My academic work deals with the development of artistic communities and the collaborative production and discussion of art as it connects to its local contexts. In my dissertation, entitled “Building a Picture: Southern Art Communities and Constructions of Regional Identity, 1920-1945,” I am writing about Southern identities as they were envisioned by both black and white artists of the U.S. South during the era of the Great Depression. Central to my study are the works of Edwin and Elise Harleston in Charleston, S.C.; The New South Art School and Gallery in Montgomery, Ala.; and the Southern States Art League, headquartered in New Orleans, La. These individuals and organizations were concerned with representing local Southern communities, often in contrast to images produced for the Farm Security Administration and Works Progress Administration arts programs, which were simultaneously seeking to represent the South for a national public. My other research projects have included work on the visual culture of Harlem in the 1930s, feminist reading and activist groups in Atlanta in the 1970s, and underground art and music made in Mexico City during the 1990s.

I am a doctoral candidate in The Department of Art and Art History at The University of Texas at Austin where I am a University Continuing Fellow for 2009-2010. I am currently working in archival collections in Atlanta, Birmingham, Charleston, Los Angeles, Montgomery, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. I have taught courses in Latin American and Latino art history of the 19th and 20th centuries. I am also an arts writer and have published exhibition and book reviews in Artforum, ArtLies!, and …mightbegood and have co-curated exhibitions at the Creative Research Laboratory in Austin, TX.

lauralindenberger@mail.utexas.edu