Samantha DiRosa
Professor of Art and Environmental Studies and Chair of the Art Department
Department: Art
Email: sdirosa@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-5643
Brief Biography
Website: www.melancholyobjects.org
Professor Samantha DiRosa's intermedia-based work critically explores subjects ranging from Meg Ryan romantic comedies to the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Her work has been exhibited widely, and includes solo and group exhibitions at Washington Project for the Arts (Washington, DC), The Torpedo Factory (Alexandria, VA), Portland Art Center (Portland, OR), Keki Gallery (Budapest, Hungary), 1078 Gallery (Chico, CA), TIXE Artspace (New York, NY), Manifest Creative Research Gallery (Cincinnati, OH), CEPA (Buffalo, NY) and Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art (Fort Collins, CO).
Samantha DiRosa's teaching embodies a holistic intermedia approach, where processual, theoretical, cultural, and technical inquiries are interwoven. Joining Elon University in 2007, DiRosa teaches a variety of courses in the realm of Time-Based media, Environmental Art, Visual Culture Studies, and the Expressive Arts. Also a secondary faculty member of the Environmental Studies Department, in 2008 Professor DiRosa was named a Sustainability Scholar, and in 2010 she was named a Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Scholar for her research project (Un)common Partnerships for a Common Purpose: Focusing on Art/Science Relationships in the Study of Environmental Art. From 2017 – 2021 she served as Elon's Faculty Fellow for Sustainability.
Professor DiRosa's evolving professional interests are at the intersections of sustainability and mental health, looking specifically at eco-anxiety and eco-grief, and how the arts can serve the healing of personal and collective trauma. With professional training in expressive arts therapy, her current creative path is taking her outside the gallery to work with groups in reclaiming the lost art of community grief-tending.
News & Notes
Education
2019-2021
Post Master's Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
2003
Master of Fine Arts – Visual Design University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
2002
Master of Fine Arts – Photography University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
1998
Bachelor of Fine Arts – Photography Long Island University, Southampton, NY Summa Cum Laude
Employment History
2021-present
Elon University
Professor of Art; secondary appointment in Environmental Studies
2011-2021
Elon University
Associate Professor of Art; secondary appointment in Environmental Studies
2007-2011
Elon University
Assistant Professor of Art
2003-2007
Washington State University
Assistant Professor of Video, Photography, and Digital Art
Courses Taught
ART 273 Art as Therapeutic Process
ART 114 Time Arts
ART 339 Eco-Art
ART 260 Introduction to Photography and Intermedia
ART 362 Video Art and Expanded Cinema
ART 462 Advanced Projects in Video Art and Expanded Cinema
ART 272 Video Art
GST/WG 344 The Camera Eye, The Camera I
Leadership Positions
Faculty Fellow for Sustainability, Elon University
Grants Awarded
2019
CATL Teaching and Learning Grant for Employing Expressive Arts Therapy Techniques to Bolster Student Resilience and Well-Being $4000 Elon University
2018-
CATL Travel Grant for ‘Entering the Healing Ground’ Professional Development Workshop $700 Elon University
2017
Project Support Grant $1225 ArtsGreensboro, Greensboro, NC
Faculty Research and Development Summer Fellowship Elon University, Elon, NC
2014
Faculty Research and Development Reassigned Time Fall semester 2014 Elon University
2013
Faculty Research and Development Sabbatical Spring semester 2013 $2500 research funding Elon University
2012
Fund for Excellence Grant for The Living Studio $3350 Elon University
Faculty Research and Development Summer Fellowship $8000 stipend $4450 research funding Elon University
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Grant for The Living Studio $2000 Elon University
2011
Associate Provost Special Grant forElegies from the Medical Terminology Study Card Series $7150 Elon University
2007
VPLAC Grant for the project In(n) and Out of Nowhere $500 Washington State University, Pullman, WA
2006
Program Excellence Scholarship $1500 Anderson Art Ranch, Snowmass Village, CO
2005
College of Liberal Arts Initiation and Completion Grant $2000 Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Publications
2022
Ecoart Network, “The Inventory of Obstacles and Concerns.” Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities. New Village Press, New York.
