ABT, Jeffrey 1949-

PERSONAL: Born February 27, 1949, in Kansas City, MO; son of Arthur and Lottie (Weinman) Abt; married Mary Paquette (a university lecturer), July 16, 1972; children: Uriel, Danya. Education: Drake University, B.F.A. (with honors), 1971, M.F.A. (with honors), 1977; attended Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1971. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Art and Art History, 150 Art Building, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202; fax: 208-545-7268. E-mail—j_abt@wayne.edu.

CAREER: Teacher of adult education classes at public schools in Des Moines, IA, 1973-77; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, curator of collections, 1977-78; Billy Hork Galleries Ltd., Chicago, IL, general manager, 1978-80; University of Chicago, exhibitions coordinator at university library, 1980-86, assistant director, 1986-87, then acting director of David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, 1987-89; Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, associate professor of art and art history, 1989—, member of advisory board for Humanities Center, 1993-94. Artist, with paintings and drawings exhibited throughout the Midwest and represented in public collections; sculptor, with work commissioned by Waldinger Foundation and Iowa Jewish Guild. Wayne State University Press, member of editorial board, 1990-96, board chair, 1996-2001. Ragdale Foundation, trustee, 1985-96, member of national advisory council, 1996—; Detroit Institute of Arts, member of education advisory board, 1992-94; Detroit Artists Market, member of board of directors, 1994-2000, board chair, 1999-2001.

MEMBER: American Association of Museums, Association for Museum History, College Art Association, Committee on Museum Professional Training.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, 1991, 1993, Rockefeller University, 1992, Reva and David Logan Foundation, 1998, and Kaufman Memorial Trust, 1998; Award of Merit, publication category, Historical Society of Michigan, 2002, for A Museum on the Verge: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1882-2000.

WRITINGS:

(Illustrator) Alice Ryerson Hayes, Water: Sheba's Story (poetry), Bookwrights Press (Charlottesville, VA), 1997.

A Museum on the Verge: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1882-2002, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Author of exhibition catalogues. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Visual Resources, Art History, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. Editor, Book and Paper Group Annual, 1985-86.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A Humanist's Science: James H. Breasted and His Historical Laboratory, 1895-1935.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Detroit News, January 22, 2002, Joy Hakanson Colby, review of A Museum on the Verge: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1882-2000.