Joann Brennan

Joann Brennan is the interim co-dean of CAM and an accomplished artist, Guggenheim Fellow, Smithsonian Fellow and professor. In her faculty affairs role she oversees the Center for Faculty Development and Advancement, serves as a liaison for faculty governance bodies and supports special projects that center on faculty success, processes and policies. At CU South Denver, Brennan oversees the Continuing and Professional Education Innovation Studio. With oversight of CU Denver’s Canvas Open Online platform, she and her team support the development of entrepreneurial market-need course offerings in collaboration with CU Denver and CU Anschutz faculty and departments. As an artist, her artwork has been presented in exhibitions and publications nationally and internationally including; Land Matters, Culture and Identity by Liz Wells, Earth Now (exhibition and book) New Mexico Museum of Art, International Fototage Photography Festival, Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Germany; Paradise Paved (exhibition and catalogue), Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA; Princeton University Art Museum; Center for Photography, Woodstock, New York, Peggy Notebeart Nature Museum, Chicago, Il.; and European Photography Magazine and Photo Review Quarterly. Her artwork is in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Mexico State University Museum, the Paine Webber Collection, Princeton Art Museum and Danforth Art Museum. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a Smithsonian Fellowship from the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in 2010.

In 2006 and 2010 Brennan was elected to the National Board of Directors for the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) to serve two four-year terms. Brennan has served SPE in numerous capacities including membership on the Executive Committee, Chair of the Regional Affairs Committee and participation on three national conference committees. In March 2008, Brennan chaired and provided the vision for the 2008 SPE National Conference titled “Agents of Change: Art and Advocacy.”

Brennan has taught photography at the School of Art and Design, State University of New York at Alfred University, and Princeton University. Since 1998 she has taught at the University of Colorado Denver in the College of Arts & Media (CAM). She has served CAM as the Visual Arts Department Chair, the Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs and is currently the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at CU South Denver. Brennan was the Director of CAM’s ArtsBridge, a program that deployed undergraduate art students to work with K12 teachers and students in the development and presentation of original works designed to enhance knowledge in core curriculum subject areas such as American history, literature, and physics.