MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE TO DEDICATE
EXPANDED, RENOVATED ART MUSEUM AND BUILDING

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – Mount Holyoke College will celebrate the formal reopening of the expanded and renovated Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and Art Building on September 27 and 28 with events that include talks by two prominent guests: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder and James Cuno, director of the Harvard University Art Museums.

Kidder’s talk, to be held in Gamble Auditorium at 5 pm on September 27, will also mark the opening of Changing Prospects: The View from Mount Holyoke, an exhibition that brings together approximately one hundred objects to tell the story of the mountain as a cultural icon, destination, and subject for writers and artists over a period of two centuries. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Thomas Cole’s The Oxbow, widely viewed as one of the most important and best-known American landscapes. A reception follows Kidder’s talk.

Cuno will speak at 8 pm on September 28, during the dedication ceremony in Gamble Auditorium. Also in attendance will be president Joanne V. Creighton; Susan Bonneville Weatherbie ’72, chair, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Advisory Board; Michael T. Davis, professor of art; Harriet Levine Weissman ’58, a member of the Mount Holyoke College board of trustees and cochair, Campaign Steering Committee; and Marianne Doezema, Florence Finch Abbott Director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Cuno's comments will precede a night of jazz entertainment by the Mary Dipaola-Davis Trio.

Both talks are free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.

Begun in 2001, the $6-million building project has “completely transformed the art museum,” says Doezema. “There is scarcely a surface in the museum that has not been changed and enhanced.” The most important modification, she says, is an additional 3,800 square feet of gallery space. As a result of new construction and the reconfiguration of some of the former galleries, new spaces have also been provided for seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century art, as well as modern and contemporary art, much of which has been in storage for the last decade because of limited exhibition space. “We can now support the entire range of art history that is taught by the art faculty, as well as a range of courses taught by faculty across the campus,” says Doezema. Space has also been dedicated to a study gallery classroom, which will be used, she says, “to continue the museum’s mission to enhance the curricular and extracurricular life of all Mount Holyoke students.”

Occupying the second and third floors of the building, the art department has gained 22,000 square feet of renovated floor space. The second floor now accommodates a visual studies computer lab; expanded space for the slide collection (150,000 slides) which will incorporate state-of-the-art image preparation; a reference library; and two new mediated classrooms. Art history classes will benefit from improved access to digitized imagery and a variety of online resources. A section has been developed for studio majors to work on their senior projects in preparation for the Senior Art Majors' Exhibition. The Film Studies Program has also relocated here. On the third floor the sculpture classrooms have been completely reconfigured to complement the existing three studios, providing for greater flexibility as well as space and equipment for work on large-scale projects. A new elevator and central stairway connect all floors of the art building, making it possible to move effortlessly between the art museum and the art department.

The renovation and expansion of the art building and museum is a result of the Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003, the strategic plan implemented by Creighton in 1996 and approved by the board of trustees in 1997. Funding for the art building project has been a priority of The Campaign for Mount Holyoke College, also an outgrowth of the Plan. The Campaign surpassed its initial $200-million goal in December 2001, two years ahead of the target. This past March, the College’s trustees voted to raise the goal to $250 million.

“The tremendous physical improvements to the art museum and building allow us to truly celebrate the arts at Mount Holyoke. Having this project as a campaign fundraising priority makes clear the College's commitment to the arts and the value of art to the curriculum and campus life,” says Weatherbie, chair of the museum’s advisory board.

The art building reopened for classes in September 2001, and the museum reopened in spring 2002. The project was designed by the Hillier Group of Princeton, N.J.