A former art librarian and ARLIS/NA member,
Hikmet Loe now teaches art history at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She is a leading expert on Robert Smithson and his epic earthwork,
Spiral Jetty.
As a practicing artist, writer, and teacher, Hikmet's work examines the changeable nature of the earth and addresses our perceptual and cultural constructs of the land. She frequently lectures and writes on topics related to Utah’s earthworks, and has curated five exhibitions investigating the ways in which artists have engaged with the Great Salt Lake. She has also been a participating artist in seven shows, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She is widely published, including a number of articles, books, reviews, and book chapters. (Peruse a number of pieces she's written for Utah's Arts Magazine,
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Hikmet credits her twenty-five year library career as the springboard for such success. She began in the Fine Arts Department at Salt Lake City Public Library in the early '80s, and then completed her Master's degree in Library and Information Studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. Degree in hand, she returned to Salt Lake City to head the Fine Arts Department of the Marriott Library at the University of Utah. A few years later, she left for New York City to work at the Museum of Modern Art Library, and joined ARLIS/NA. Her membership in the national organization lasted for fifteen years and spanned work on many committees and conference presentations. During this time she was also a member of ARLIS/NY, working as newsletter editor and eventually chaired the chapter. Her career led her to positions in the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, serving as that library’s first reference librarian. She went on to Parsons School of Design, where she directed the Gimble Design Library.
Born and raised on the East coast, the lure of the West won out however, and she moved back to Salt Lake City in 1994. She held her final library position at the Salt Lake City Public Library, where she had begun her library career. It was during this time—and while she was President of the Utah Library Association—that she was asked to teach art history at Westminster College.
Her interest in the Great Salt Lake began while studying the
Spiral Jetty as part of her art history thesis, and it has continued ever since. As a subject for scholarship, it provides inspiration and many avenues of expression. The extensive research Hikmet undertook for her first book,
The Spiral Jetty Encyclo, continues to inspire future publication ideas and projects.
