Denise Amy Baxter

Professor, Art History
President of the College Art Association, CAA, Board of Directors, 2024-2026
CAA President's Statement

Research Area: the relationship between visual arts, material culture, fashion, and the construction of the modern self in 18th- and 19th-century France. 

About

Denise Amy Baxter earned her undergraduate degree with majors in Art History and French Literature from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. Her M.A. and Ph.D. are from the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Following a year of teaching as an adjunct instructor at UCSB, she started on the tenure track as an art historian of 18th-19th century European art at the University of North Texas. Consistently pairing art historical scholarship with public outreach and administrative positions, Baxter has served as Art History Program Coordinator during the tenure track, as Department Chair for four years upon receiving tenure, and for five years as the associate dean for Student and Academic Affairs of the College of Visual Arts and Design.

A contributing editor to "A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Empire" (Bloomsbury, 2017) and co-editor of "Architectural Space in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Constructing Identities and Interiors "(Ashgate, 2010), Baxter has also published and presented on art historical methodologies and pedagogy.

Baxter is active nationally as an external evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, a member of the College Art Association’s Professional Practices Committee, and an editorial board member of Dress, the journal of the Costume Society of America.

Building a Building

As a member of the administrative leadership in the College of Visual Arts and Design for five years, Baxter played a key role in every aspect of the $70 million construction and renovation project. This project involved 238,000 square feet of classrooms, visual arts, and design space, spanning from the groundbreaking in 2015 to the grand opening in 2019. Baxter participated in every meeting and decision throughout the process. In a photo taken at the construction site, Eric Ligon, associate dean (left), then-Dean Greg Watts, and Baxter, former associate dean, are seen wearing their usual hard hats and safety vests.