"A Dream Deferred" in the Visual Arts Department
Lincoln partners with Barnes Foundation
Allycia White
Issue date: 2/16/09 Section: News
Visual Arts students will be reaping the benefits of a friendship between former Lincoln president, Horace Mann Bond and patent medicine millionaire, Dr. Albert Barnes through a new Museum Studies class to be offered next semester.
The three-credit course will be called Barnes History and Methodology. The class will study the aesthetic methods of Barnes and explore how art collections and museums affect society. Students will get the opportunity to survey art and the ways in which Barnes particularly placed artwork.
Unique to any other course offered in Visual Arts, the class will be taught off campus at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania which is about an hour drive from Lincoln University.
Originally, Barnes made his actual home the site of the museum, but due to financial trouble, it has moved to a new building on Museum Mile closer to Philadelphia.
Dr. Jody Cutler, a professor in the Visual Arts Department is the coordinator for the new course. She thinks that Lincoln students will be exposed to more abstract ways to view and display modern art.
"It's so different to see real art," said Cutler. "When students see it in person, they will see the difference. The experience is more realistic."
The idea of offering a course at Lincoln was taken from the will of Barnes. Being an avid art collector, Barnes wanted to expose people to modern art whom otherwise would not have access to such collections. In partnership with Bond, Lincoln's first African American president, they promised to grant Lincoln students with access to the museum. Although the program was planned many years ago, there remained unsolved issues about what to do with the program until recently.
"We think it is an exciting emphasis on Museum Studies," said Dr. Gladys J. Willis, who is Dean of the School of Humanities and Graduate Studies at Lincoln. "The program is a dream deferred about 53 years ago."
The program is expected to accept at least 13 students.
"This is a total experiment to make people more interested in the Visual Arts Department," said Cutler.
The three-credit course will be called Barnes History and Methodology. The class will study the aesthetic methods of Barnes and explore how art collections and museums affect society. Students will get the opportunity to survey art and the ways in which Barnes particularly placed artwork.
Unique to any other course offered in Visual Arts, the class will be taught off campus at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania which is about an hour drive from Lincoln University.
Originally, Barnes made his actual home the site of the museum, but due to financial trouble, it has moved to a new building on Museum Mile closer to Philadelphia.
Dr. Jody Cutler, a professor in the Visual Arts Department is the coordinator for the new course. She thinks that Lincoln students will be exposed to more abstract ways to view and display modern art.
"It's so different to see real art," said Cutler. "When students see it in person, they will see the difference. The experience is more realistic."
The idea of offering a course at Lincoln was taken from the will of Barnes. Being an avid art collector, Barnes wanted to expose people to modern art whom otherwise would not have access to such collections. In partnership with Bond, Lincoln's first African American president, they promised to grant Lincoln students with access to the museum. Although the program was planned many years ago, there remained unsolved issues about what to do with the program until recently.
"We think it is an exciting emphasis on Museum Studies," said Dr. Gladys J. Willis, who is Dean of the School of Humanities and Graduate Studies at Lincoln. "The program is a dream deferred about 53 years ago."
The program is expected to accept at least 13 students.
"This is a total experiment to make people more interested in the Visual Arts Department," said Cutler.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Prof. Susan Pevar
Susan
posted 3/02/09 @ 10:05 AM EST
Although this is exciting news, the fact is that it will not be the first time that LU students have traveled to the Barnes Foundation to pursue art studies there. (Continued…)
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