Women to Watch at UA Little Rock: Joli Livaudais
In celebration of Women’s History Month, UA Little Rock is highlighting women who are making a difference at the university and in the community.
The next Woman to Watch at UA Little Rock is Professor Joli Livaudais, the interim director of the School of Art and Design and an associate professor of photography. At the end of 2024, Livaudais’ work was selected to be on temporary display at the 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville. Already having been showcased in multiple venues across the state and in Texas, Livaudais’s exhibition, titled “All That I Love,” will be on display in Bentonville until April 2025.
Tell us about yourself and your background.
My path to academia has been unconventional. After high school, I served in the army for four years before using the Army College Fund and G.I. Bill to earn a psychology degree with a minor in art at the University of Texas at Arlington.
I continued into their graduate program, earning an M.S. in experimental psychology, but ultimately realized that art and photography were where my real passion lay. I shifted gears, where I worked as a commercial photographer’s assistant in Dallas, then as a photographer before opening my own commercial photography studio and gallery in Monroe, Louisiana.
In 2010, I was accepted into the M.F.A. Photography program at Louisiana Tech University, and I graduated in 2013. I joined UA Little Rock in the fall of 2014 where I brought with me a perspective shaped by both my military and professional experiences, which continue to inform my approach to art and photography.
What is your current position and professional duties at UA Little Rock?
I am an Associate Professor and head of the Photography program, and I have been serving as the Interim Director of the School of Art and Design since July 2023. In this role, I oversee class scheduling, budget management, student advising, and facility maintenance, while collaborating with our talented faculty and staff to provide students with a strong, well-rounded education in the arts.
What brought you to UA Little Rock?
I came for the Assistant Professor of Photography position, but I was excited about UA Little Rock’s location in the capital of this beautiful state! Since then, I’ve come to love this place and the people in it. Our faculty are a fantastic team doing great work.
What are some of the exciting projects that you are working on at UA Little Rock?
My artwork is rooted in photography but extends beyond traditional approaches. I work with historical photographic methods—processes that require hand-mixed chemistry in the darkroom, much like photography was practiced before the invention of commercial films and papers.
In addition to this, I create photo-based sculpture and installation work. One of my installations features hundreds of origami beetles, folded from photographic prints, climbing the walls. This piece was exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., in 2020 and is currently on display at 21c Museum and Hotel in Bentonville. Seeing my work showcased in these institutions has been incredibly rewarding.
Currently, I’m developing a new series of suburban night photographs, printed using the historical gum bichromate process. Invented in the 1830s, this technique layers watercolor pigments with light-sensitive chemicals to create richly textured, full-color prints.
What’s one leadership lesson you’ve learned in your career?
I’ve learned that there’s more than one way to get things done, and the best solutions often come from a mix of different perspectives. Trusting my team and being open to their ideas has led to better outcomes than I could have come up with on my own. Over the past year and a half, I’ve been especially proud of what we’ve accomplished by working together.