CCSU Professors

Cora Marshall -
Dr. Cora Marshall Earns Higher Education Art Educator Award

Dr. Cora Marshall, CCSU associate professor of art, has been presented with the 2004 Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator Award by the Connecticut Art Education Association. “We are very proud of Dr. Marshall’s hard work and dedication to our students,” states Dr. Susan Pease, dean, School of Arts and Sciences, at CCSU.

Centered in spirituality,” says Dr. Marshall, “I create work that seeks out the connections to and lessons from my past. By mixing symbols and meaning, by affirming the potency of the spirits, by honoring the holy, I extend an invitation to contemplate the significance and depth of the power within. Currently, I am working in and across the medium of painting, photography, and video to find those intersections and crossroads where the spirits dwell. In so doing, I hope to further understand and establish a relationship with that which has gone before me.”

Early in her career, Marshall realized that “something needed to be done with technology and art.” As a high school art teacher, she saw that students were interested in video, and her interest in technology and art began to grow. Seeing a need for a technology-focused curriculum, Marshall joined the CCSU Art Department and began to explore ways to bring the intersection of art and technology into the classroom.

Marshall says that “she thought about what it is that teachers need,” and the course therefore incorporates video, photography, computer, elementary and high school graphic art programs, PowerPoint presentations and grading. Marshall also mentions that she used technology in her artwork, such as digital sketching and polymer transfers.

As a scholar, her current research interest focuses on contemporary African American artists, in particular, Black women artists (African/African-Native women artists). She has presented at numerous professional venues, including the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Cornell University, Columbia University Teachers College in New York, the College Art Association, Connecticut Art Education Association, and Southern Connecticut State University. In the spring of 2000, her article on Jean-Michele Basquiat was published in the International Review of African American Art.

Marshall earned her B.F.A. from Howard University, a M.S. in Education from Bank Street College of Education with Parsons School of Design, and her doctorate in art from New York University. Currently, Marshall teaches research, theory, and practice in art education, as well as classes in mixed media art and educational technology at CCSU.

— Sheila Guillaume