The College of Fine Arts turns 75 this year, and it is celebrating with a long list of events and visitors.
Inspiring Lives was the theme chosen for the anniversary which, according to the College of Fine Arts website, will recognize the “inspiration our powerful and challenging work has created around the world.”
Celebrations started with an exhibit by alumnus Jim Dine at the Kennedy Museum of Art. Dine was involved in the pop art movement in the 1960s and was contemporaries with Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. The exhibit features the three major themes he has recently been exploring, the Venus de Milo, hearts and Pinocchio.
Maureen Wagner, assistant director of the School of Theatre and the 75th
Anniversary Committee chair, said she highly recommends seeing the exhibit.
“I’d seen his work before, but I had never seen an exhibition of just his work,” said Wagner. “It’s huge, and it’s just absolutely incredible.”
Dine will return to Ohio University on Nov. 3 for a conversation at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
His exhibition will remain at the Kennedy Museum of Art through Nov. 27.
“I really liked the exhibition and think that others would appreciate it,” said senior dance major Alexa Baxendell. “I’m curious to hear (Dine) speak about his art after seeing it.”
Plans for the 75th Anniversary initiated over a year before Dine’s exhibit debuted. A coordinating committee fielded nominations for visiting artists with the criteria that they be: an alumnus of the university, have interdisciplinary work that pertains to more than one school in the College of Fine Arts and that they have a high enough profile to attract a crowd.
Other events will include an exhibit in Seigfried Hall where visitors live chat with College of Fine Arts alumni and a 75th Anniversary Gala Event on April 14 at MemAud.
Among other projects, The Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company will visit in the spring to work with students in the School of Theater.
Alumni Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker and their friend, Nick Francone, started the self-proclaimed “geek” theatre company as grad students at OU and found commercial success after it moved to New York City.
“I am always happy for alumni like Qui and Robert,” said Wagner. “But also for those who have taken their arts education and gone in very different paths … it shows the value of what we’re doing for everyone, not just those who are going to be professional artists.”
A calendar of the coming year’s 75th Anniversary events, visitors is available at the Ohio University College of Fine Arts website.
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