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Fliers promoting fine art exhibits in the Ground
Zero art gallery at Milligan may soon be no more.
The fine arts faculty decided to rename the gallery
due to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The decision was made after the terrorist
attacks in New York last year, but it will be finalized this fall.
“‘This is where it (art) all begins’ were the
original connotations,” said Dick Major, chair of performing, visual and
communicative arts and professor of theater. “Now you can’t say those
words without thinking of the World Trade Center.”
Located in the basement of Derthick Hall, the
gallery opened in the mid-1990s as a “center of art activity,” said Nick
Blosser, assistant professor of art. He said that the name has very specific
connotations related to the terrorist attacks now, but it used to be more
open-ended.
“I think it is appropriate to change the name,”
said senior fine arts minor Nathan Pelton. “I started on my flier for my
show, and I had not thought a lot about it until I wrote ‘in Ground Zero
Gallery.’ It just seems a little weird I guess now that the term ‘ground
zero’ has so much weight and all the memories and feelings it conjures
up.”
The fine arts department has not yet chosen a new
name. They hope to get ideas from students. Blosser said he was willing to
take suggestions. He and the other fine arts faculty members encourage
students to submit name possibilities to them for consideration.
“I would like for students to name the gallery,
because it’s their gallery,” said Alice Anthony, assistant professor of
the practice of art.
The department hopes to select a new name soon,
possibly before the first exhibit is displayed in late October.
Along with the new name, the fine arts faculty
hopes to introduce signs around campus to increase awareness about the
gallery.
“We need signage,” said Anthony. “People on
this campus don’t know where it is.”
The first show in the gallery this semester will be
an exhibit by painter and Milligan alumnus Richard W. Cummings. After
graduating from Milligan in 1996, Cummings went on to complete a master’s
degree at the University of Leeds in England in 1999.
“His work has an abstract, geometric feel,”
said Blosser.
Cummings’ work, which is all spiritually based,
will be on display from Oct. 25 to Nov. 15. Seniors Nathan Pelton and Rachel
Hatfield Dalton will also have exhibits in the gallery later this semester.
The fine arts department is also discussing the
possibility of creating alternative art venues on campus. This decision would
have to be approved by the administration.
“I
would really like to see art in Derthick,” said Anthony.
The
faculty is also discussing hanging student art in the Paxson Communications
Center and SUB 7.
In
addition to on-campus exhibits, students’ work will be on display at
Northeast State Technical Community College in Blountville from Sept. 30 to
Oct. 30 and in November at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport.