American Art and Architectural History
PhD
Boston University
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Faculty
Faculty
Melanee C. Harvey, Ph.D. (She/her)
Associate Professor & Coordinator of Art History
Department/Office
- Art Department
School/College
- College of Fine Arts
Biography
Melanee C. Harvey is associate professor of art history in the Department of Art in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. She earned a BA from Spelman College and pursued graduate study at Boston University where she received her MA and PhD in American Art and Architectural History. In addition to serving as coordinator for the art history area of study, she has served as programming chair for the James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora at Howard University since 2016. She has published on architectural iconography in African American art, Black Arts Movement artists, religious art of Black liberation theology and ecowomanist art practices. During the 2020-2021 academic year, Melanee was in residence as the Paul Mellon Guest Scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. She is currently writing her first book entitled, Patterns of Permanence: African Methodist Episcopal Architecture and Visual Culture.
Education & Expertise
Education
American Art and Architectural History
MA
Boston University
BA
Spelman College
Expertise
Research Interests
American art and architecture; art of the African Diaspora; American photography; Black religious visual culture
Academics
Academics
Undergraduate
Art Appreciation (ARTH 161)
Black Art and Culture (ARTH 163)
Internship in Art History (ARTH 168)
Topics in Art Criticism (ARTH 167)
African American Art I (ARTH 178)
African American Art II (ARTH 179)
Research in Art History I (ARTH 181)
Research in Art History II (ARTH 182)
Trends and Ideas in African American Art (ARTH 189)
Black Women in Visual Culture (ARTH 195)
Contemporary Art (ARTH 197)
Graduate
Black Women in Visual Culture (ARHI 200)
African American Art I (ARHI 286)
Trends and Ideas in African American Art (ARHI 278)
Contemporary Art (ARHI 312)
Accomplishments
Accomplishments
2020-2021 Paul Mellon Guest Scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington. DC.
Related Articles
Works-In-Progress
Books
Patterns of Permanence: African Methodist Episcopal Architecture and Visual Culture (Book Manuscript in Progress).
Book Chapters and Exhibition Catalog Essays
“Benny Andrews: Critically Constructing the American Figure,” Unforgettable: American Artists Reconsidered, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2023).
“Afro-American Images: 1971 as Evidence: Charting Mid-Century African American Artists Networks,” Afro-American Images 1971: The Vision of Percy Ricks, Margaret Winslow, ed. (Delaware Art Museum, October 2021).
“Alma Thomas & St. Luke’s Episcopal Church,” Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful, Seth Feman and Jonathan Waltz, eds. (The Columbus Museum of Art, The Columbus Museum of Art, July 2021).
“People, Places and the Spirit World: Suzanne Jackson's Ecowomanist Art Practice,” Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades, Rachel Reese Ed. (Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA, October 2019).
“‘AfriCOBRA is a Continuum’: the 50 Year Legacy of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists,” AfriCOBRA: Evolution of a Movement, (Baltimore: Galerie Myrtis, September 2018)
“James Phillips: A Retrospective,” James Phillips: Swirling Complexity into Culture, (College Park: University of Maryland College Park Art Galleries, 2017). <https://issuu.com/umucachiever/docs/james_phillips_catalog_2017>.
“Black Power and Black Madonna: Charting the Aesthetic Influence of Rev. Albert Cleage, Glanton Dowdell & the Shrine of the Black Madonna, #1,”Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr. and of the Black Madonna and Child, Jawanza Clark, editor, (New York: Palgrave McMillian, 2016).
Journal Publications
“Larry W. Cook” Contact Sheet, Light Work Annual 2021, 208 (New York: Light Work, summer 2022).
“Object Lesson: Aaron Douglas’s Building More Stately Mansions,” commissioned by Manual 14 Fall/Winter 2020, 23-35.
“Preserving the Will to Adorn: African American Stained Glass Art Traditions,” International Review of African American Art, Vol. 29, No. 3, Spring 2020.
“Constructing and Circulating Black Madonnas as Black Power: Charting the Aesthetic and Cultural Influence of Shrine of the Black Madonna, #1.” Black Theology Papers Project, 2(1), Nov 2019. <https://doi.org/10.7916/btpp.v2i1.3853>.
“The Rhythmic Synergy of James Phillips: Assessing a Legacy of Black Collective Art Practice,” International Review of African American Art, Fall 2018.
“Biography: Jeff Donaldson,” Callaloo, Vol 40, Art 2017.
“Who I Am and Why: Faith Ringgold & A Multi-Generational History of Artistic Creation,” International Review of African American Art Plus, Oct. 2013 <http://iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu/page/Who-I-Am-and-Why>.