Honors in the arts
Aurelia Campbell and Cathy Della Lucia, faculty members in the Boston College Art, Art History, and Film Department, have been awarded major fellowships—a national recognition of the artistic talent and scholarship within the department.
Aurelia Campbell (Caitlin Cunningham)
Campbell, an associate professor of art history and the department chair, is a recipient of a 2025-2026 George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship; Della Lucia, an assistant professor of studio art, received a 2025 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship.
The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, an independent agency administered at Brown University, grants annual unrestricted fellowships to assist in the intellectual and artistic growth of early mid-career individuals. Campbell was awarded a fellowship in the category of Art History, Architecture, and Visual Culture.
Campbell specializes in the architecture and material culture from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties (1279-1911) in China. She is interested in issues concerning materials and technologies, sacred objects and spaces, and the relationship between the imperial court and outlying regions.
During her fellowship, she will work on her forthcoming book, In Death as in Life: A Material History of Ming Dynasty Tombs. Focusing on the Ming dynasty, the book examines new approaches to tomb space, grave goods, and the treatment of the body in light of contemporaneous social and economic developments.
“I’m thrilled to be selected as a Howard Foundation Fellow alongside such an impressive group of art historians and visual artists,” said Campbell. “The fellowship will be instrumental in allowing me to complete my second book, especially in terms of conducting necessary field work in China on the material culture of Ming tombs.”
Campbell’s first book, What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming, examined the building projects of the famous Yongle emperor to consider how imperial ideology takes shape in built space. It was awarded the Bei Shan Tang Monograph Prize from the Association for Asian Studies and an honorable mention for the Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians.
Campbell has engaged in several projects that help to advance the field of Chinese architectural history, including compiling three annotated bibliographies for Oxford Bibliographies on the subjects of palace architecture in premodern China, Buddhist architecture in Imperial China, and architecture of the Ming and Qing dynasties. She has also been involved in an international collaboration to create an English dictionary of traditional Chinese architectural terminology. Since 2022, she has served as the visual arts editor for the journal Religion and the Arts.
Cathy Della Lucia (Caitlin Cunningham)
The Joan Mitchell Foundation cultivates the study and appreciation of the titular artist’s life and work, while fulfilling her wish to provide resources and opportunities for visual artists. The foundation awarded 2025 fellowships to 15 artists from across the United States working in the fields of painting and sculpture. Della Lucia and other winning artists receive direct funding, distributed over five years, alongside professional development, peer engagement, and network-building programs.
“I’m honored to be named a Joan Mitchell Fellow alongside such an incredible group of artists,” said Della Lucia. “This fellowship provides invaluable support to sustain my studio practice and will allow me to jump in on a new body of work that is informed by recalled toys from the U.S. and Korea. I’m especially excited to expand my network and exchange ideas as part of a wider conversation in sculpture and painting with my cohort.”
Della Lucia, who teaches sculpture and 3D design at BC, creates multi-part sculptures from wood, ceramic, and digitally fabricated materials that are designed to come apart. Her work explores modularity and the relationship between the body and objects such as tools, toys, and weapons. Her work has been featured in Sculpture Magazine and Boston Art Review, and her recent exhibitions include the 808 Gallery at Boston University, Mazmanian Gallery at Framingham State University, Overlap Gallery (Newport, RI), Radial Gallery at the University of Dayton (Ohio), Kniznick Gallery at Brandeis University, and Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (Boston/Los Angeles).