Allison Westerfield

Allison Westerfield is a doctoral student studying modern art at the University of Florida. She received her BA in Arts Administration from the University of West Florida and an MA in Art History from Savannah College of Art and Design. Her dissertation, tentatively titled “Queen of Pentacles: Women Surrealists & The Tarot of Pamela Coleman Smith,” argues that a renewed interest in the occult, specifically the symbolism of tarot cards, influenced avant-garde visual artists of the twentieth century, in particular, women Surrealists. She is a recipient of the Rothman Doctoral Fellowship as well as the Charles T. Woods Student Grant which supports research that addresses issues within LGBTQ+ communities. In 2024, she attended the Middlebury Language Immersion for Spanish program with the help of the Kress Fellowship in European Art History. She also works as an independent curator, curating exhibitions such as mini golf of sensual sports photographs by McKinna Anderson, Waiting Room at Laundromat Art Space in Miami, and Ctrl [Alt] Self at Westobou Gallery in Augusta, Ga. Most recently, she curated Double Space: Women Photographers and Surrealism at the New Orleans Museum of Art.