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University praises President Bush's selection of Cole to head National Endowment for the Humanities
June 1, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The administration of President George W. Bush continues to turn to Indiana University to fill key positions, which attests to the strength and reputation of the university's faculty.
In addition to naming two IU alumni to his cabinet, Bush now has tapped Bruce M. Cole, Distinguished Professor in the Henry Hope School of Fine Arts at IU Bloomington, to serve as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
A highly regarded art historian, Cole previously served on the National Council on the Humanities, the advisory board to the NEH, during the administration of the president's father, George H. W. Bush.
"I congratulate Professor Bruce Cole on his nomination by President Bush to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities," said IU President Myles Brand. "We are proud that a scholar from Indiana University has been nominated for this esteemed position. Professor Cole's nomination confirms the longstanding leadership role that the IU Bloomington faculty play in academic affairs nationally."
Cole, once confirmed, will be the second person with IU ties in three years to head a major federal organization in the arts and humanities. William J. Ivey, an IU alumnus, has been chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts since May 1998.
Also, in January, President Clinton appointed Henry H. Glassie, College Professor of Folklore and acting chair of IU's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, to the National Council on the Humanities.
Cole received his Ph.D. degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1969. For two years he was the William E. Suida Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institiut in Florence. He also has had fellowships and grants from, among others, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Kress Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Aside from many journal articles, Cole has published twelve books. Mainly devoted to the art of the Italian Renaissance, these include both scholarly monographs and surveys aimed at the student and general reader. Recently, some of Cole's articles, reviews and lectures were collected in a volume, Studies in Italian Art 1250-1550.
A member of the IU faculty since 1973, Cole is a member of the Academia Senese degli Intronati, the oldest learned society in Europe, and a member of the Honorary Board of Directors of the American Friends of Florentine Museums.
(Susan Dillman, 812-855-0850, pager 812-334-6377, sdillman@indiana.edu)