Meet The Director

Gretchen Burau

Director of the American Museum of Asmat Art

Art History

Contact

Email: bura8354@stthomas.edu

Research Interests

Burau’s research is focused on Asmat art. She is particularly interested in the collection activities of Tobias Schneebaum, an American artist and anthropologist that worked in the Asmat region during the 1970s and 1980s. Burau also has a strong interest in the digital humanities, ecological art, and fresco painting.

  • "Convergence and Restoration: Asmat Art through the Writings and Drawings of Tobias Schneebaum," [master’s thesis], University of St. Thomas, December 2016.

  • “Digital Humanities at the American Museum of Asmat Art: Documenting Visual Culture and Building Relationships through ArcGIS Mapping,” Day of Digital Humanities, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, June 4, 2021.

    “Digital Humanities at the American Museum of Asmat Art: Documenting Visual Culture and Building Relationships through ArcGIS Mapping,” Pacific Arts Association – European Conference, Leiden, the Netherlands, March 26, 2021.

    “Asmat Today: Art, Culture, and the Environment,” American Association of University Women – St. Paul Branch, St. Paul, MN, February 9, 2021.

    “Digital Humanities at the American Museum of Asmat Art: Fostering Collaboration and Building Relationships through New Technologies,” The Sixth Annual Art Historians of the Twin Cities Symposium, St. Paul, MN, January 16, 2021.

    “Phallosophy of Music: The Castrati Condition Understood through Lacan’s Graph of Desire,” presentation at The Spectacular EGSA Conference, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 2014.

    “Sensation through Abstraction: The Place Saint-Augustin Paintings of Edouard Vuillard,” Minneapolis Institute of Art and Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities Graduate and Undergraduate Art History Symposium, Minneapolis, MN, 2014.

  • "Power and Presence: Water in Asmat," American Museum of Asmat Art, St. Paul, MN, 2022-2023.

    “Woven Together: Asmat Women and Art,” American Museum of Asmat Art, St. Paul, MN, 2021-2022.

    “Regions and Rituals: The Role of Missionaries in Preserving Asmat Art,” American Museum of Asmat Art, St. Paul, MN, 2019-2020.

    “Natural Reflections: Original Art at the Andersen Horticultural Library,” University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, MN, 2017.

    “Richard Sloan: North American Bird Lithographs,” University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, MN, 2015.

    “The Highgrove Florilegium: A Celebration of Contemporary Botanical Art,” University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, MN, 2014.

    “Impressions of Nature: Historical and Contemporary Nature Printing,” University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, MN, 2013.

    “Among the Asmat: The Schneebaum Perspective,” American Museum of Asmat Art, St. Paul, MN, 2013.

  • Next Step Fund Grant, for studying fresco painting in Italy with Mark Balma, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, 2020.

    Faculty Partnership Grant, “Using ArcGIS Story Maps for Teaching and Scholarship in the Humanities,” for creating interactive geospatial maps of Asmat, University of St. Thomas, 2019.

    Digital Humanities Faculty Research Grant, “Mapping Asmat: Exploring the Artistic Expression of Major Cultural Groups using the American Museum of Asmat Art Collection,” University of St. Thomas, 2019.

    Environmental Stewardship Curriculum Grant, for developing an ecological art unit for my ARTH 110 classes, University of St. Thomas, 2019.

    Jaffray Major Research Scholarship, for interviewing, developing relationships, and acquiring resources from American Crosier Fathers that served in Asmat, University of St. Thomas, 2016.

    Research Grant, for researching Tobias Schneebaum’s Asmat journals at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, University of St. Thomas, 2014.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Mr. Gerald D. Brennan, Chair

Mrs. Carole Boyum

Mrs. Gretchen Burau, Director & Curator

V. Rev. Tom Enneking, osc

Dr. Bernice Folz

Dr. Tom Harkcom

Ms. Phyllis Hischier

Fr. Kermit Holl, osc

Mr. Joshua Irwandi

Ms. Ursula Konrad

Mr. David Kostik

Fr. Onesius Otenieli Daeli, osc

Fr. Virgil Petermeier, osc

Dr. Tom Powell Davies

Ms. Topsy Simonson

Dr. Nick Stanley

Dr. Victoria Young

Mrs. Donna MacMillan, honorary member

Mrs. Suzanne Burke, College of Arts and Sciences staff