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Newest member of the art and art history faculty, a New York Times critic and essayist, hopes to forge a path between the creator and the analyst

For art students, it can feel like the pathway into a career should fall into one of two strictly separate categories: art maker or art historian.听

Starting in the spring of 2021, however, this divide will be challenged with the arrival of the University of Colorado Boulder鈥檚 newest art and art history听faculty member, Megan O鈥橤rady, who is also an art critic and essayist for The New York Times.

As an adolescent growing up in Kansas City, O鈥橤rady found herself influenced by the novels she read, and the art found in the museums of her childhood.听

One of the most profound early interactions she had with art occurred when she first saw photographer Carrie Mae Weems鈥� 鈥淜itchen Table Series,鈥� which depicts scenes from a woman鈥檚 life around the titular table: with her daughter, with her friends, with a lover, and finally alone, self-possessed and powerful.

Seeing Weems鈥� photography made O鈥橤rady realize that art was not restricted to the domain of the white, European male. For the first time, O鈥橤rady believed that art could reflect her own life and experiences.

鈥淭his is still more or less the same approach that I take when I look at art today,鈥� explains O鈥橤rady.

While attending New York University for her MA in literature and MFA in creative writing, O鈥橤rady鈥檚 views on art and writing were further challenged. In a class on craft taught by the American novelist E.L. Doctorow, she was pushed to look at an author鈥檚 work differently than in her literary theory classes, to consider its intent and craft.听

This sparked something in O鈥橤rady, who was also interested in art鈥檚 potential to challenge the way we see ourselves in the world, to connect us in an empathic way with another鈥檚 experience.

Taking this approach, O鈥橤rady decided that she wanted to write about art in a more intimate and experiential way, grounding her artist subjects in not only their personal biography but also a larger cultural context, 鈥渕oving from micro to macro, from detail shot to whole.鈥澨�

She has written many long-form artist profiles for The New York Times, including one on Weems鈥斺�渁 dream subject,鈥� she says鈥攁s well as Barbara Kruger, Frank Stella, Arthur Jafa, and the performance artist , who is known especially for his public interventions.听

In her time with Pope.L, it became clear that the artist鈥檚 drive to create was not fueled by a mystical bolt of creativity and inspiration, but rather by a deep-seated rage and shame鈥攁nd an urgent desire to call attention to our country鈥檚 deepening underclass.听

Along with the artist, O鈥橤rady traveled to Flint, Michigan, for a project that dealt with the area鈥檚 ongoing water crisis. It was during this trip that O鈥橤rady realized an artist profile could speak to much larger issues with very real stakes.听

In addition to her profiles and critical essays鈥攎ost recently, on Patricia Highsmith and the American fascination with impostors鈥擮鈥橤rady created a for T, The New York Times Style Magazine, titled Culture Therapy, which she now co-writes.听

An advice column that addresses readers鈥� problems through the prism of fine art, Culture Therapy can be seen as central to O鈥橤rady鈥檚 main thesis: that art can have a real impact on both our public and private lives and that it shouldn鈥檛 be presented as the domain of elite insiders. Recent installments have focused on the aftermath of loss, on how our sense of beauty changes as we age, and on the risk of having children in uncertain times.

O鈥橤rady鈥檚 work aims at the possibility of art writing to expand art鈥檚 impact across social boundaries. While her practice involves a heavy amount of scholarly research, it is her approach that makes her a creative in her own right.听

She was attracted to CU Boulder鈥檚 Department of Art and Art History because of the impressive colleagues on both the scholarly and art practice sides, she says. One might think of her, as a critic, as a kind of bridge between these two sides.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 so tough to be an artist at this time, in this country, where there is so much scrutiny of art, and yet so little public funding for it,鈥� says O鈥橤rady when asked about what it means to her to be teaching now.听

鈥淚 have so much admiration for artists and students who are able to forge ahead, to reflect and react, during this time鈥攖o make art in the midst of crisis, and when so many essential, long-overdue conversations are being had.鈥�

She hopes that she can support CU Boulder鈥檚 art and art history and journalism students by challenging them to bring more critical context into their creative practices and helping them create narratives around their work and others in courses such as arts or cultural reporting and criticism, which she will teach this fall.听

O鈥橤rady realizes that this can be an especially isolating time for students but is hopeful that she can help students feel connected to each other and to a larger art world.听

While much of O鈥橤rady鈥檚 work contends with socially engaged art and issues of representation, what she most wants her students to understand is that, above all, 鈥渢here are so many paths to the well, and you have to find your own.鈥