July 2007

Dear MassArt Community,

I hope this update finds you well and enjoying the summer.

We have already begun planning for the arrival of a new freshman class; its numbers confirm that the College is two years ahead of our enrollment goals. Much of this has to do with the success of our alumni, the growth of the college’s reputation nationally, and the excellent work of our Admissions Office. This has been an eventful year at MassArt, and I write to update you on some of the notable achievements.

Commencement 2007
At MassArt's 132nd Commencement a total of 359 degrees were awarded:  316 bachelor’s, 42 master’s and 1 honorary degree. Arne Glimcher ('60) returned to MassArt to receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Arne, a former Honorary Co-Chairman of the Campaign for MassArt in the early 1990’s, founded The Pace Gallery in Boston in 1960, and now presides as Chairman of PaceWildenstein, overseeing three galleries and an international roster of artists and estates. He is also a film producer and has been nominated for an Academy Award. The college granted the Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree to three-term poet laureate Robert Pinsky, who spoke about how “art changes the past.” Both speakers were inspiring and received standing ovations.

Board of Trustees
At the May meeting of the Board of Trustees alumna Cheryl Warrick ’88 was appointed Chair and Richard Shea (P’07) Vice Chair. Kathy Kiely ’78 was appointed by the Alumni Leadership Council to fill the elected Trustee position. The college is deeply grateful to Tom Davis ‘76 for his five years of service in this position. Kiely is President of The Ad Club, a trade organization for the New England Communications Industry, and has had a 25 year career as a communications professional. Her remarks during Honors Convocation were entertaining and enlightening, both for the graduates and their families. At a dinner earlier this month, the Trustees honored retiring Trustees Lois Champy, Robert Linsky and Tom Davis.

Campus Development
MassArt is currently engaged in three major capital projects, as well as an overall campus facilities master planning initiative. Chan Krieger Associates, working with the State Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM), recently met with MassArt’s Strategic Facilities Planning Committee, which includes representatives from all the areas of the college, and expects to complete their campus master plan by the end of this calendar year.  The architects selected for our new Design + Media Center, Polshek Partnership, are in the planning phase of their design work for the building, and spent several days on campus last April gathering information from design department faculty and exhibitions staff .  

The college is also working with the Massachusetts State College Building Authority on two projects:  a new residence hall and a new student Campus Center.  Miller Dyer Spears (MDS), a nationally recognized Boston firm with extensive experience in higher education architecture, has been chosen to design our new Campus Center as part of renovations to the first three floors of the Kennedy Building. MDS designed the Campus Centers at Mt. Holyoke College and Brandeis University, and the David French Recital Hall at Berklee College of Music. In addition we’ve engaged the services of Kyu Sung Woo Architects, who designed The Artists’ Residence (2002),  to begin work on a site feasibility study for another residence hall on campus.  Both the Campus Center and the new residence hall will feature sustainable elements; the Design + Media Center will be a green building.

MassArt as Responsible Environmental Citizen
MassArt is taking action against global warming. I have joined forces with a number of American college and university presidents in signing the American Colleges and University Presidents Climate Commitment. As a Charter Signatory, MassArt has pledged to eliminate campus greenhouse gas emissions over time and to make sustainability part of the educational experience. In addition to employing campus-wide  energy-efficient measures such as a reduction of energy usage and recycling, we are already seeing projects on campus that raise awareness and are aligned with sustainable design practices.  This semester, for example, students in Professor Patti Seitz’ class on Sustainable Architecture extended their Green Roof Pilot Project on the top of the Tower Building.  The project, a 750 square foot garden with native plant species, was designed to show how the green roof retains water and that the resulting temperature moderation inside the building translates into seasonal energy savings, particularly in the summer.

Student Award Winners
Bara Jichova Kirkpatrick and Kate Bohill were selected as the 2007 winners of the Dondis and Godine awards. Bara will work with a group of Philippine women and children at a women’s shelter to develop and film a play based on the classic play Lysistrata. Kate will travel to Yosemite National Park. In the late 1990’s, a series of murders took place in Yosemite; Kate will construct photographs where these women were tragically abducted and found slain.  Patrick Casey received the inaugural Reba Stewart/Genevieve McMillan Traveling Grant. He will go to Japan to both learn something of Japanese culture and to study traditional water based Japanese printing, a technique of printing without a press. The grant was made possible by a generous gift from Genevieve McMillan in the name of her late friend Reba Stewart, an artist who died in the early 70's.

MassArt Foundation
Last month the MassArt Foundation appointed Susan Schechter Chair. Susan recently retired from her investor relations business, and prior to that, had an extensive career in high technology at IBM and Lotus with senior management positions in sales, marketing and human resources. As Chair of our Benefit Auction committee for the past five years, Susan has overseen   a stream of enhancements and a period of impressive  growth for this event . This year the 18th Annual Benefit Art Auction took place on March 31st with record-breaking sponsorship and attendance. Over 325 pieces of artwork, much of which was generously donated by current students, faculty and alumni, were exhibited, and the Foundation was able to gross over $600,000 − over $120,000 more than its previous best.  

The MassArt Foundation also appointed Caroline Collings, Nicholas Greville, and Kathy Sharpless as Vice Chairs. Peter Lombard was re-appointed Treasurer. All of us at the college are deeply grateful for the service of Bill Hicks, who has been Foundation Chair for the past three years. His patient and thoughtful leadership has enabled the work of several committees to move forward in ways that have substantially assisted the college.

The MassArt Foundation announced the latest recipients of the Faculty Development Fellowships at their May meeting. Five faculty members will receive a $5,000 summer stipend to pursue their personal artistic projects over the summer.

Fred Liang (Fine Arts 2D), will undertake a four week intensive apprenticeship with the master printers at the Rongboazhai Printshop in Beijing.  Liang plans to incorporate these techniques into MassArt’s printmaking curriculum in an attempt to preserve this time-honored traditional art form.  Joanne Lukitsh (Art History), will research original source archives in Europe, New Jersey and California, for her forthcoming book, exploring the exchanges between photographers and painters, sculptors and graphic artists in mid-Victorian England. Jamie Read (Industrial Design) will refine and further develop his Inshade concept – “create a portable means of shade at the beach” - using naturally occurring aesthetic forms.  Dan Serig (Art Education)will be traveling to Ecuador to lay the groundwork an MSAE travel course to be introduced in summer 2008.  Heather White will research the Pierpont Morgan Library’s rich collection of flora and fauna. She will use her research to develop new work, and plans to curate a related jewelry exhibition at Snug Harbor in 2008.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that MassArt received funding this year from the Massa chusetts Cultural Council’s John & Abigail Adams Art Program for Cultural Economic Development, which focuses on the Commonwealth’s creative economy. This grant is enabling MassArt to organize and host a series of international design industry symposia that bring greater Boston designers, educators and public policy agencies together with their European counter- parts to help foster a robust design industry in Massachusetts.   The first symposium of our Designing an Industry/Designing the Future project took place with a design delegation from Austria on May 24, and explored best practices in contemporary design and support for the creative industries in Vienna and Austria. The first symposium generated enormous energy and interest. The creative economy project builds upon MassArt’s growing international reputation as a top design school and reflects our conviction that the College can provide support and be a resource for the creative industries for which we prepare our students.

I want to thank you for your support of MassArt.  You will hear more from MassArt this fall, and until then, I wish you a pleasant summer.

Sincerely,

Kay Sloan
President

Massachusetts College of Art + Design, Board of Trustees

Massachusetts College of Art + Design Foundation, Board of Directors

National Alumni Council