Areas of Expertise
Art History, Art of Disney and Pixar, 15th and 16th Century Italian Renaissance
Education
2001 Ph.D. Indiana University
1997 M.A. Indiana University
1993 B.A. cum laude University of Arizona
Biography
By training Dr. Heather Holian is an Italian Renaissance art historian with minors in Medieval and Roman Art. She routinely offers courses in these areas and directs independent research for advanced art history majors.
For the last fifteen years, Dr. Holian’s research has focused on American studio animation. Her current book manuscript, Walt Disney and a New American Art: Buying, Selling and Exhibiting Animation Art During Disney’s Golden and Silver Ages, addresses the history of early Disney art exhibitions (1932-66). She recently published part of this research as an article in The Journal of American Culture (June 2024) and as a blog post for Fantasy Animation.
She is also a specialist on the third decade of production at the Pixar Animation Studios, where she gathered more than 100 hours of interviews with the studio’s artists, animators, and directors. This research has appeared in edited volumes for Bloomsbury, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, McFarland, and the Animation Studies journal. (http://journal.animationstudies.org/heather-holian-art-animation-and-the-collaborative-process/) This research may also be found on her Academica.edu site. Dr. Holian brings her animation research into the classroom through two art history courses ARH 210: Art of Disney and Pixar and ARH 360: Women Artists of Disney and Pixar Animation.
In Fall 2023, Dr. Holian and colleague, Dr. Emily Stamey, the Elizabeth McIver Weatherspoon Curator of Academic Programming and Head of Exhibitions, co-curated the exhibition, A Golden Age: Original Animation Art from the Walt Disney Studios, 1937–42 at the Weatherspoon Art Museum on the UNCG campus. The show featured approximately 40 works from a private collection. Dr. Holian wrote the show’s accompanying essay. The exhibition also launched the Weatherspoon’s new Margaret and Bill Benjamin Faculty Fellowship with Dr. Holian serving as its inaugural fellow.
Dr. Holian is Head of Mentoring and Membership for DisNet, the Disney Culture & Society Research Network. She also serves on the editorial board for The International Journal of Disney Studies.
In her classes and scholarship, Dr. Holian explores art through social, cultural, formalist, iconographic, and feminist methodologies. Her Renaissance interests focus on Italian court portraiture, and particularly that of women and daughters of the Medici family. Her published articles on the topic explore the function of jewelry as dynastic “marker” within portraits of Medici women and marriageable girls, and the related social issue of women as dynastic commodity, as communicated through these loaded images. Her published Renaissance articles may be found on Academia.edu.
Subjects Taught
The art and artists of Disney and Pixar, Italian Renaissance art, Medieval art and ancient Roman art.
Scholarly creative/Research Activity
Select Publications:
2018
“A Brave Collaboration: A Case Study of Collaborative Dynamics and Collective Imagination within the Pixar Art Department,” in Creative Collaboration in Art Practice, Research and Pedagogy, Sunny Spillane and Kathryn Shields, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. July 2018, 193-220. ISBN: 978-1-5275-0352-6
“New and Inherited Aesthetics: Designing for the Toy Story Trilogy One Film at a Time,” in Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature, the inaugural volume of the series, Animation—Key Films. Noel Brown, Susan Smith, Sam Summers, eds. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. January 2018, 59-71. ISBN: 978-1501324918.
2014
“Animators as Professional Masqueraders: Thoughts on Pixar,” in Masquerade: Essays on Tradition and Innovation Worldwide, Deborah Bell, ed. London and Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co. Publishers. December 2014.
Select Conference Presentations
2024
“Walt Disney’s The Art of Animation and the Cold War,” accepted for presentation at the Northeastern Popular Culture Society annual meeting, October (virtual).
‘Becoming a Fine Art’: Walt Disney and The Art of Animation Exhibition, 1958-66, presented in the Disney Studies Area, Popular Culture Association annual meeting, Chicago, IL, March.
2023
“Always to the Highest Types of Individuals:” Edith Wakeman Hughes, Disney Courvoisier Dealer to America’s Elite, 1939-42, presented at the Northeastern Popular Culture Society annual meeting, October (virtual).
Crafting a New Art History: Guthrie Courvoisier’s Marketing of ‘Walt Disney Originals’ and the Quest for an American Art, 1938-48, presented at the Disney Culture & Society Research Network international conference celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Walt Disney Studios, June (virtual).
Writing Disney Histories, round table at the Disney Culture & Society Research Network international conference celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Walt Disney Studios, June (virtual).
The End of the Disney-Courvoisier Era: A Reconsideration of the Narrative, presented in the Disney Studies Area, Popular Culture Association annual meeting, San Antonio, TX, April.
2022
Exhibiting Animation Art with an Agenda: Walt Disney Premiere Exhibitions of the ‘Golden Age,’ presented at the Southeastern College Art Conference, Baltimore, MD, October.
Marketing the Magic: The Public Sale of ‘Walt Disney Originals’ by Guthrie Courvoisier and His Agents, 1938-48, presented in the Disney Studies Area at the Northeastern Popular Culture Association annual meeting, October. (virtual)
Crafting an Appreciation: Walt Disney and the Animation Exhibition at the Carthay Circle Theater Premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, presented in the Disney Studies Area, Popular Culture Association annual meeting, April. (virtual)
2021
‘The Force is Strong with This One’: The Impact of Star Wars on Pixar’s First Generation of Filmmakers, presented in the Animation Area, Popular Culture Association annual meeting, June. (virtual)
Curatorial Activities
2023
Curator. A Golden Age: Original Animation Art from the Walt Disney Studios, 1937–42 Weatherspoon Art Museum, UNCG. August 19-December 9.
2022
Co-Curator and Exhibition Organizer. Persistence of Vision: Optical Devices & Animation Toys from the Laura Hayes & John Howard Wileman Collection, Gatewood Gallery, School of Art, UNCG. August 10-Sept. 27. Accompanying website with text: https://persistenceofvision.myportfolio.com/work
