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McWethy Hall (formerly
Alumni Gym) is the new location of Cornell's department of art.
It was dedicated at a Homecoming ceremony October 19, 2002. The
building is named for chief benefactor James McWethy, a 1965 graduate
living in Downers Grove, Ill. He pledged $2 million toward the $5.3
million project. James McWethy and his son were the featured speakers
at the dedication. Principle architect Rod Kruse and art department
chair Tony Plaut also made public remarks.
The multilevel facility
houses the Peter Paul Luce Gallery and all of classroom and studio
space for the department. There are four staircases, six levels,
including a mezzanine. An elevator provides access to all levels.
The rear of the building has a courtyard for large scale projects
and a separate structure that houses a foundry and the kilns for
firing ceramic ware. The main building provides studio space for
upper-level art majors as well as private studio space for the faculty
artists.
The furnishings and
equipment for the building are entirely new and include many large
work tables, new looms, painting easels, a modern darkroom with
six new enlargers, and new equipment for ceramics, welding, woodworking,
and papermaking. The lecture room for art history is equipped with
a computer linked video projector and wireless slide projectors.
The former home of the
art department, Armstrong Hall, has been renovated for use by the
departments of music and theater. The former gallery has been rebuilt
as a small recital hall and the old theater has become a "black
box" and scene construction shop.
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The
newly renovated McWethy Hall is now Cornell's art building
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Luce
Gallery located in new facility
Exhibition space features work of important artists
The inaugural
art exhibition in the Peter Paul Luce Gallery was by New York
artist Karen Gunderson. Her show Moral Courage During WWII: Denmark
and Bulgaria opened in October, 2002 and featured large scale
drawings and paintings. Gunderson, who taught at Cornell in the
late nineteen sixties, was present at the official dedication
of the gallery. In January, 2003 the gallery featured ceramic
work by Guillermo Cuellar '76 (Caracas, Venezuela), Warren MacKenzie
(Stillwater, Minnesota) and Clary Illian (Ely, Iowa) in a special
exhibit, Guillermo Cuellar, Influences and Recent Work. Cuellar
was present at the closing reception for a well attended artist's
talk along with MacKenzie and Illian The spring exhibit featured
two textile artists, Kelly Frigård, a University of Iowa
graduate who studied fibers in Finland and currently teaches at
McPherson College in Kansas, and internationally known quilt artist
Joan Schulze of Sunnyvale, California.
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