Rowan Pope

Ethan “Rowan” Pope is a visual artist and art instructor. He graduated from Stanford University and received his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota, where he has been an Adjunct Professor for twelve years, teaching drawing and graphic novel illustration classes. Rowan has taught Foundation: 2D classes at MCAD for nine years (this year is his tenth!). His art explores the human condition by telling visual narratives, and many of his drawings and paintings are based on great stories from literature, particularly the stories of Franz Kafka. Recently he received a faculty grant from MCAD to travel to Prague, Czech Republic, to research the life of Kafka. Rowan has worked extensively with genocide and Holocaust survivors, and some of his art derives from the real-life stories told by those survivors. He created an illustrated book based on the stories of Holocaust survivor Joe Grosnacht, for which he received a major arts grant from Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Council. Rowan's drawing, A Hunger Artist, is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s permanent collection, and four of his artworks are in Walker Art Center's collection. He also writes screenplays with his twin brother Bly Pope, and has taught screenwriting at Young Authors Conferences to middle school and high school students. He shares his art website with Bly.