The UCLA Department of Art History has established the Diane C. Brouillette Graduate Fellowship in Art History, thanks to a $250,000 tribute gift in memory of the late UCLA alumna Diane Brouillette. The gift qualified for an additional $125,000 in matching funds from the UCLA Humanities Centennial Matching Gift Fund.
The fellowship will help fund tuition, travel costs and research awards for Ph.D. students of French Medieval Art and Architecture, and reflects Diane’s lifelong passions for medieval art history and French culture.
Department Chair Miwon Kwon, said, “The Brouillette Fellowship will leave a lasting legacy by providing crucial support for generations of talented UCLA graduate students seeking to advance knowledge of this rich and historically important field.”
Born in Providence, RI, Diane Cynthia Brouillette graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 1970 with a B.A. in Art, and was invited to join Phi Beta Kappa. She earned masters and Ph.D. degrees in art history from UC Berkeley in 1973 and 1981, respectively.
At UC Berkeley, Diane studied under Jean Bony, one of the most highly regarded historians of medieval architecture, and Walter Horn, who was the first-ever professor of art history in the UC system.
Bony praised Diane’s thesis “The Early Gothic Sculpture of Senlis Cathedral” as “the basic tool of reference for mid-12th century Gothic.” While working on her dissertation, Diane received financial support from the dean’s fellowship program, the French government, as well as the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. It was her gratitude for this support and her wish to give back that led to the establishment of the Brouillette Fellowship at UCLA.
Diane Brouillette taught at Oberlin College and Vassar College, and later left academia for a career in business. She passed away in September 2018.
