Instructor Profile
“She has a delightful personality, brings the art alive for me, and lights a fire of enthusiasm under me!” said one of her students.
Meet Kris Door - by Lynn Lothman
Kris Door is OLLI at Duke’s resident Art History expert. She has shared her passion and expertise of some of the world’s great masterpieces with OLLI members since 2006. Her unique style of teaching has earned her a faithful following.
Kris holds her classes at the North Carolina Museum of Art; she lectures one week in the auditorium at the museum and leads students on a gallery tour through the museum the next providing them a personal connection with the masterpiece and the creator. “Art is the visual record—the history of the western world. It gives us a sense of self and a place in history,” said Kris unable to contain the enthusiasm in her voice.
Observation is not innate and the bi-weekly lectures followed by Kris’s gentle framing of the museum pieces assists people in observing, analyzing, and interjecting their own knowledge to understand history better and find meaning in it as it relates to humanity.
Kris was born in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in 1950 to parents who were art teachers. Growing up in Minnesota in the 50s and 60s gave Kris a strong work ethic and a strict, orderliness of a Scandinavian/German heritage. It was a simple life growing up in a homogeneous, insular environment. She attributes her desires and goals to become an academic to her mother, a woman who valued her professionalism and was not a stay-at-home mom during a time when most mothers were housewives.
And so Kris set her sights high and reached for the stars. She attended the University of Minnesota where she studied studio art and art education. While working on her Masters in Painting, she was influenced by her art history professor to move toward the academic side of art. She earned her Ph.D. at Ohio University and a Fulbright Fellowship to The Netherlands in 1982. The University of North Dakota hired her in 1984 to develop their Art History program. Over the next twelve years Kris designed an entire Art History curriculum for the Department of Visual Arts. “I loved it! It satisfied my every need! And then I met my future husband, I was in my 40s; we married and a year and half later we had our daughter. He was transferred to Raleigh, North Carolina, and a year after that. Within three years we had a daughter and a new life together. “It was difficult---newlyweds, new parents, new home, and I didn’t have my teaching. I cried a lot!”
Kris found her way back into her profession at the North Carolina Museum of Art, first as a volunteer and soon began teaching a survey class and training docents. There were more lectures, more responsibility for the docents, and finally found herself working full time again. She retired in 2006 from the Museum of Art. Fortunately for OLLI, she still had the desire to share her passion with us. Over the years the Art History class has evolved into a finely tuned masterpiece.
“What would surprise people about yourself?” I asked.
“Hmmm. Maybe it would surprise some to know that I earned a degree in modern dance and worked in theater? No, that I am an avid cyclist. I met my husband through a cycling club in North Dakota. We still cycle together.”
I responded, “We might be surprised that you are a cyclist, but not that you feel a passion for it!” It seems that might be who Kris is---an individual who is committed to her interests whole-heartedly and is happy to share what makes her happy with anyone who expresses an interest.
In the fall semester of 2015, Kris will be teaching a class entitled, “Da Vinci and Escher; the Science of Art.” More information on the class can be found in the OLLI catalogue, the OLLI website, or at kristinedoor.com.
Kris holds her classes at the North Carolina Museum of Art; she lectures one week in the auditorium at the museum and leads students on a gallery tour through the museum the next providing them a personal connection with the masterpiece and the creator. “Art is the visual record—the history of the western world. It gives us a sense of self and a place in history,” said Kris unable to contain the enthusiasm in her voice.
Observation is not innate and the bi-weekly lectures followed by Kris’s gentle framing of the museum pieces assists people in observing, analyzing, and interjecting their own knowledge to understand history better and find meaning in it as it relates to humanity.
Kris was born in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in 1950 to parents who were art teachers. Growing up in Minnesota in the 50s and 60s gave Kris a strong work ethic and a strict, orderliness of a Scandinavian/German heritage. It was a simple life growing up in a homogeneous, insular environment. She attributes her desires and goals to become an academic to her mother, a woman who valued her professionalism and was not a stay-at-home mom during a time when most mothers were housewives.
And so Kris set her sights high and reached for the stars. She attended the University of Minnesota where she studied studio art and art education. While working on her Masters in Painting, she was influenced by her art history professor to move toward the academic side of art. She earned her Ph.D. at Ohio University and a Fulbright Fellowship to The Netherlands in 1982. The University of North Dakota hired her in 1984 to develop their Art History program. Over the next twelve years Kris designed an entire Art History curriculum for the Department of Visual Arts. “I loved it! It satisfied my every need! And then I met my future husband, I was in my 40s; we married and a year and half later we had our daughter. He was transferred to Raleigh, North Carolina, and a year after that. Within three years we had a daughter and a new life together. “It was difficult---newlyweds, new parents, new home, and I didn’t have my teaching. I cried a lot!”
Kris found her way back into her profession at the North Carolina Museum of Art, first as a volunteer and soon began teaching a survey class and training docents. There were more lectures, more responsibility for the docents, and finally found herself working full time again. She retired in 2006 from the Museum of Art. Fortunately for OLLI, she still had the desire to share her passion with us. Over the years the Art History class has evolved into a finely tuned masterpiece.
“What would surprise people about yourself?” I asked.
“Hmmm. Maybe it would surprise some to know that I earned a degree in modern dance and worked in theater? No, that I am an avid cyclist. I met my husband through a cycling club in North Dakota. We still cycle together.”
I responded, “We might be surprised that you are a cyclist, but not that you feel a passion for it!” It seems that might be who Kris is---an individual who is committed to her interests whole-heartedly and is happy to share what makes her happy with anyone who expresses an interest.
In the fall semester of 2015, Kris will be teaching a class entitled, “Da Vinci and Escher; the Science of Art.” More information on the class can be found in the OLLI catalogue, the OLLI website, or at kristinedoor.com.