Visual Arts Department Faculty
Click on any faculty member's name to see a
list of achievements.
Bob Pennebaker (2003) Associate Professor and Chair of the
Visual Arts Department
B.A., M.A., Mississippi College
601-965-1450
bpennebaker@belhaven.edu
Bob Pennebaker, associate professor of art
and chair of the visual arts department, teaches drawing and painting. He holds
master’s and bachelor’s degrees in art from Mississippi College and also studied
at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. Previously, Mr. Pennebaker served as
chair of fine arts at Gordon College in Barnesville, Georgia, and has many years
of experience as a self-employed artist, private art instructor, and gallery
owner. He is also a professional caricature artist and judges numerous art
competitions throughout the region, as well as leading art tours to Europe. His
work is found in many private and corporate art collections. Recent exhibitions
of Mr. Pennebaker’s work include Confluence, a joint show with
photographer Gretchen Haien at the Meridian Museum of Art in Meridian,
Mississippi.
Gretchen
Haien (2007) Associate Professor of Art
BA Belhaven
M.F.A. Louisiana Tech University
601-965-1452
ghaien@belhaven.edu
Dr. Melissa Thorson Hause (2001) Associate Professor of Art History and Dean of the Honors College
B.A., Belhaven College
Ph.D, M.A., Emory University
601-965-1453
mhause@belhaven.edu
Dr. Melissa Hause, associate professor of
art history and dean of the Honors
College, teaches art history, aesthetics, the art component of the worldview
curriculum, and the Honors Colloquium. After graduating from Belhaven College
with a B.A. in art, she went on to study at Emory University in Atlanta. There
she received her M.A. in art history and her Ph.D. from Emory’s
interdisciplinary Institute of the Liberal Arts. From 1991 to 2000, Dr. Hause
lived in Germany, where she studied art history at the Philipps-Universitaet in
Marburg and worked as an art and architectural translator and editor. Her
published translations include Picasso: The Sculptures by Werner Spies
and The Prints of Barnett Newman by Gabriele Schor as well as
contributions to major exhibition catalogues such as Cézanne: Finished /
Unfinished and Bill Traylor 1854-1949: Deep Blues.
Nate Theisen (2002) Associate Professor of Art
B.F.A. University of South Dakota
M.F.A. Wichita State University
601-965-1451
ntheisen@belhaven.edu
Nate Theisen, associate professor of art,
teaches sculpture, two- and three-dimensional design, and the art component of
the worldview curriculum. He received his B.F.A. with an emphasis in painting
from the University of South Dakota and an M.F.A. with a major in painting and a
minor in sculpture from Wichita State University. He also apprenticed in
Germany under sculptor Anatol Herzfeld, a student of Joseph Beuys. Previously,
Mr. Theisen taught at Butler County Community College in Kansas and at Wichita
State University. Attending and teaching at secular institutions has caused him
to realize that faith has been truncated from the whole of human experience,
leaving a void that the world cannot fill. “It is my hope that students who are
called to be in the arts see this need and the validity that expression and
imagination inherently contain.”
Jon Tyson (2008) Specialty Instructor of Art
jtyson@belhaven.edu
Adjunct Faculty:
Amanda Taylor Moyer
B.A., Belhaven College
M.F.A., Savannah College of Art and Design