1. Home
  2. People

Allison Rowe

Assistant Professor

Introduction

Allison V. Rowe, MFA, PhD, joined the University of Iowa in 2021 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Art Education and the Program Coordinator for the Art Education program. Rowe has taught art and art education for over fifteen years in formal and community organizations including Centennial College, Youth Arts Exchange, the Dovercourt Boys & Girls Club, and the Aga Khan Museum. Rowe earned her PhD from the University of Illinois in Art Education at Urbana Champaign in 2021 and her MFA in Social Practice from California College of the Arts in 2011. She is a practicing socially engaged artist and has shown her work across the United States and Canada at spaces such as the Powerplant Contemporary Art Gallery Toronto, ON, Outhaus, Urbana, IL, NURTUREart in Brooklyn, NY, and La Centrale in Montreal, QC. Rowe’s most recent research project on gallery-supported socially engaged art was supported by the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her research interests include community engaged art education, arts-based research, socially engaged art, and art integration.

Current Positions

  • Assistant Professor of Art Education

College of Education Affiliations

Education

  • PhD Art Education & Museum Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • MFA, Social Practice, California College of the Arts
  • BFA, Photography, Ryerson University

Selected Awards & Honors

  • Graduate Research Award, Art Education Research Institute. (2018)

Professional Memberships

  • National Art Education Association, 2015-present
  • American Alliance of Museums, 2018-present
  • College Art Association, 2010-present
  • Art Educators of Iowa, 2021-present
  • Iowa Alliance for Arts Education, 2021-present

Selected Publications

  • Bralower, A., & Rowe, A. (2019). Land Grant: Complicating Institutional Legacies. Shift: Graduate Journal of Visual and Material Culture: Blood and Earth and Soil, (11). Retrieved from https://shiftjournal.org/issue-11/bralower-rowe/
  • Rowe, A. & Spillane, S. (2019) Tag yourself: Relation as practice. Visual Arts Research. Vol. 45(1). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5406/visuartsrese.45.1.0001
  • Rowe, A. (2019). The Case for Antagonism in Socially Engaged, Arts-Based Research. Studies in Art Education. 60(3). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2019.1633511
  • Rowe, A. (2019). Ethnography, socially engaged art and a preponderance of dogs: A researcher’s attempt to get a new perspective. Social Forms of Art (SoFA) Journal: Vol. 2. Portland State University. Retrieved from http://psusocialpractice.org/ethnography-socially-engaged-art-and-a-preponderance-of-dogs/
  • Rowe, A. (2019). Postcards from Fort McMurray. Prefix Photo. Issue 40, “Tourism Ecologies”. Print only.
  • Rowe, A (2018.) "Socially Engaged Art at the Reimagined 21st Century Museum: An Emerging Conceptual Framework," Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers in Art Education: Vol. 2018, pp 1–17). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.17077/2326-7070.1511
  • Rowe, A. (2018). Everything is becoming something else. In D. Bohem (Ed.), “System Processing Exhibition Catalogue.” Jenison: Grand Valley State University.
  • Rowe, A. (2017). The Tar Sands Exploration Station: A Self-Directed Artist Residency. In S. Wilson & I. Szeman (Eds.), Petrocultures: Oil, Energy, Culture (Volume 1: Cultures of Oil, pp 489-506). Montreal, QC: McGill University Press.
  • Rowe, A., & Vogel, R. (2013). Writing as Socially Engaged Practice. In Broken City Lab (Ed.), 1W3KND: On Social Practice and Collaboration, 48 Hours at a Time (pp. 30–34). Windsor, ON: Broken City Lab.
  • Rowe, A. (2011). Landscape of a Boomtown. In R. Gomez, M. Pasternak, & C. Thornton (Eds.), The Guide to the New Universe (pp. 233–238). San Francisco, CA: Practice & Practice.

Selected Presentations

  • Rowe, A., Reconceptualizing Process as Research in Community Engaged Art. [Conference presentation] presented at the National Art Education Association Research Preconvention, New York, NY, USA. February 12, 2022.
  • Rowe, A., Nowacek, N., Sethi, S., Mackie, N., Arnall Parkos, J, & Chhangur, E., Public, community, and audience: labor and care in socially engaged art practices. [Conference Panel] presented at the College Art Association Annual Conference. Chicago, IL, USA February 12-15, 2020.
  • Rowe, A., Generating new knowledges through socially engaged art. [Conference presentation] presented at the Curriculum and Pedagogy Group Conference. Online. October 21-24, 2020.
  • Rowe, A. (2020) Three Pieces of Tinfoil. [Invitational presentation at event organized by Dr. Jorge Lucero] presented at What happens at the intersection of conceptual art and teaching? A Zoomposium. Online. August 15, 2020.
  • Rowe, A., Nowacek, N., Sethi, S., Mackie, N., & Arnall Parkos, J., What do you show when there’s nothing to show? Social practice and the gallery. [Conference Panel] presented at the College Art Association Annual Conference. New York, NY. USA.  February 13-16, 2019.
  • Rowe, A., Land Grant: Complicating Institutional Legacies. [Conference presentation on the panel “Radical Museums? Challenging Museums in the Current Moment”] presented at the Universities Art Association of Canada Conference, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. October 25-27, 2018.
  • Rowe, A., Method Follows Form: Studying Socially Engaged Art Using Ethnographic Case Study. [Conference presentation] presented at the Art Education Research Institute Symposium, Northern Illinois University, Naperville, IL, USA. September 13-15, 2018.
  • Hanley, A., Menders, J., & Rowe, A., Strengthening Communities: Native American Artists, Social Engagement and Museums. [Conference presentation] presented at Open Engagement: SUSTAINABILITY, Queen’s Museum, Queens, NY, USA. May 11-13, 2018.
  • Rowe, A., Art and Antagonism: Negotiating the ethics of discomfort in the classroom. [Conference presentation] presented at the National Art Education Association National Convention, Seattle, WA, USA. March 22-24, 2018.
  • Boehm, D., & Rowe, A.,       I Move Hearts and Large Objects. [Conference presentation] presentation at Open Engagement: Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. April 21 – 23, 2017.

Selected Grants & Contracts

  • Rowe, Allison V., Principal Applicant, “Travel Grant to Professionals in the Visual Arts”, Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts. (2011)
  • Rowe, Allison V., Principal Investigator, “Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship” Sponsored by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (April 11, 2017 – May 2, 2018)
  • Rowe, Allison V., Principal Applicant, “Individual Artist Grant for Emerging Artists”, Sponsored by the Toronto Arts Council. (2014)
  • Rowe, Allison V., Principal Applicant, “Project Grant for Emerging Artists”, Sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council. (2014)
  • Rowe, Allison V., Principal Investigator, “Doctoral Fellowship”, Sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. (May 1, 2016 – August 31, 2020)
  • Rowe, Allison V., Principal Applicant, “Exhibition Assistance Grant”, Sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council. (2013)     
  • Rowe, Allison V., Principal Applicant, “Exhibition Assistance Grant”, Sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council. (2012)