Rachel L. Mindrup, BFA, MFA

Rachel L. Mindrup, BFA, MFA

Rachel L. Mindrup, BFA, MFA

Associate Professor
Endowed Chair, Richard L. Deming, MD Endowed Chair in Medical Humanities
College of Arts and Sciences

Expertise/Specializations

  • Artistic Anatomy and Painting
  • Painting
  • Social Activism

Academic Appointments

Department

  • Fine & Performing Arts

Position

  • Associate Professor

Teaching Activity

  • Art of Examination: How Observation Leads to Empathy in Healthcare
  • Artistic Anatomy
  • Drawing Fundamentals
  • Life Drawing I-IV
  • Painting I-IV
  • Senior Thesis

Biography

Rachel Mindrup, is a visual artist who is active in both her local and regional art communities. She received her BFA from the University of Nebraska - Kearney and then continued with atelier studies at the Art Academy of Los Angeles. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Boston. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Her current painting practice is about the study of the figure and portraiture in art and its relation to medicine, healing and identity. Her son's diagnosis has been the motivation behind her series of portraits "Many Faces of Neurofibromatosis (NF)". She is currently painting someone with NF from all 50 states to bring to Washington D.C. when advocating for federal funding for NF research.

Mindrup's work has been shown nationally and internationally including the Queens Museum in Queens, NY, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney campuses, Georgia Regents University and Washington University Medical School. Her artwork is held in many private collections including those of Primatologist Jane Goodall and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Publications and Presentations

Presentations

Research and Scholarship

Current Research Projects

  • Currently, I am painting and researching individuals affected by Neurofibromatosis (NF). I am using this qualitative method to humanize a genetic disorder that can often be defined by statistics rather than case studies. Because it is variable from person to person depending on how the chromosome mutates its effects manifest themselves differently. By presenting individual stories, it also shows the breadth of research needed to tackle different aspects of the disorder. I am using the portraits to lobby for funding for the NIH and the CDMRP through the federal budget.

Awards and Honors

  • Individual Artist Fellowship, Nebraska Arts Council, 2019
  • Artist in Residence, National Park Service (NPS), 2018
  • Artist in Residence, Farwell House, 2018
  • Artist in Residence, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, 2017
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, NISOD, 2015
  • Artist in Residence, Ink Shop Printmaking Center, 2015
  • The Mamie E. Johnston, D.O., FACOP, Creative Medical Art in Teaching Award, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, 2011