 |
Flourish Online Magazine | Fall 2008 |
A Place to Experience Art: Phase I of Museum Opens
By Cheryl Anderson Brown
 |
"Crow and Kingbird" by Athos Menaboni Photo by Ansley Sproull |
From a distance, the crow looks black. But, as you move across the gallery, the feathers are alive with blues and purples. The carefully detailed brush strokes capture an instant of flight with an accuracy and affection that today’s high-powered cameras would have difficulty matching.
This singular moment between viewer and artwork illustrates both the power of Athos Menaboni’s artistry and the value of experiencing art in person. In an age when people are becoming more and more accustomed to seeing images online or reproduced in books and magazines, it is important to provide opportunities to see real art in person.
That is one of the primary missions of the Art Museum project at Kennesaw State University. Conceived in two parts, the museum will serve as a home for the rapidly expanding Permanent Collection of Art and as a premier location for visiting exhibitions from around the world.
“The Art Museum will not only impact tens of thousands of KSU students in the coming decades,” said KSU President Daniel S. Papp, “but will also serve hundreds of thousands of school children and adults throughout metropolitan Atlanta, northwest Georgia and beyond.”
 |
(From left) Frank Hull, Russell Clayton and Tony Aeck in the Clayton Gallery. Photo by Cheryl Anderson Brown |
A new home for art
Funded by a $1 million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Phase I of the Art Museum was officially dedicated on May 18 in honor of KSU alumnus Don Russell Clayton, who has donated his private collection of works by Menaboni to create the heart of the university’s new Athos Menaboni Collection. Located in the Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center, Phase I includes the 3,500 square-foot Don Russell Clayton Gallery, which will host a rotating series of Menaboni exhibitions, and the Anna F. Henriquez Atrium, which displays several of the most important pieces from the Ruth Zuckerman Collection. Donated by Ruth Zuckerman’s husband, Bernard Zuckerman, following her death, the collection includes 97 sculptures in a variety of stone and metal media.
The university also has a collection of hundreds of other paintings and sculptures, some of which are displayed around campus but many of which remain in storage because of inadequate exhibition space. Phase II of the Art Museum will address
this issue.
 |
“Nubiana” by Ruth Zuckerman Photo by Emily Lester |
Honoring the support of others
“We envision an Art Museum where we will be able to rotate works from the Permanent Collection,” said Joseph Meeks, dean of the KSU College of the Arts. “We have been blessed to have many friends, like Fred Bentley Sr., J. Allan Sellars, Richard and Judy Marks, David and Janice Miller, Russ Clayton, Bernie Zuckerman and others, who have given artwork to the university because they wanted to share their love of art with our students and with the community. So, it is important for us to fulfill those wishes with an Art Museum where they can be properly displayed and viewed.”
Plans for Phase II also include galleries for showing nationally and internationally touring exhibitions as well as teaching spaces and a sculpture garden.
“There is nothing more powerful than experiencing art face-to-face,” said Will Hipps, director and curator of the KSU Art Museum and Galleries. “Good art has content and meaning and it addresses social and cultural issues. You can appreciate it by seeing a photograph of it, but you cannot fully experience it and understand it until you stand in its presence.”
 |
A viewer of the Menaboni exhibit in the Clayton Gallery Photo by Cheryl Anderson Brown |
The next phase
By including $6 million for Phase II in its $75 million capital campaign, the university is underscoring its belief that the Art Museum serves both the students and the community. “It’s appropriate that the Art Museum is on a list that includes a new health sciences building, more athletic facilities, science labs and a library expansion. It illustrates that this project is fundamentally important on a growing, dynamic university campus,” said Stacie Barrow, director of development for the College of the Arts.
Perhaps there is no better advertisement for Phase II than the artwork on display in Phase I. The cold stone transformed into the warm and inviting family grouping of a Zuckerman sculpture. The waves of wood grain panels transfigured into water for a brightly plumaged bird in a Menaboni painting. Each moment in front of one of
the dozens of pieces on display is revelatory and awe-inspiring.
Moments like that transform the viewers and the world around them.
To find out how you can support the Art Museum, call 770-499-3214 or e-mail arts@kennesaw.edu. Donations may also be made online at www.kennesaw.edu/giving; donors should make sure to designate the gift for the Art Museum. Every gift, no matter how large or small, will help make Phase II possible.