Ronne Hartfield (née Ronola Rone, born March 17, 1936) is an American author, essayist, museum consultant, a former executive at
The Art Institute of Chicago and executive director of Urban Gateways: The Center for Arts in Education.[1] She has been a co-chair of the
Harvard University Arts Education Council and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions and
Claremont Graduate University School of Religion. In 2004, Hartfield published Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family. Hartfield has served on the board of directors at the
American Writers Museum, the
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Taliesin,
Scottsdale, Arizona, the
Rhode Island School of Design, and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion at the
University of Chicago. She is an internationally recognized expert in arts education and multicultural education.[2]
Early life and education
Ronne Hartfield was born on March 17, 1936, to John Drayton Rone Sr. and Thelma Shepherd (
née Thelma Day), a factory worker and a homemaker. Her parents emigrated separately from
Louisiana to
Chicago during the “first wave” of the
Great Migration, between 1918 and 1920. Hartfield and her four siblings all attended the landmark
Wendell Phillips High School and local universities.
Ronne attended the University of Chicago for both her undergraduate and master's degree.[3] While obtaining her BA in history (1955), Ronne worked with honors preceptorial advisor Charles G. Bell. Advisors for her M.A. in theology and literature included
Langdon Gilkey,
Paul Ricoeur, and
Anthony Yu.
She was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters by
DePaul University in 2006.[4]
Ronne's husband, Robert Hartfield, is a mathematician at the University of Chicago. They have four daughters.
Early career
From 1974 to 1981, Hartfield served as the dean of students and assistant professor of comparative literature at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During this time, Hartfield developed national and international exchange study opportunities and fellowships for SAIC students.[citation needed] In 1981, Hartfield became an executive director for Urban Gateways: The Center for Arts in Education, a Chicago-based, not-profit, arts and education organization that was at the time the largest in the country.[5] Urban Gateways won the Presidential Medal for the Arts, as well as the Governor's Award for the most outstanding arts organization in Illinois.
In 1991, Hartfield became the Woman's Board Endowed Executive Director of Museum Education at
The Art Institute of Chicago where she was responsible for all facets of interpretation in the museum, including lectures, films, videos and services to schools and families. Hartfield was instrumental in forming the Leadership Advisory Committee in 1994. The LAC continues to promote and sustain diversity within the AIC, and provides counsel, new perspectives and support to the museum for the advancement and engagement of African Americans in the life of the institution.
From 1999 to-date, Hartfield has been an independent consultant in museum education and planning. Her clients have included The Fetzer Institute, where she convened an international Arts Advisory Council; The
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago;
Rubin Museum of Art, New York City;
Museum of Biblical Art, New York City; Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions at
Harvard Divinity School; National Endowment for the Arts; Newberry Library; as well as museums in
São Paulo,
London and
Kyoto.
Author
Hartfield's full-length memoir, Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family (
University of Chicago Press, 2004) was a seminal book in the literature of race in America.[6] A biographical memoir, Another Way Home traces the story of Hartfield's mother, Day Shepherd, through her migration to the city of Chicago and her experiences as a mixed-race American. Hartfield draws on her mother's recollections and genealogical research to trace her family roots from a deep-South plantation to a close-knit urban middle-class family. Hartfield's book chronicles crucial moments in African American history, from the
Chicago Race Riot of 1919 and the
Great Depression to the murder of
Emmett Till and the dawn of the
Civil Rights Movement. Named by the Chicago Tribune as one of the ten best non-fiction books of 2004, Another Way Home has met with critical acclaim, and garnered praise from Children's Defense Fund President
Marian Wright Edelman, Yale Professor
Robert B. Stepto, Harvard's Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, and poet
Nikki Giovanni.[7]
Selected service on boards and committees
American Writers Museum, Chicago, Vice Chair, Board of Directors,
Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo, MI, Convener, Arts Advisory Council
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin, Scottsdale, AZ, Board of Directors
Harvard University Graduate Division of Arts Education, Co-Chair Board of Directors
University of Chicago Women's Board, Steering Committee
University of Chicago, Interlocutor, International Enhancing Life Project
Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, Martin Marty Center,University of Chicago
Rhode Island School of Design, Honorary Life Trustee
Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Chicago
The Chicago Network, Vice President
Columbia College Chicago, Board of Directors
International Sculpture Center, New York City
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Illinois Chapter
National Women's Caucus for Art
ArtTable, New York City, Vice President
Selected publications
2019 - Essay in The Horn Book Magazine,v. XCV No. 4, American Library Association
2016 - The Arts Enhance Life in Excelsis: Essay, websites of The University of Chicago Enhancing Life Project and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
2014 - Essay in Conference Publication, the Institute for Signifying Scriptures, Claremont, California
2013 - Manifest Grace: Art, Presence, and Healing: Catalogue Essay in Body and Soul, Museum of Art and Design: New York City
2012 - Visual Echoes and Evocations: Essay in Eranos Yearbook v.70. Daimon Verlag, Einsiedein, Ticino, Italy.
2010 - Journal of Ordinary Thought, Neighborhood Writing Alliance, Chicago.Introuction.
2010 - Foreword: Catalogue for SAIC/SSCAC exhibition, RECESSION.
2007 - Architects of Culture. Interview with Tim Gilfoyle in Chicago History, the Magazine of the
Chicago History Museum. Summer issue
2006 - Laying Coping Stones in Zion: Art, the Imagination, and the Flourishing of Common Life. Essay in Criterion (University of Chicago Divinity School v.45 No. 1)
2004 - Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family. Biographical Memoir (
University of Chicago Press)
2004 - Musings on Barbarous Beauty. Fellowship conference proceedings (Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions)
2004 - Seeing and Silence: Sacred Encounter in Museum Exhibition. Essay in Stewards of the Sacred (
American Association of Museums)
^The History Makers, Ronne Hartfield Biography, July 3, 2002, "
[1]", April 3, 2012
^Office of Public Relations and Communications, 108th Commencement Ceremony to Bring Array of Notables to DePaul University, June 8, 2006, "
[2]", April 3, 2012