The School of Art is excited to announce the appointment of two new faculty members this August. Missy Higgins-Linder is a new interim lecturer of art education and Anna Kruse is the new assistant professor of studio art-ceramics. Both faculty members bring with them noteworthy research and professional experience, which will serve as an invaluable resource to our students.
About Missy Higgins-Linder
Melissa (Missy) Higgins-Linder is passionately curious about the impact of the arts on how and why people learn, which has served her well throughout her career as an educator, leader, and advocate in arts and museums. She began her career as a K-12 art teacher in Akron Public Schools before shifting her focus to museum education. As Director of Education at the Akron Art Museum and Senior Director of Learning and Engagement at the Cleveland Museum of Art, she led teams of inspired colleagues guided by a unifying mission to use the transformative possibilities and power of art to instigate inquiry and discovery for learners of every age, stage, and ability. Her research experience includes studies of art museum-based professional development for K-12 art teachers and work as Project Manager for a national study on the impact of single-visit art museum programs on K-12 students co-sponsored by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and Association of Art Museum Directors.
In addition to her professional work, Missy has served as the Ohio Art Education Association’s (OAEA) Museum Division Chair; chair for OAEA’s statewide student writing competition, the Jerry Tollifson Art Criticism Open; and Coordinator for the NAEA Women’s Caucus annual, juried exhibition. She received the OAEA Museum Education award in 2011 and the NAEA Western Region Museum Education award in 2019. Missy is proud to be a Kent State University Alumni with a B.A. and M.A. in Art Education. Outside of work, you will find her making food and art with her two inquisitive kids, trying to convince her patient husband to adopt more pets, rearranging the house to make room for more books, or hanging out by the water in Northeast Ohio.
About Anna Kruse
Anna Kruse received her Master of Fine Arts at the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2021. She completed a Post Baccalaureate at the Oregon College of Art and Craft and obtained her B.A. with honors in Psychology and Studio Art from the College of Wooster. In the fall of 2022, Anna was the Visiting Artist Scholar and Teacher at Southern Oregon University before moving into the position of instructor in ceramics. She recently received the Visual Arts Grant from the Haines and Friends Visual Arts Grant Program. In 2021 she was nominated and awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture. She was invited to be a resident artist at Township 10 during the summer of 2020 and completed a residency at Peninsula College. Anna has shown her work across the contiguous United States.