“Our hearts are heavy this week at the loss of a beloved member of the Arcadia family, Photography Professor Judith Taylor. Her sudden illness and unexpected death have shocked us, perhaps most poignantly among those faculty, staff and students who worked with her every day, but her vibrant life and work touched all of us, and she will be missed a great deal,” says President Jerry Greiner.

“Judy’s family is making arrangements for her funeral, which will be held on Feb. 6. As a campus we are grieving together now, and we will come together as a campus to remember her passion for her students, her creative spirit, and her legacy as an artist and a friend. I will send more information as arrangements are made, and I encourage students who want to do so to seek assistance at the Counseling Center. Please note that the Arcadia flag in front of the Castle has been lowered to half-staff in her memory.”

Judith Taylor was a professor and program coordinator of Photography in the Department of Art and Design.  She began her teaching career at Arcadia in 1995 as an assistant professor, in 2001 was promoted to associate professor, and achieved the rank of full professor in 2007.  She earned an M.F.A. (summa cum laude) in Photography in 1978 from the Rhode Island School of Design, and in 1975 she earned a B.A. (cum laude) in Fine Art with an emphasis on photography and film from Pennsylvania State University.

In 2008 Taylor was awarded the Arcadia University Frank and Evelyn Steinbrucker Endowed Chair, (July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2010) for Research in Alternative and Non-Silver Photographic Processes. Her scholarly and creative achievements and research grants included: 2007, studio research and photographic materials; 2006, Philadelphia Selections 6, Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia; 2005, group exhibition at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, Del., and studio work at Crane Arts and Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia; 2003, Artist in Residency at  Hospitalfield: Scotland’s Artists’ Residency and Project Workshop for the promotion of contemporary arts and international exchange in Arbroath, Scotland; 2002, support for a solo exhibition at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, Del., and in 2001, a Faculty Development Award for participation in the United States/Scotland Consortium meeting in Rome.  In 2002 she was one of 11 local visual artists awarded an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Visual Arts.

In 1998 Taylor was the recipient of the Ellington Beavers Award for Intellectual Inquiry for her research project “Research into the Production of Two Non-Silver Photographic Processes: Hand Coated Platinum Photographs and Iris Prints,” which was completed in 1999.

Her service to Arcadia University includes the Promotion and Tenure Committee, 2007-08 and 2005-06; the Financial Compensation Committee, 2005-08; President of the Association of American University Professors, 2005-07; Graduate Academic Programs Committee, 2004-05; Chair of the Science and Math General Education Task Force, 2004-05; Coordinator for department in the United States/Scotland Consortium Student Works on Paper Exhibition, in conjunction with the College Art Association Annual Conference, Seattle Art Institute, 2004 and traveling to the Scottish art schools in 2004-2005; and more.

Her service outside the university community includes contributing artwork to the annual Print Center Benefit Auction, to the Center for the Emerging Visual Arts, and to the annual MANNA (Metropolitan Aids Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance) Benefit Auction at Moore College of Art. She was coordinator of the “Moving towards the Millennium” project, Arcadia University photography students in conjunction with Lynn Rosenthal of the McCloskey School in  Philadelphia, teaching fourth- and fifth-grade students photography. In 1998, she contributed a piece of her work to the Art Collection of the State Museum of Pennsylvania.  She participated in the Annual Benefit Auction of The Photo Review, a national periodical with its base here in Philadelphia.

Taylor’s photographs are represented in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bryn Mawr College, Lehigh University, Allentown Art Museum, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University Collection of Art, the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, the Pennsylvania State University, Rowan University, Johnson & Jonson, and Price/Water.