The mission of A Scholarly Skater Art History is to make
historical art and architecture accessible to everyone.
I’m Alexandra, an art historian from the United States. Welcome to my website!
I have a B.A. with honors in art history and truly believe that looking at art can enrich everyone’s life as much as it has mine. Studying the art of the past is the closest to time travel I’m likely to get, only it’s much safer. Art also helps me to see the world through other people’s eyes – a type of empathy and understanding we could all use a bit more of in our lives.
How this started
After graduating from college in 2012, I knew I wanted to become a professional art historian, but taking the traditional jobs at a university or museum didn’t feel right for me. So I made my own path, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I founded A Scholarly Skater in 2013, and it was originally just a venue to continue doing art history on my own. More than a decade later, the website hosts over 400 articles and a handful of courses that share my ongoing love and growing knowledge of historical art and architecture.
In addition, I have been a regular contributor to DailyArt Magazine and The Collector. My work has also appeared on Art Herstory, Artips, Citaliarestauro, the Questroyal Fine Art blog, HeadStuff, and Jo’s Art History Podcast, among others.
Why I do this
Along the way, I’ve come to realize how many people feel perplexed by fine art and intimidated in art museums. This makes me sad, and I don’t think it needs to be this way. After all, making and appreciating visual art is an innate part of human nature, and we spend far more time with images today than ever before – we just call it “media” rather than “art”.
I’ve also noticed that the kinds of resources I seek out for other topics tend to be lacking in art history – reliable content designed for intelligent, capable people who happen not to have a background in a particular subject. So, I’ve made it my mission to make historical art and architecture accessible to everyone. I aim to provide clear explanations of art history’s complexities in plain English, without dumbing them down.
Why A Scholarly Skater?
You may be wondering about my website title and why it doesn’t relate to art history. I’ve been a figure skater since age five, and I chose this name because I think it perfectly captures both of my main interests.
My favorites
- Artist: John Singer Sargent
- Areas of specialty: American art and medieval art/architecture
- Artwork: The Heart of the Andes by Frederic Edwin Church and The Book of Kells
- Building: Notre-Dame de Paris
- Museum: The Frick Collection
- Art books: The Cave Painters by Gregory Curtis and Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christoper de Hamel
- Things to write about: gargoyles, illuminated manuscripts
- Trend: rediscovering historical female artists
- Current research obsession: medieval Irish art and architecture
Art in your inbox
Be the first to hear about new posts, handbooks,
discounts, and more.
39 responses to “Meet the Scholarly Skater”
Hello Alex, nice to meet you earlier (Sinead’s Dad) , I am very interested in art and architecture and enjoy reading your site, one is never to old to learn (70 next week) whether art or figure skating. Keep up the good work.
Alastair Kerr
Hi Alastair: It was really lovely to meet you as well! I’m glad that you enjoyed my site and hope you have a nice rest of your visit. Best, Alexandra
On Thomas Cole what part of painting like the old masters did he make his own? Have you seen any underpainting in his work
Who knew? A Scholarly Skater w/ love of Gargoyles + Dogs + L’Arts+ Architecture + Gothic and Medieval Arts + Hudson Valley Arts and joyous enthusiasm of visual fine arts OMG! Found you through Daily Art Museum. Enthusiastic and extraordinarily thrilled to find Scholarly Skater,
that embraces beginners, from the actual museum experience…. the scholarly skater will
soon enjoy an expresso, or cappuccino, or other of her choice. Did I mention it?
I LOVE GARGOYLES… hope to see a course on an exploration of Gargoyles of Cathedrals created as part of the building designed during the Medieval period.
Thank you so much for providing these opportunities to your followers and new comers.
Dianne
Hi Dianne:
Thank you so much for your enthusiastic words. I am glad that you’re enjoying A Scholarly Skater and DailyArt Magazine.
In regards to your comment about a gargoyles course, you will be pleased to know that I actually am planning a gargoyles-related course through my online school The Art Museum Insider (the-art-museum-insider.teachable.com). I’m not sure when it will come out, but you can check out my Field Guide to Gargoyles in the meantime (https://ascholarlyskater.com/category/gargoyles/field-guide-to-gargoyles/).
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you’ll visit again soon.
Alexandra
Hi, where can I contact you in order to send a press release?
