculptures,” 2007/08 Clay in Art International Yearbook, forthcoming

Teaching Philosophy

"I attempt as much as possible to devise courses that ask students to participate in discussions about works of art; to visit regional museums; to act out works of art physically, for example: stand as a figure stands in Polykleitos's Spearbearer; to search for information about works of art and then to connect disparate bits of information into a written whole; to collaborate with each other; to read challenging essays by some of the key scholars in the field; to consider the subjectivity inherent in historical pursuits; to debate significant issues within the discipline of art history; and to think for themselves.  In these ways, my students not only learn about historical art, artists and their time periods, but also about the challenges and rewards of art historical research."