Selected exhibitions/screenings:
2020
Expressive Arts 35th Anniversary Exhibition Turchin Center for the Arts, Appalachian State university, Boone, NC
2019
UN/Sustainable Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Faculty Biennial Elon University, Elon, NC
2017
Gaze Brooklyn Art Cluster, Brooklyn, NY
Utopia/Dystopia Gallery 2, Washington State University, Pullman WA
Alone Live performance/video, Greensboro Project Space, Greensboro, NC
Outlau Single channel video/live music performance, The Carrack Modern Art, Durham, NC; Greensboro
Project Space, Greensboro
If I’m Lost - Now Single channel video/live music performance at Baldwin Auditorium, Duke University,
Durham, NC
Ricochet Single channel video/live music performance at Greensboro Performance Space, Greensboro,
NC
Faculty Biennial Elon University, Elon, NC
2016
Elegy Living Arts, Tulsa, OK (solo exhibition)
Lightweight Weave Shed Gallery, Hambidge Art Center, Rabun Gap, GA
Ricochet Single channel video/live music performance at ProMusica, Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC
The Greensboro Grapevine Scuppernong Books, Greensboro, NC
2015
Outlau Single channel video/live music performance; European performance at: Fondation des Etats-Unis,
Paris, France
Ricochet and If I’m Lost - Now European performances at: World Saxophone Congress, Strasbourg,
France; Fondation des Etats-Unis, Paris, France
Ricochet and If I’m Lost - Now Part of STACKS DVD release tour. Performances at: University of North
Carolina Greensboro; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Westminster Academy, FL; Georgia State
University; University of North Florida; University of Florida; University of Central Florida; Stetson
University, FL; University of Miami, FL
Faculty Biennial Elon University, Elon, NC
2014
Ricochet Single-channel videos/live music performances, North American Saxaphone Alliance conference,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
If I’m Lost - Now Single-channel videos/live music performance, University of North Carolina Greensboro
2013
Reflections Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA (Juried)
Ricochet Single-channel video/live music performance, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University
of North Carolina Greensboro, University of West Virginia, University of South Carolina, University of
Georgia, Georgia Southern University, Columbus State University, and Middle Tennessee State University
Faculty Biennial Elon University, Elon, NC
2012
Palimpsest Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC
Watered Down K Space Contemporary, Corpus Cristi, TX
Flora/Fauna Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs, Hot Springs, AK
Biotic Semiotics Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI
2011
Faculty Biennial Elon University, Elon, NC
2010
Photos With Words Vermont Photography Workplace, Middlebury, VT
Focal_Resolution-1 Climate Gallery, Long Island City, NY
Going Digital Foreman Gallery, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY
Desire Line Site-specific work at The Lama Foundation, San Cristobal, NM
2009
Ritual and Repetition CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2008
Gathered Bodies Riley Photographic Gallery, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
2007
Salt, Silver, Wax, Earth Arts West Gallery, Elon University, Elon, NC
Notturno New Music Festival, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
Mapping Meg Ryan Light and Sound Gallery, Portland Art Center, Portland, OR
Mapping Meg Ryan Prichard Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Data Poïesis Anderson Art Ranch, Snowmass Village, CO
Magnitude 7 Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
Ritual and Repetition Richmond Center Galleries, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Notturno Festival of Contemporary Art Music, Pullman, WA
2006
Mourning Lightness 1078 Gallery, Chico, CA
Mutual.ities Focal Point Gallery, Minnesota State University, Moorhead, MN
Signals from/about Central-Europe II Keki Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Reasonable/Unreasonable: A New Normalizing Discourse Ouch My Eye, Seattle, WA
Loop Sanctuary III, Dreams in Bursts Video Festival The Chapel and Cultural Center at Rensselaer, Troy, NY
Being in Body Dee Shaw Gallery, Weber State University, Ogden, UT
Special Projects:
