History of the ODU Art Department/Kenneth FitzGerald

Kenneth FitzGerald: NSU Joint Graduate Program Kenneth FitzGerald (born December 7, 1960) is an "artist, educator, and writer". Holds the title of Associate Professor of Art and Graduate Program Director in the Art department at Old Dominion University where he teaches in the undergraduate Graphic Design and graduate Visual Studies programs.

BIOGRAPHY Kenneth FitzGerald obtained a Bachelor's of Fine Arts with a concentration in Ceramics at the Massachusetts College of Art in 1983. In 1996 he graduated yet again from Massachusetts College of Arts with a Master's of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. After graduation he went on to teach graphic design at Massachusetts College of Art for 11 years. In August 2001 FitzGerald began working at Old Dominion University as the undergraduate Graphic Design Professor.

Throughout his career at Old Dominion University he has organized three exhibitions in Graphic Design and has participated in the many of the University Gallery installments.

FitzGerald has his own blog, http://www.ephemeralstates.com, in which he writes in frequently and expresses himself as an artist and a writer. You can also find a short write up and information about his classes and other involvements with Old Dominion on the ODU website at http://www.odu.edu/al/kfitzgerald/

SIGNIFICANT STORY On September 11, 2001, the beginning of Kenneth's first semester with Old Dominion, and the day no American will ever forget, Kenneth had a night class. As he was preparing to leave, his daughter who was already tucked into bed for the night asked, "What does dad do"? Before he could explain she quickly answered her own question by saying "Dad goes to sleep with his students"! She exclaimed that she wished she could go with him to make graphic designs like his students. He replied that she couldn't and that he wasn't even sure if there would be students to teach that night. When he arrived at school he was perplexed with the thought all of that had transpired that day as well as the desire of his young daughter to make graphic designs like his students. This brought him to the idea of a typographical assignment about America: post 9/11. AS he looked for examples and references on past tragedies he came across of book that he had always enjoyed but had never had a second thought about. The book was ironically called Skyscraper I love you, this transformed and controlled the meaning of the book as well as his teaching approach for him forever.