Mary Jo Watson is a
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...
art historian and director emeritus and a regents professor at the School of Art and Art History at the
University of Oklahoma
, mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State"
, type = Public research university
, established =
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, endowment = $2.7billion (2021)
, pr ...
.
[ Her work focuses on the theory and development of teaching methodology for ]Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...
.
Education and background
An enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the largest of the three federally recognized Seminole governments, which include the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the M ...
, Mary Jo Watson was born in Seminole, Oklahoma
Seminole ( sac, Sheminônîheki) is a city in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 7,488 at the 2010 census. Seminole experienced a large population growth in the 1920s due to an oil boom.
History
The city was platted i ...
, and graduated from Seminole High School. She earned her bachelor's degree in art history 1974, her master of liberal studies degree in Seminole Aesthetics in 1979, and an interdisciplinary doctoral degree in Native American art history in 1993 from the University of Oklahoma
, mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State"
, type = Public research university
, established =
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.7billion (2021)
, pr ...
.
Career
Watson taught for three years at Seminole Junior College and one year at the Bishop McGuiness High School.
Beginning in 1978, Watson curated exhibitions at the Center of the American Indian in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...
. She served as the museum's director from 1984 to 1988.
OU offered no courses in Native American art when Watson was a student, so she began teaching the subject in the 1970s and offered the first formal course in 1980.
In 1993, Watson became a full-time faculty member in the OU School of Art and Art History in 1993. Starting in 1994, she developed a series of undergraduate and graduate courses on Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...
, including the course, American Indian Women Artists.
In 2002, she became an associate dean, and in 2008, a regent's professor. She became the school's director from 2006 through 2013 and developed OU’s Native American art history doctoral degree program.
She has also served as the curator of Native American art at OU’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.
Overview
The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art holds over 20,000 objects in its permanent collection. The museum c ...
.
Awards and honors
Watson won a Governor's Art Award for service and another for education. The Paseo Art Association gave her its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. She has judged in the Santa Fe Indian Market
The Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the weekend following the third Thursday in August. The event draws an estimated 150,000 people to the city from around the world. The Southwestern Association for ...
. Watson has earned two grants from the National Science Foundation and one grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.
In 2014, the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society inducted Watson into their Hall of Fame. In 2019, the Oklahoma Historical Society
The Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma. ...
inducted her into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.[
Her former students and colleagues created the Mvhayv Award, a scholarship at the University of Oklahoma in her honor.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Mary Jo
American art historians
Living people
Native American academics
Native American women academics
American women academics
Native American curators
University of Oklahoma alumni
University of Oklahoma faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
Historians from Oklahoma
Women art historians
20th-century American historians
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American women writers
Seminole Nation of Oklahoma people
21st-century Native American writers
21st-century Native American women
American women curators
American curators
Academics from Oklahoma
21st-century Native American artists