Robert Bridges
Curator
Between 2000 and 2015, Robert Bridges organized more than 80 exhibitions in the Mesaros Galleries at WVU’s College of Creative Arts, among them "Ceramic Art from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute" and two national exhibitions featuring the work of American modernist Blanche Lazzell. Since the opening of the Art Museum in 2015, his curatorial projects have included "Shepard Fairey: Work Against the Clampdown" and "Paintings and Sculptures by Sally and Peter Saul," among others. Bridges is co-editor (along with Kristina Olson and Janet Snyder) of "Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work of An American Modernist" (WVU Press, 2004). He received his MFA in printmaking at WVU and previously worked as a curator in the private sector in Chicago.
Madelyn Brodie
Program Coordinator
Madelyn Brodie is the Art Museum’s part-time Program Coordinator for education and outreach. She received her MA in Art History from West Virginia University in 2022, her BFA and BA from West Virginia University in Painting and Art History in 2020, and served as the Jacknowitz Summer Intern at the Art Museum in 2022. In her position, Brodie hopes to create strong connections with schools and engage the community in meaningful visual art programming.
Andrea Eridani
Administrative Associate
Andrea Eridani joined the museum in October 2015 after a curatorial internship at a fine arts center in Lynchburg, Virginia, and administrative and customer support roles in healthcare at the University of Virginia and the WVU Research Corporation. An artist herself, she has exhibited in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia, and she has also volunteered for the Piedmont Council for the Arts in Charlottesville. She earned her BA in studio art from Sweet Briar College.
Heather Harris
Service Assistant Professor of Art History & Curator of Education
Heather Harris has worked in arts education in a wide variety of contexts, both nationally and internationally. Though her background is in drama education, she became interested in art museums while conducting her doctoral research, leading to her appointment as the education coordinator at Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois. At the Art Museum at WVU, she works to forge robust partnerships with K–12 schools, institutions of higher education, and the larger community through planning and implementing interactive programs and tours. Heather received her BA in 2004 from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, her MA in educational theatre from New York University, and her PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in curriculum and instruction.
Liza L. KirkAbel
Museum Facility Manager
A native of West Virginia, Liza L. KirkAbel has spent most of her career working in housing and residence life at colleges and universities in West Virginia. Her passion for the park system and the outdoors led her to complete the Seasonal Law Enforcement Training Program with the National Park Service, and she has worked as a park superintendent in southern West Virginia. She received a BS in recreation and tourism management from Concord University and an MA in tourism planning and development from California University of Pennsylvania.
Karen Louvar
Registrar
Karen Louvar started her museum career with the National Park Service and then spent eight years working in historic house museums. Originally from Ona, West Virginia, she earned her MA in critical and curatorial studies from the University of Louisville and her BA in arts administration from the University of Kentucky.
Todd J. Tubutis
Director
Todd J. Tubutis came to the Art Museum of WVU in February 2019 after three years as associate director of the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and six years as executive director of Blue Sky Gallery, a nonprofit venue in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to international contemporary photography. He is also a former exhibition project director at the Field Museum in Chicago. He has taught and conducted research in cultural and visual anthropology in the U.S., Canada, and Hungary, and has contributed articles and reviews to "Wisconsin Academy Review," "Visual Anthropology," "Exhibitionist," "Exposure," "Time Out Chicago," and the "Encyclopedia of Chicago". Tubutis holds an MA in anthropology from the University of British Columbia and a BA in anthropology and museum studies from Beloit College.