Purchase, NY (June 16) -- A Purchase College - SUNY professor has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant.
Sharon Horvath, a painter and associate professor of painting and drawing at Purchase College, received a Fulbright U.S Scholar Grant to India for the 2013-2014 academic year. One of a select number of U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through this program, Horvath will head to India in December and continue there to teach and study through March 2014. She will be affiliated with M.S. University in Baroda and the Kriti Gallery Residency in Varanasi, India.While in India,
Horvarth will conduct research on the Ragamala genre of Indian miniature paintings and create a new body of work on paper adapting traditional miniature painting techniques. Ragamala (which means “Garland of Melodies) is a tradition of miniature painting intended as a visual manifestation of music and poetry that purportedly translates the emotions of particular Indian classical Ragas melodies into intensely colored pictorial compositions. Their erotic subject matter was understood as metaphor for the yearning that characterized the relationship between the human and divine in the realm of Hindu spirituality.
“My goal while in India is to change, to transform my work in unforeseen ways, to be inspired,” Horvath said. “I hope to create a basis for a new body of work based on my experiences and to exhibit upon return.”
A resident of Ridgewood, Queens, Horvath is in her seventh year at Purchase College and has headed the Painting and Drawing Board of Study in the college’s School of Art+Design for the past three years.
About the Fulbright Program: The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given approximately 310,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
About Purchase College–SUNY: Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspirations for Purchase were to combine on one campus conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences. Today, Purchase College–SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu
