Shannon Bewley is an art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art. Her research focuses on twentieth-century public sculpture commissions. Drawing on newspaper accounts, community interviews, and institutional archives, she examines how arts administration and state, federal, and international funding have shaped artists\u2019 careers and the creation of public art. Her commitment to public art is rooted in her upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama, where monuments such as the monumental cast-iron Vulcan and the city\u2019s abstract and figurative Civil Rights memorials provided formative experiences for her research and pedagogy.<\/p>\n
Bewley earned her PhD in the History of Art & Architecture from Boston University in May 2026. Her dissertation, \u201cEarth Artists, Ancient Earthworks, and Land Reclamation Sculpture in the United States from 1965 to 1985,\u201d traces the history of land reclamation sculpture: major public commissions of earthen art that rehabilitated industrial wastelands and abandoned mines as both public parks and works of art. The project expands the well-researched history of American earth art by exploring the cultural, political, and administrative contexts in which artists such as Robert Smithson, Robert Morris, and Michael Heizer drew upon ancient, Native, and Indigenous earthworks as sources for visual art and ecological remediation. Bewley contextualizes these projects at the intersection of American national identity and archaeology, environmental policy, and popular perceptions of historic earthworks. She argues that land reclamation sculptures demonstrate the potential of interdisciplinary public art to provide both aesthetic experiences and community spaces while attesting to the historical importance of Native and Indigenous earthworks to American visual art and identity.<\/p>\n
Prior to entering Boston University, Bewley was the Provenance Research Fellow in the departments of American and European Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama.<\/p>\n
Research Interests:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Dissertation [2026]: MA Paper:<\/strong> Professional Website<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 2022-2023: Chair, African American Art History: Present Coordinates Symposium<\/a><\/p>\n 2021-2022: 2020-2021: Vice-President, Graduate Student Organization<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong>“Earth Artists, Ancient Earthworks, and Land Reclamation Sculpture in the United States from 1965 to 1985”<\/p>\n
\n“Mary Miss, Suzanne Harris, and Alice Aycock: Sculptors in \u2018Crummy Spaces\u2019”<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/span>Senior Editor, SEQUITUR<\/em><\/a>
\n<\/span>History of Art & Architecture Diversity & Inclusion Committee<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Forum co-Coordinator<\/span>,\u00a0 Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association<\/a>
\nJunior Editor, SEQUITUR<\/em><\/a>
\n<\/span>History of Art & Architecture Diversity & Inclusion Committee<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/span>Co-President,\u00a0 Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association<\/a>
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