The Living Studio Site-specific collaborative building project to turn a vintage Lord and Burnham greenhouse into an environmental/installation art project space; with Robert Charest, Michael Fels and Matthew Jelacic at Elon University, Elon, NC
Arts West Victory Garden Site-specific urban garden/”all life” community space; collaboration with Elon Art and Environmental Studies students, Elon, NC
2007
In(n) and Out of Nowhere Community public art project with 10 regional NW artists Cougarland Motel, Pullman, WA Curator)
Presentations
2018
“The Role of Contemplative Practices in Fostering Art/Science Partnerships in the Study of Environmental
Art” Panel: Studio Art in Environmental Studies Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences,
American University, Washington DC
2017
“Permaculture Meets Mid-Century Modern Landscape Design” Yestermorrow Design Build School,
Waitsfield, VT
2016
Visiting Artist/Scholar, Renewable Energy and Environmental Design program Green Mountain College,
Poultney, VT
“Elegy” Artist talk, Living Arts, Tulsa, OK
2013
“At the Intersection of Art, Environment, and Contemplative Practice” Panel: Contemplative Pedagogy and
the Lama Experience;Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences Annual conference: Linking
Rural & Urban Societies & Ecologies, Pittsburgh
2012
“Poignant Actions” Sustainability and the Arts Symposium, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
2011
“At the Intersection of Art and Contemplative Practice” Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, National Conference, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
“The Role of Contemplative Practices in Fostering Art/Science Partnerships in Ecological Art Projects” Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, NW Regional Conference, Whidbey Island, WA
2010
“Agency, Mobility, and the Filmic Experience” International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Annual Conference, Liverpool, UK
“Gathering Dust: Sediment/Sentiment” Geo-Aesthetics in the Anthropocene Conference, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD
“Mapping Meg Ryan” Panel: Borders, Boundaries, and Places Inbetween SURF, Elon University, Elon, NC
2009
“Agency, Mobility, and the Filmic Experience” Panel: More Than Words: Visual Culture and the Liberal Arts Curriculum; Innovation in Instruction Conference, Elon University, Elon, NC
2008
“Mapping Meg Ryan” Panel: Tracing the Moving Image: Intersections of Fine Art and Cinema, SECAC conference, New Orleans, LA
2007
“Gathering Dust: Sediment/Sentiment” Panel: Mapping Unexpected Geographies, SECAC conference, Charleston, WV
“Mapping Meg Ryan” Artist lecture Portland Art Center, Portland, OR
2006
“Mourning Lightness” Artist lecture 1078 Gallery, Chico, CA
Professional Activities
2021
Tending the Waters of Our Grief Deer Thicket Sanctuary, Stokesdale, NC
Grief-Tending the Losses of 2020 The School at Space for Conscious Living, Greensboro, NC
2020
Entering the Healing Ground The School at Space for Conscious Living, Greensboro, NC
Tending Grief in Times of Turmoil The School at Space for Conscious Living, Greensboro, NC
Grief in the Time of Corona The School at Space for Conscious Living, Greensboro, NC
2019
Monthly Grief-Tending Gatherings College Park Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC
The Sacred Work of Grief in Community Holistic Commons, Greensboro, NC
Professional Development
2019
Leadership Training: Community Grief Work with Francis Weller, MFT Burlingame, CA
2018
Sustainability Across the Curriculum Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education,
CSU Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA
2017
Certification in Sustainable Building and Design Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Waitsfield, VT
2016
Permaculture Design Certification Greensboro, NC
2012
The Work that Reconnects with Joanna Macy, PhD Mebane, NC
2010
Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet Instructors: Paul Wapner, Matthew Jelacic, Richard Falk, Nicole Salimbene, David Abram; The Lama Foundation, San Cristobal, NM
2006
Responding to Gesture and Bodies: Design for Physically-Based Interactive Art Instructor: Camille Utterback; Anderson Art Ranch, Snowmass Village, CO
Awards
2010
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Scholar for the project (Un)Common Partnerships for a Common Purpose: Focusing on Art/Science Relationships in the Study of Environmental Art Elon University, Elon, NC
2008
Sustainability Faculty Scholar Elon University, Elon, NC