Legacy of Art
Dr. Floyd Martin has devoted himself to excellence in teaching throughout his 31 years of service to UA Little Rock. He has consistently exhibited a deep and contagious passion for his subject area and regularly initiates a wide range of creative pedagogical approaches. Dr. Martin doesn’t just teach art history but he brings students into it by encouraging them to experience art through the years in his class assignments, which include museum research projects, critical writing assignments, as well as individual and oral presentations. Further, Dr. Martin encourages his students to value community engagement and the larger social context in which they find themselves.
Dr. Martin has organized field trips to a number of regional museums in addition to enabling students to learn through special exhibitions as well as the permanent exhibition of the Arkansas Arts Center. In addition to these exemplary pedagogical techniques, Dr. Martin similarly has demonstrated a keen awareness of the importance campus wide events have on student success. Dr. Martin cofounded the Arkansas Art History Symposium, an annual event that offers students from across the state the opportunity to present their own research. Though these specific points are but a few of Dr. Martin’s many noteworthy pedagogical efforts and successes, they clearly attest to his caring for and his generosity to his students.
A testament to Dr. Martin ‘s enduring legacy as an educator, Ms. Ellen M. Gray established the Dr. Floyd W. Martin Endowment and the Ellen M. Gray Endowed Professorship of Art History. Ms. Gray did so after completing one course with Dr. Martin. Her generous gift is intended to benefit the UA Little Rock Department of Art and “to recognize the distinguished career of Dr. Floyd W. Martin.”
Dr. Martin’s degrees include a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a M.A. from the University of lowa, and a B.A. from Carleton College.