Bonnie Pitman Bio

Bonnie joined The University of Texas at Dallas as Distinguished Scholar in Residence in 2012 to research and develop partnerships between UT Dallas and cultural and health-related institutions. The former Director of The Dallas Museum of Art, she is a national leader in education and the public engagement of art. Bonnie has been a curator, educator and administrator at the University of California’s Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives, Seattle Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. She holds degrees from Tulane University (MA) and Sweet Briar College (BA). Along with teaching seminars for the UT Dallas Honors College in Art and Observation, Bonnie teaches a UT Southwestern Medical School class that develops close observation of works of art to enhance the diagnostic skills needed for medical practice. In 2016, she organized the first national convening of Art Museums with Medical School Partnerships and launched a website with resources for the art and medical fields through the UT Dallas Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History.

Bonnie’s innovative initiatives in the field of medicine and the arts at UTD have been featured in The New York Times and Dallas Morning News. Her work deals with the close observation of works of art to enhance diagnostic skills needed for medical practice. She teaches a course, “The Art of Examination,” for UT Southwestern Medical School students. Bonnie’s new work with the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth expands her research and teaching of the art of observation, meditation and compassion as it relates to looking at works of art. The program pairs neuroscience with her daily practice to “Do Something New” that invites the exploration and celebration of making an ordinary day extraordinary while dealing with chronic illness.