Curlee Appointed Director of Communications for Honors College

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Kendall Curlee. Photo by Russell Cothren

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Kendall Curlee is the new director of communications for the University of Arkansas Honors College. She brings more than 16 years of experience working with educational and arts organizations to her new position, including six years at the University of Arkansas as director of communications for the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

“Kendall Curlee brings a high level of professional experience and enthusiasm to this position,” said Bob McMath, dean of the Honors College. “I admired her work with the Fay Jones School of Architecture and with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Now she is exactly the right person to lead us in sharing the good news about the Honors College and the amazing things that honors students and their faculty mentors are accomplishing together.”

“At the School of Architecture I followed the work of the honors students and faculty and was so impressed by the originality and depth of the projects they would take on,” Curlee said. “I look forward to working with students and faculty across campus, sharing their stories with multiple audiences.”

During her tenure at the Fay Jones School of Architecture, Curlee developed a comprehensive publications program, including a new website, online communications and innovative print pieces, which helped the school raise more than $20 million during the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. Her media relations efforts generated consistent local, regional and national interest in the School of Architecture and its faculty, including features in Architectural Record, Dwell and Metropolitan Home. Curlee also helped to plan two major events for the School of Architecture, each drawing more than 350 alumni and friends back to campus.

In her new role at the Honors College, Curlee will develop a comprehensive communications program, beginning with a new website for the college. She also will work with college leaders to capitalize on two forthcoming milestones – the 10-year anniversary of the founding of the Honors College in 2012 and the inauguration of a permanent home for the Honors College in a new wing of Ozark Hall, expected to be completed in 2013.

Most recently, Kendall Curlee has gained valuable experience planning communications for a fledgling organization of national scope as manager of communications at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. She also draws on experience writing profiles for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, coordinating public relations for the Fayetteville Public Library and editing illustrations and arts coverage for the six-volume New Handbook of Texas, a standard reference work published by the Texas State Historical Association. She began her career helping to coordinate an international loan exhibition, The Sforza Court: Milan in the Renaissance 1450-1535, for the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery (now the Blanton Art Museum).

Curlee earned a master’s degree in art history and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where she participated in the Plan II honors program as an undergraduate.

“Having graduated from UT’s Plan II, I know firsthand the transformative power of a high-caliber honors education,” Curlee said. “I look forward to building recognition and support for an exceptional learning opportunity here at the University of Arkansas.”