2015 Whitewater Valley Art Competition

James Elkins grew up in Ithaca, New York, separated from Cornell University by a quarter-mile of woods once owned by the naturalist Laurence Palmer. He stayed in Ithaca long enough to receive a B.A. in English and Art History, with summer hitchhiking trips to Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, the Caribbean and Columbia.

For the last 25 years he has lived in Chicago where he earned his M.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Chicago and, later, a Ph.D. in Art History. Since then, he has been teaching in the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.