Arne Flaten
Dean
225-578-5400 | 101 Julian T. White Hall
Arne.Flaten@lsu.edu
Dr. Arne Flaten is an art historian, Dean of the LSU College of Art & Design, and Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor.
Before joining LSU in 2025, Arne Flaten was Head of the Rueff School of Design, Art and Performance, and Professor of Art History, at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Growing up in a diplomatic family, Dr. Flaten has lived and studied in various parts of the world, including Italy, France, Israel and Rwanda. After graduating high school in Israel, he earned a B.A. in Art Studio and English Literature from St. Olaf College, where he graduated with honors and was elected Phi Beta Kappa. After bicycling from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv to teach and coach at his former high school, Flaten worked in marketing at General Mills in Golden Valley, MN for two years before getting married and moving to Rwanda to teach at the Kigali International School. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance Art History at Indiana University-Bloomington. Dr. Flaten publishes on topics ranging from Renaissance Europe, Digital Humanities and 5th century BCE Delphi to portrait medals and popular culture. In addition to various articles and essays, he co-edited four issues of the The Medal (British Museum Press); two issues of Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation (Taylor & Francis/Routledge); an issue of Mediterranean Archaeometry and Archaeology; and two issues of Source: Notes on the History of Art (University of Chicago Press). He is author of Medals and Plaquettes 15th to 20th Centuries: The Ulrich Middeldorf Collection (Indiana University Press, 2012) and several forthcoming books on the history of American Football Cards and the drawings and prints of renowned sculptor Albert Paley.
Dr. Flaten’s research has been supported by the William J. Fulbright Commission; the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities USA; the National Endowment for the Arts USA; the J. Paul Getty Research Institute; and the Renaissance Society of America, among others. In 2013, Flaten was named the HTC Distinguished Scholar-Teacher of the Year at Coastal Carolina University, the university’s highest honor, and in 2014 he was elected to the European Academy of Science and Arts—Salzburg. In addition to other regional, national and international affiliations, Flaten is a program site reviewer for the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), serves on the Advisory Board of a2ru, and was elected to the Board of Directors for the International Council for Arts Deans (ICfAD).