Hi there. I’m so sorry that I didn’t respond to this sooner. You can send me a press release at writer to the arts @ gmail.com (no spaces).
Hello Alexandra,
I here’s a link to my Sanford Robinson Gifford project in Hudson, NY. Might be of interest for you…
http://giffordsgrave-hudson.blogspot.com/
~ Cheers, Peter Jung
Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
I found your site by pure chance. I have a background in architecture and photography and it’s good to find a site that accommodates both of these. Just sent you a note on gargoyles.
Regards
Barry
Welcome, Barry! Thank you for stopping by!
I found your blog when searching for angels – your “grumpy angel” is great! I love medieval art. Thanks for this blog.
I, too, love medieval art and grumpy angels. And I’m so glad you’re enjoying my blog. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Just stumbled upon your site. Never graduated with an art history degree but I love writing about artists, art history and culture and cultural work. Nice read! Continue to inspire us with your well-written and history-based articles about the arts. Love from the Islands Philippines!
Hi Noel. Thanks for stopping by! I’m so glad you’re enjoying my work. Please subscribe and come back soon. 🙂
Hi there, I have nominated you for a Liebster Award. 🙂 Don’t feel obligated to post about it, but if you’d like to participate, you can find more details here:https://prayersandpiazzas.com/2016/06/20/a-sweet-award-and-more-about-me/
Blessings!
Thank you so much, Stacy! I will definitely participate. 🙂
Dear Scholarly Skater:
Thank you so very much for the “like” of my recent piece, Patron Saint of Ireland, which was posted at First Night History. I enjoyed reading your own site.
If you found Patron Saint interesting, please feel free to read my blog, bio or a sample chapter at theoryofirony.com. The blog is a teaser for my book, Theory of Irony: How Jesus Led to Moon Golf, now available in print and Kindle formats at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=theory+of+irony.
Sincerely,
Erik Von Norden
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi there, found you from the reblog on Italian in Italy. I am a former competitive ice skater too! As someone who loves Italy, I’m looking to learn more about art history. Looking forward to more of your posts!
Hi Stacy! I’m always so happy to meet other skaters on wordpress (and in general). 🙂 I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog.
Definitely, and thanks for the follow!
[…] few weeks ago Alexandra of ascholarlyskater nominated me for the Liebster Award. Thanks Alex! I see that Judith Weingarten won one of these in […]
Thanks Alexandra. This is a fascinating blog. I’m learning as well as being entertained. Regards from Thom at the immortal jukebox.
Nice to meet you, Thom! I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog.
Hope you will enjoy the Jukebox also! Thom
Hi Alex, I posted one of your O’Murnaghan pictures to a new Celtic Art group on Facebook that seems to be taking off. The forum is a regrouping of an old Yahoo Group that was active for 15 years, but gradually faded away as those things tended to. Have a look https://www.facebook.com/groups/1537431546526680/
Sounds interesting!! I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks for letting me know about it. 🙂
Hi Alex this is artist Michael Budden writing to thank you for including my art in your post about Guy C Wiggins and paintings of NYC. I enjoy painting NY the most, especially winter scenes and thank you for shedding so light on my work.
Of course!! I’m always happy to talk about artists whose work resonates with me. 🙂
Congratulations, dear Alexandra!
I have nominated your blog for a new award, the Real Neat Blog award.
More about this nomination is at
http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/real-neat-blog-award-congratulations-to-the-nominees/
Hi there, thanks for dropping by and liking a post on Geokult-Travel.com. Your blog looks really interesting so am now following 🙂
Cheers
Tracey
Thanks for following. 🙂
Alexandra, thanks for the follow. I took a look at your Celtic Art articles. Very nice. I was unfamiliar with the Book of Resurrection, and now I need to learn more. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Hi Alexandra, thanks for following my art blog! It looks like we have similar interests (but not skating – the one time I was on skates I was terrified!), so I’m looking forward to delving into your blog, too.
I’m glad we’ve met. 🙂 I really enjoyed looking at your art on your blog.
Hey there! Thanks for reading. Even before I clicked on your blog, I could tell from screen name and icon that I was really going to enjoy it, too. I’m glad we just met. 🙂
Hi Alexandra, Glad I found your blog. I also love art, architecture and gargoyles, and I used to be a figure skater. Seems like this blog was made for me