The Fine Arts Gallery at Vanderbilt University has relocated to a new building on the east portion of campus, a move designed to lead to more interaction with the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities.
The gallery, formerly at the Old Gym on West End Avenue, relocated this semester to Cohen Memorial Hall on the campus of Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development. It shares the building with the departments of Classical Studies and History of Art. Unlike its former comparatively limited quarters, the Cohen Hall facility has ample public space to accommodate interactions between students, faculty and the general public.
“An art gallery or museum and its collections can sometimes be perceived as a black box,” said Joseph Mella, curator and director of the Fine Arts Gallery. “We want that black box open with light shining into it. We want people to see what we have and to use it.”
The Fine Arts Gallery has nearly 6,000 catalogued pieces of art, including an impressive collection of Renaissance paintings. Begun in 1956 with the donation of 105 old master and modern prints by Anna C. Hoyt, the collection includes works by Picasso, Dali, Goya and other masters. “Recent efforts have focused on strengthening the historic collection while developing a collection to reflect the art of our time, including several examples by women artists,” Mella said.
The current exhibition, Eye & Mind: A Legacy of Art Collecting at Vanderbilt University, showcases the breadth of the collection. There’s a bronze sculpture by Antoine-Louis Barye, “Theseus Battling the Minotaur.” One corner features a drinking theme, with an engraving of “A Drunken Peasant Pushed into a Pigsty” from 1568 and two etchings by William Hogarth supporting his opinion that gin leads to destruction while beer builds community.
Mella has hired student docents for the museum and wants to encourage students and the general public to visit.
With a newly invigorated focus on the collection as broad-based resource to the university community, recent efforts by the Fine Arts Gallery and its staff have taken place in order to strengthen the educational role of the gallery and its collections within the context of the curriculum. This initiative is complemented by greater overall access to collection resources through class and seminar study, greater online presence through the gallery’s Web page, and an expansion of the gallery’s operating hours to include Thursday evenings.
The Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery, at 1220 21st Ave. S., is free and open to the public. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; and noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu