Through the financial support of the Class of 1960, the Office of Residential Life is working to simultaneously decorate the walls of residence halls and encourage aspiring studernt artists.
The Class of 1960/Office of Residential Life Student Art Acquisition Program enables graduating seniors to receive professional recognition and a cash award for their best art pieces, which are displayed in College residence halls.
Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco said she conceived the idea in 1991 to obtain students' artwork to display on the bare residence hall walls.
Art reflects student life
Turco and former Hood Museum Director James Cuno then established guidelines to implement Turco's idea.
"I thought it would be a wonderful thing to put up work produced by Dartmouth undergraduates - that work is a reflection of student culture," Turco said. "It is also a reflection of the diversity at Dartmouth."
The best student art pieces are selected by a jury of art-knowledgeable faculty and students and become "purchased prizes," for which the students receive cash awards and professional recognition, Turco said.
The program benefits seniors because it can help them acquire post-graduate advanced degree work, Turco said.
"The students' careers get launched when we give them a purchase prize," she added.
Initially, there was no money to fund Turco's idea.
But Turco met Dudley Smith '60 at the Dartmouth Institute Summer Academic Program later that year and worked out a way to present her idea to the Class of 1960 executive officers and classmates.
"The class was so interested in the concept of filling residence halls with work produced by students that they decided to provide the funding," Turco said.
Class of 1960 funds art
The Class of 1960 raises several thousand dollars each year, enough money to purchase about 15 pieces.
The amount of the prize varies according to the size and type of art work. Small pencil drawings are usually purchased for $100, while oil paintings can receive as much as $400, Turco said.
The money provided by the Class of 1960 is also used to preserve and frame students' work.
"The empty walls are getting very high quality work. Seniors go through a vigorous program. Students really like coming back to campus to see their work," said Studio Art Professor Joel Elgin, who directs the Studio Art Exhibition Program.
Elgin organizes the jury that judges the work, helps select the pieces and advises ORL on where to hang the works.
Work in every cluster
The art work can be found in every cluster on campus.
"We made it a point to try to put them all across campus rather than just in one building at a time," Turco said.
The College has already purchased about 50 pieces, she added.
At the end of Spring term, studio art professors select pieces from each art student's portfolio to appear in the annual student art exhibit in May.
Turco, Elgin and the jury members choose pieces for the dorms from the work on exhibit in the Jaffrey Freide Gallery in the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts.
"We try to purchase one piece from each of the senior studio art majors," Turco said. "Some of the work is incredible, students pour their soul into the work."
"Over the years, we hope to fill the buildings with the wonderful student produced art," Turco said.
