Budding art historian Aviva Dove-Viebahn is articulate, attractive, friendly and self-assured. She smiles readily. She makes a good first impression. None of that, of course, is very extraordinary. Unfairly or not, one expects a certain polish from the daughter of Rita Dove, a former United States poet laureate under Bill Clinton, and Fred Viebahn, an accomplished novelist.
And why shouldn’t the 20-year-old Dove-Viebahn feel confident? She is in the midst of a remarkable academic career, a career that stands squarely on its own, a career that is extraordinary—though she doesn’t think so.
“I just don’t think of it as that big of a deal,” she says over coffee at the Mudhouse. “I don’t think of it at all, really.”
Perhaps to her it’s no big deal that she began college at 14 years old, graduated at 18 and took the comprehensive finals for her master’s degree in art history the same week she turned 20 (“A nice birthday present,” she says wryly). Perhaps it’s not worth noting that she was recently awarded the first student fellowship endowment, named the Dennis M. Luzak Fellowship fund, ever offered to the UVA Art Museum.
But perhaps it is.
It wasn’t as if Dove-Viebahn was itching to embark on her prodigal journey. She enjoyed middle school, and was looking forward to attending Albemarle High. But during a summer program at Johns Hopkins University, Dove-Veibahn was told about Mary Baldwin College’s PEG, or program for the exceptionally gifted, in which children her age could begin their college career surrounded by others of advanced abilities.
The chance to participate in the program seemed like an incredible opportunity, one Dove-Viebahn—not her parents—decided she couldn’t pass up.
“My parents were really great about the whole thing, because they didn’t pressure me either way,” she says. “I think they felt it was my decision.”
Dove-Viebahn, whose grandfather, Ray Dove, was a noted chemist, double-majored in biochemistry and theater (while at Mary Baldwin she directed the play Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, written by Alan Ball of American Beauty fame). However, it was in an art history class her junior year taught by Marlena Hobson, a class she “absolutely adored,” that Dove-Viebahn realized her calling.
UVA had a good program, and the school’s proximity to home made it the perfect—in fact, the only—choice for the art historian. Now, with her master’s most likely under her belt by the time this article goes to press, Dove-Viebahn plans to work toward a Ph.D. in the field.
To the reader, it seems like a spectacular resume. But one can’t help but wonder if there hasn’t been something lost amidst all the schooling. Dove-Viebahn maintains, however, that she hasn’t had to make undue sacrifices related to her social life.
“If you’re not going to enjoy life when you’re in school, then you’re just going to be miserable,” she says, adding that she goes out fairly frequently, and throws parties with her friends. Her age doesn’t often come up. “It just doesn’t become an issue, until I can’t get into a bar or something like that,” she laughs.
Asked if she’s ever considered taking some time off to do the things often associated with young adulthood—travel, party, indulge hobbies (Dove-Viebhan says she’s always liked photography, but has no idea how to develop film)—she says she’s thought about it, but has decided to remain committed to her academic goals. It’s a game plan her parents agree with.
“Every time I’ve talked to my parents about taking a year off…my mom especially has pointed out that when people take time off, they have a tendency to lose their focus,” she says.
The reference to her mother invites another obvious question: With such a literary lineage, has Dove-Viebahn herself ever considered writing as a career? “I do like writing—otherwise I couldn’t be an art historian—but I think I lack the motivation for writing full time,” she says.
Once a slacker, always a slacker.