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Jane Wolfe Distinguished Arts Leadership Award

Cathy Hastedt is the Director of the University Art Galleries Department at Texas A&M University, which oversees the J. Wayne Stark Galleries and the Forsyth Galleries, as well as the public art on campus.  Over her 37-year career in the museum field she has worked at and consulted at various museums across the country and abroad, including the Kelsey Museum at the University of Michigan, the University of Cincinnati Art Collection, and the Underwater Archaeology Museum in Bodrum, Turkey.  She has curated over 60 exhibitions, including the nationally touring “From Curie to the Quantum Switch:  100 Years of Science Innovation.”  She is the co-editor of the Journal of Literary Biography-American Book and Magazine Illustrators to 1930 and has written more than 20 exhibition catalogues.  She currently serves on the board of the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts at Texas A&M and has been instrumental in the development of the University’s public art policies and procedures.

Her involvement with the Arts Council of Brazos Valley started in the 1990’s, when she spearheaded the first “Art in Public Places’’ program, which invited artists from across the country to display their sculptures at various locations across Bryan and College Station, eventually leading to permanent installations such as at the College Station Library and Easterwood Airport.  She ran the public art competition for the very first sculpture at Veteran’s Park and has consulted with various entities on the care and maintenance of public art collections.  She has served numerous times as a grants reviewer for the ACBV, and has volunteered for the Brazos Valley Symphony, Voices for Children, and served as President of the Bryan Rotary Club.