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IU Professor Bruce Cole confirmed as next leader of National Endowment for the Humanities
Sept. 17, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Bruce M. Cole, Distinguished Professor in the Henry Hope School of Fine Arts at IU Bloomington, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate 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 NEH, during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.
"I am doubly honored to have been nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate," Cole said today (Sept. 17). "Working with the members and staff of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions during the confirmation process was a gratifying experience. I am eager to participate in the Endowment's vital work of the study, preservation and dissemination of the humanities to all our citizens.
"As a recipient of an NEH grant, as a panelist in the NEH grants review process, and as a member of the National Council on the Humanities, I was continually impressed by the excellence and dedication of the Endowment's staff. I look forward to working with these fine colleagues in Washington."
IU President Myles Brand congratulated Cole and said his appointment speaks volumes about the role which IU Bloomington faculty play in academic affairs nationally.
"It's good news that Dr. Cole has been confirmed as chairman of the NEH. He's an outstanding representative of the quality of IU's faculty and of our tradition of leadership in the arts and humanities," Brand said. "The endowment has important work to do, and I'm sure Dr. Cole will do an excellent job leading it."
Cole is 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 Institut 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 12 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.
(Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)