Meet Fina Mooney
Fina Mooney (she/her) is a third-year art history major pursuing minors in Italian studies and museum & curatorial studies.
Growing up in Minneapolis, Fina’s influence in art appreciation started early with visits to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. At age five she began to pursue traditional studies through atelier-style training, and eventually, she began oil painting at age nine. She has studied both domestically and internationally from New York to Florence. Additionally, she has shown works from coast to coast, LA to NY, and internationally in Barcelona.
Her passion for speaking as an advocate for youth in the arts warranted her the opportunity to speak at national conferences, demo internationally, and be featured on MPR and in Minnesota Women’s Press magazine.
During Fina’s junior year in high school, she was accepted into the PSEO (post-secondary enrollment options) program at the University of Minnesota and has since thrived in learning at a collegiate level. During Fina’s freshman year, she had become interested in various topics of art history in accordance with a focus on gender and race studies.
She finds art history to play an important and influential role in how we understand culture, creativity, identity, politics, and more. She enjoys visiting the University’s libraries and museums and taking on new opportunities available in her city.
Fina currently plans to pursue a master's degree in art conservation, continuing to keep her interest alive in art and oil painting techniques. This semester, Fina will be part of the (Dean's First-Year Research & Creative Scholars (DFRACS) program closely working with Anna Seastrand’s research on the subject of southeastern India and art history. She is excited to continue to explore new topics of study and see where her interests take her!