Dear MCAD Community,
It is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of Shannon Benine as the new Chair of Media Arts at MCAD.
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Shannon is an accomplished educator, artist, curator whose work seeks to expand the discourse around documentary photography, interdisciplinary practice, and community engagement. With over 18 years of experience in higher education, Shannon has held both teaching and leadership roles, most recently serving as Chair of the Department of Photography at the University of La Verne in California.
Shannon’s practice spans photography, video, sound, text, and archival materials to create immersive multimedia installations. Her work reimagines traditional documentary methods, critically exploring the aesthetics, politics, and ethics of documentary practices while inviting viewers into conversations about the United States’ complex and often contentious human rights history.
Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago , the National Centre of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia, and the Kalaupapa National Historic Museum in Hawai’i. She has received grant support from institutions including the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Midwest Society for Photographic Education. Her exhibitions include shows at the Columbus Museum of Art (OH), the Catherine Edelman Gallery (Chicago), and the Griffin Museum of Photography (MA), among others.
She holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as a BFA in Photography and a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts from the University of Washington in Seattle.
I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all who participated in the search process, and especially to the members of the search committee that I chaired: Katherine Turczan, Professor and Interim Chair of Media Arts; Jason Coyle, P rofessor of Media Arts; Avigail Manneberg, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts; Jan Jancourt, Professor of Design; Jay Gould, Chair and Professor of Foundations; Kathryn Savage, Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts.
Please join me in warmly welcoming Shannon Benine to MCAD as Chair and Professor of Media Arts. She will officially begin her role on July 21, 2025.
All my best,
Robert