M. Jessica Contrera | Sept. 18, 2011
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| Photo by M. Jessica Contrera |
| A few alumni skipped the football game in favor of a tour of the IMU's art. From left, Dennis Royalty, campus curator of art Sherry Rouse and Laura Emerick check out a sculpture. |
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Barbara Morrow, BA’75, Laura Emerick, BA‘79, Kit McNally, BA’66 and Dennis Royalty, BA’71, along with a few members of the School of Journalism’s faculty, checked out the art collection in the Indiana Memorial Union. The tour was led by Sherry Rouse, curator of art for all eight IU campuses.
“Most pieces of artwork you see will have explanatory plaques next to them,” Rouse said at the start of the tour. “So, what I’m going to show you is the stuff you wouldn’t normally get to see.”
Rouse took the group into the office of Bruce Jacobs, director of the union. The room holds some of the university’s most valuable pieces, such as “Back of the Fishmonger's Shop,” a painting by William Merritt Chase.
The alumni said they were also impressed by the artwork in the hallways of the union, works that represent Hoosier artists or those with Indiana ties.
“The ones by T.C. Steele are pretty irresistible,” McNally said. “I think it’s because they are so familiar to me.”
Steele, a prominent impressionist painter, is known for his Indiana landscapes.
“It’s funny how, as a student, I probably whizzed by these paintings on my way to class all the time,” Morrow said. “It’s nice to take time to learn the stories behind them.”
As they toured, Rouse talked about the paintings, the artists and even the rooms they are displayed in.
For example, the Federal Room on the second floor is home to specially ordered wallpaper from France that looks like a mural that continues on all four walls. In the dining area of the room, antiques such as Meissen porcelain decorate the polished atmosphere.
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| Photo by M. Jessica Contrera |
| Campus curator of art Sherry Rouse showed the group art that most people don't have a chance to see, including this T.C. Steele painting in an inner office. |
“As newspapers are cutting down on employees, many of them are deciding that art critics are expendable,” Emerick said. “The Sun Times no longer has any full time visual art critiques at all.”
Rouse reminded the alumni that in many ways, artists were the first journalists. In prints of scenes such as Ben Franklin in a royal court in Paris, artists documented life as it was before mass distribution was possible.
The Saturday celebration continued with reunion group meetings.
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