Tom Eccles and Lena Willemark new honorary doctors at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts
Lena Willemark, folk music singer, Swedish national player (Riksspelman) and composer, and Tom Eccles, curator and director of Bard CCS, New York, have been appointed honorary doctors at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, University of Gothenburg.
Riksspelman Lena Willemark is one of the most important singers and violin players within Swedish folk music. She is also a composer and artistic director, and known for singing in the language Älvdalska.
– She has been very important for the increasing interest in, and knowledge of, folk music. Her open, inspiring working methods with vivid interpretations, musical dialects and living-tradition have meant a lot for our students. It is wonderful and honorable for us to have Lena Willemark as honorary doctor. I look forward to developing our collaboration, says Anders Jormin, professor at the Academy of Music and Drama.
Lena Willemark has a unique ability be both a cultural bearer and keeper of traditions, and an innovator and explorer of modern art music. She has received several awards for her multi diciplinary work. Her latest album Blåferdi got a lot of attention.
Tom Eccles - curator and catalyst for change
Tom Eccles, at Bard College in the United States, is a groundbreaking curator who has been involved in and executed many of the world's most challenging art projects in the recent decades.
– He has woked with hundreds of artists, whether internationally renowned or emerging, to realize their most ambitious visions. He has actively enabled Valand Academy to take part in, and contribute to, the development of international artistic and curatorial research, says Jason Bowman, professor at the Academy Valand.
Tom Eccles is head of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard in New York (Bard CCS), founder of the Hessel Museum of Art and has earlier worked as curator at Park Avenue Armory and director of the New York Public Art Fund. Throughout his career, Tom Eccles has always been a catalyst for change.
Both Lena Willemark and Tom Eccles will come to Gothenburg for the Conferment of Doctoral Degrees, October 19th.