Massachusetts college of a rt and d esign a nnual r eport J uly 2010–June 2011 Big things are happening here. You can see it in the numbers — undergraduate enrollment up almost 5 percent; the $140 million comprehensive campaign at 89 percent of its goal. You can hear it across campus — the rattle of construction equipment working on the site of the new 21-story residence hall. You can feel it in the air — a palpable energy sparked by local and global community engagement. ¶ The 2010 academic year was anything but ordinary. It was a year when we applauded the achievements of an extraordinary leader, and anticipated the arrival of a new one. And when we celebrated the ingenuity of our faculty, students, and alumni, who continued to expand the boundaries of creativity. ¶ iii Flourish: Alumni Works on Paper The artwork you see throughout these pages appeared in Flourish: i Alumni Works on Paper, hall residence new MassArt’s first juried alumni exhibition held last June in the Bakalar & Paine Galleries. ii The exhibition highlights the wide range of talent and excellence embodied by MassArt’s inners w artists and designers. president, dawn barrett dawn president, th ard aw eadership l lumni lumni our 11 a Leah De Prizio bfa painting ’63 Arbor Vitae, papier-mâché woodblock print, acrylic, 58" x 24" x 15", 2005. Courtesy of the artist. iv Alumni Film Wins Top AWArd v renovATing The gAlleries newspapers, 24" x 24", 2011. Courtesyoftheartist. 2011. x 24", 24" newspapers, ELD Jichova K. Bara _0300 vi , Painting , FAculTy FinAlisTs For icA FosTer prize bfa sim’07 bfa / collage on Czechoslovakian collage onCzechoslovakian vii cAreer conFerence viii neW sTore connecTs ArT WiTh communiTy ix cenTer For design And mediA x ArTWArd Bound lAunch xi FloATing World projecT annual report anddesign collegeofart report massachusetts annual xii solAr decAThlon 1 2 massachusetts college of art and design annual report In September, after 15 years as MassArt’s president, Kay Sloan announced her retirement. The news offered an opportunity for the entire MassArt community to reflect on her accomplishments and show their appreciation for leading the college to unprecedented heights. It also sparked a community dialogue to identify the qualities, values, and experience needed in MassArt’s next leader. These discussions paved the way for an inclusive presidential search process that culminated in March, when it was announced that Dawn Barrett, then Dean of the Architecture and Design Division at the Rhode Island School of Design, was the Board of Trustees’ unanimous choice. ¶ i MassArt’s 11th President, Dawn Barrett While interviewing to become Along with administrative acumen, MassArt’s 11th president, Dawn Barrett also brings an extremely Barrett noted the slogan on a versatile background to MassArt, student’s T-shirt that made a big having worked several years as a impression on her — and confirmed graphic design professor, consul- that MassArt was the perfect fit. It tant, researcher, practitioner, and read, “MassArt made me fearless.” curator. Barrett has undertaken curatorial development and “That a valued educational research for exhibitions in the outcome would be ‘fearlessness’ Netherlands, and her critical says a lot about what kind of writing connects the disciplines place MassArt is,” says Barrett. of visual culture, history, design, “Artists and designers must have and architecture. She serves courage and be fearless in order as a visiting evaluator for the to make, and to make a difference, National Association of Schools of especially as ‘citizen artists.’ The Art and Design (for which she is conviction that MassArt could also a Commissioner) and for the provide fearlessness convinced American Landscape Association me that this was an institution I Accreditation Board. wanted to join and support.” “Throughout my life I have worn In March of 2011, the Board many hats: artist, teacher, state of Trustees selected Barrett to university student, parent, faculty replace the retiring Kay Sloan, member, designer, administrator, beginning in the summer of 2011. and accreditation commissioner,” Given Barrett's credentials, it’s says Barrett. “I will be calling upon easy to see why she was the all of these experiences and per- unanimous choice. As the Dean spectives in my work to advance of Architecture and Design at the Artists and designers must this remarkable institution. I am Rhode Island School of Design truly honored to have been chosen be fearless in order to make, and (RISD) since 2001, Barrett helped to continue to build on the trem- grow the programs and reputations have courage to make a difference. endous progress that MassArt of the undergraduate and gradu- achieved under Kay Sloan’s vision- — dawn barrett ate programs in Apparel Design, ary leadership. I look forward to Architecture, Furniture Design, working alongside all the members Graphic Design, Industrial Design, of the MassArt community.” Interior Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. Prior to that, from 1995-2000, she headed the Design Department at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands, a post-graduate and research institute for fine art, design, and theory. photo John Thompson mfa painting ’05 E. Oxenaar, 2011. Cordova, screenprint and gouache, 39" x 51", 2011. Courtesy of Sunne Savage Gallery. annual report massachusetts college of art and design 3 Last year, MassArt reached several important milestones that, collectively, have built a tremendous amount of momentum: ¶ Undergraduate enrollment reached an all-time high, and graduate applications increased 23 percent over the previous year. ¶ The incoming freshman class for fall 2010 was the largest in history—and had the highest average high school GPA of any of the Massachusetts state universities. ¶ MassArt awarded a record $1.8 million in student financial aid. ¶ Over 88 percent of young alumni reported that they were employed within six months after graduation. ¶ The endowment continued to grow; it is now three times what it was a decade ago. ¶ Students, alumni, and faculty distinguished themselves once again by winning grants, scholarships, and some of the most prestigious awards in their fields, such as Associate Professor Michelle Handelman Film/Video( ), the recipient of a Guggenheim, and Associate Professor Heather White (FA3D), who was awarded a Fulbright to teach and study in Italy during 2012. ¶ ii iii iv Alumni Award Winners New Residence Hall Marking Time In October 2010, another dave schlafman Takes Shape As a MassArt student, Christian impressive group of artists and SIM / ANIMATION ’04 If you traveled around campus Marclay (SIM ’80) pioneered a designers joined the likes of Schlafman co-founded CloudKid during the last school year, you no type of performance art that Christian Marclay (SIM ’80), Studios, which produces the doubt noticed the new residence blended punk rock and film Nancy Haigh (Fine Arts 3D ’68), Daytime Emmy® Award- hall rising high across from the loops with background sounds and William Wegman (Painting ’65) nominated Fizzy’s Lunch Lab, Tower Building. It’s on schedule he created using a turntable. In as winners of Alumni Leadership a popular animated online to open for the fall 2012 semester fact, he is widely considered the Awards, selected by a jury of faculty, series for PBS Kids. and will allow MassArt to nearly first DJ outside of the rap world administrators, and members of Tucker stilley double its on-campus housing to use a turntable as a musical the Alumni Leadership Council. SIM ’86 capacity. To give you a better instrument. Now, as a visual artist and composer, he’s continuing to Here are the recipients: Despite losing the use of his sense of its size and impact on limbs to amyotrophic lateral the community, here are a few forge new art forms with critically laura Brown* and rick Brown sclerosis or ALS, Stilley continues interesting facts: acclaimed works such as, The SCuLPTuRE ’93* to create art by using a reflective Clock, a compilation of film clips The Browns are faculty members The $62 million construction bindi-dot on his forehead to edited together that plays out in the Sculpture department and cost is fully funded control a complex system of in real-time, minute by minute, founders of HandsHouse Studio, computer technology, largely 21 stories with 17 residential floors over a 24-hour day. The Clock a non-profit educational organ - of his own design. earned Marclay the Golden Lion ization that’s reconstructed Suite-style layout with 136 suites for the best artist award in the everything from the nose on sandy Weisman and 493 beds main exhibition at the 2011 Venice the Great Sphinx of Giza to a MSAE ’96 LEED® Silver-certification design Biennale held in June. Marclay’s 17th–century wooden synagogue As director of Education in and engineering features include video installation has been called in Poland. Curatorial Programs and former taking advantage of the sun’s “an abundant, magnificent work” director of MassArt’s Center for Beverly hallam position to reduce heat gain and (The Financial Times) “relentless Art and Community Partnerships, ART EDuCATION ’45 maximize natural daylighting and compelling” (The Guardian) Weisman worked to engage urban During her 10 years teaching and “utterly transfixing” (The youth with contemporary art Ground Floor Lobby and at MassArt, Hallam introduced Huffington Post). In September, through innovative programming. Café/Lounge will feature photography to the curriculum. artwork from members of The Clock was on view to the She also made some of the first the MassArt community public, just down Huntington paintings by an American artist Avenue, at the Museum of Fine Represents a collaboration in acrylic. Arts, Boston. among Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates Laurel McMechan mfa painting ’10 Bivouac Maquette B, side view, intaglio, acrylic, watercolor, thread, 4.75" x 8" x 8", 2010.