Portrait of Katie Geha.

July 22, 2024 — Katie Geha, director and chief curator of the galleries at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art, has accepted the position of director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Tandem Press, a premier publisher of fine art prints affiliated with the university’s art department in their School of Education. Founded in 1987, Tandem Press has commissioned original fine art editions by a diverse roster of accomplished artists, including Derrick Adams, Richard Bosman, Lynda Benglis, Suzanne Caporael, Robert Cottingham, and Sam Gilliam.

Rosemary Mayer: Beware of Definitions. Installation view, Dodd Galleries, 2017.

Geha, who has served the Lamar Dodd School of Art since 2013, leaves behind a decade-long legacy of fostering emerging artists at the University of Georgia and propelling Athens as a hub for contemporary art programming in the Southeast. Highlights of her storied career at the university include founding the contemporary art gallery the Athenaeum in downtown Athens, Georgia in 2021; curating a traveling exhibition by renowned American artist Kara Walker in 2023 and 2024 that was shown first at the Athenaeum, followed by Georgetown University’s De La Cruz Gallery in Washington, DC and at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago; hosting a traveling exhibition of works by Rosemary Mayer in 2017 and publishing an accompanying catalogue titled Rosemary Mayer: Beware All Definitions Selected Works 1966-1973, which renewed interest in the influential American feminist artist after a thirty-year lull; and consistently supporting student-curated exhibitions in the Dodd Galleries.

“I have loved working at the Lamar Dodd School of Art these past eleven years,” said Geha. “The expansive spirit of the school encouraged me to build a strong program that models experimental exhibition-making for students. The collaborations I have been lucky to foster with artists, students, faculty, and our board and donors helped me grow immensely as an arts professional. I will hold these relationships close as I embark on a new adventure at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.”  

Opening of Kara Walker: Back of Hand. Athenaeum, January 2023. Photograph courtesy of Sidney Chansamone.

Kara Walker: Back of Hand at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, Spring 2024.

Beyond the school of art, Geha has influenced the university’s arts programming and profile as a member of the UGA Arts Council, identifying campus-wide initiatives for the annual Spotlight on the Arts Festival like the 4’33” Research in the Arts Competition. Moreover, her vision for the 5,000-square-foot Athenaeum has involved collaborative afterschool programming for Clarke County School District with art education faculty and students, academic symposia, the annual Athens Art Book Fair, and interdisciplinary campus partnerships with The Georgia Review, UGA Press, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, and the Department of Theatre & Film Studies, to name a few.

“Although I am saddened to see Katie leave, I am happy that she is pursuing this amazing opportunity,” said Joseph Peragine, director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art. “Tandem Press is lucky to have her talents. Katie’s legacy at the Dodd includes expanding the reach of the school through smart and engaging exhibitions and setting a new standard of how the galleries serve our students and educational mission. Our community is truly grateful to her.”

Geha wraps up her tenure at UGA on July 26. She will begin her new position at Tandem Press at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on August 5. The Lamar Dodd School of Art has appointed interim directors this fall for the Athenaeum, former Georgia Museum of Art Deputy Director Annelies Mondi, and for the Dodd Galleries, curator and former UGA photography faculty member Mo Costello. Recruitment for the next director and chief curator of galleries at the Lamar Dodd School of Art will begin in the coming weeks.

Fountain: Melissa Brown & Jaime Bull. Installation view, Dodd Galleries, 2019.

About the Athenaeum

The mission of the Athenaeum is to pursue art and ideas with rigor; to serve as a flexible space that invites extended looking and encourages critical thinking. The non-collecting gallery is dedicated to presenting the work of major artists in the field of contemporary art as well as centering under-recognized and emerging artists in the commission of new works and projects.

About the Dodd Galleries

The Dodd Galleries is dedicated to understanding and promoting contemporary art as a tool and catalyst for education. The Galleries consist of five exhibition spaces that act as laboratories and testing grounds for innovation located among the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s classrooms and studios. Committed to the idea of art-as-research, the galleries host established and emerging artists, designers, critics, and curators of national and international stature along with interdisciplinary programming designed to question, educate and inspire.