News
Message from the Dean
Many of you will be surprised to find a new face and name attached to this “Message from the Dean.” Richard Durst left Penn State at the end of June to assume the presidency of Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, located just outside of Cleveland. Over the past six years, Dick worked tirelessly to bring the College of Arts and Architecture together and I thank him for leaving us a firm foundation upon which we can continue to build.
Like many of you, I am a graduate of the college, having received my Ph.D. in art education in 1993. I’ve been on the faculty since that time and have held a number of different administrative positions. In 2003, I was appointed the associate dean for undergraduate studies and outreach and I will now serve as the college’s interim dean until a permanent dean is selected.
During the coming year, all of us in the College of Arts and Architecture will continue to move forward, develop our nationally and internationally ranked programs, build upon our traditions, advance our new initiatives, and create innovative opportunities for our alumni, students, faculty and staff. This issue of our alumni newsletter serves as a superb reminder of the range, depth and excellence that we have within the college and will give you the opportunity to read about accomplishments of both our faculty and alumni.
One of the tremendous characteristics of the college is the way in which we evolve and embrace innovations and new ideas while enhancing our traditional strengths. We continue to develop programming such as The Banjo Summit, a unique collaborative event between the Palmer Museum of Art and the Center for Performing Arts (see story on page 8). Another exciting collaboration that you’ll read about is the Side-by-Side Concert featuring the School of Music's concert at Heinz Hall in March 2007, as part of the school's continuing collaboration with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
The college also continues to develop new initiatives. This year marks the first year that students can apply to our new Interdisciplinary Digital Studio (IDS) Bachelor of Design degree. Approved by the University last spring, this is a truly remarkable program in that it involves faculty from every academic unit of the college (see story on page 5). Students in the major will develop ways of learning that will help them understand how to work within collaborative arts and design professional environments.
Our new Core Curriculum is entering its second year and provides an opportunity for students and faculty across the arts and design disciplines to work and engage with each other within an interdisciplinary framework. Students from five of the seven academic units of the college mix with each other in introductory courses in studio practice and the theory of art and design. Each section of the course is taught by a group of instructors from multiple disciplines, thereby broadening students’ understanding of the art and design disciplines.
Of course, any newsletter can give you only a snapshot of what we’re doing, so I encourage you to stop by and visit if you are near Happy Valley. We also love to hear from you, so please write, e-mail, call—we’re always happy to learn about your accomplishments, answer your questions about the college, or talk with you about how we can work to better meet your needs.
Best regards,
Yvonne Gaudelius
ymg100@psu.edu
Anderson/ellis education collection receives national attention
A May–July 2006 exhibition at the prestigious Grolier Club in New York City, one of America’s oldest bibliophile societies, featured a portion of the Albert A. Anderson Jr. and Evelynn M. Ellis Art Education Collection, a collection of early art instruction manuals and related materials the couple donated to the Penn State University Libraries in 2000. The critically acclaimed exhibition, titled Teaching America to Draw: Instructional Manuals and Ephemera, 1794–1925,is currently on display at the Special Collections Library in Paterno Library at Penn State University Park through January 7, 2007.
“Few impulses are more basic to human existence than drawing,” Anderson wrote in his essay in the Grolier Club exhibit catalogue (funded by the Krumrine Family Libraries Endowment). He understands that impulse, having focused much of his teaching and research career on the history of art education, dating back to the first drawing instruction book published in America in 1794. An associate professor emeritus of art education, Anderson began collecting old drawing manuals while still an undergraduate art education major at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Over the years his hobby became a passion, and he started scouring flea markets, antique shops, auctions and antiquarian bookstores for manuals, textbooks and related items to add to his collection.
When Anderson and Ellis, senior director of the Penn State Office of Graduate Educational Equity Programs and former adjunct music faculty member and director of multicultural programs for the College of Arts and Architecture, donated their collection to the Libraries, they had amassed nearly 1,000 art instructional publications. Anderson says they donated the collection to 
ensure it received proper care and that Penn State art education students had access to the materials. Today, the Anderson/Ellis collection is regarded by bibliographers, historians and art educators as one of the most significant of its kind.
Anderson says he started collecting early drawing books because he found them “visually interesting, like a window into another time.” “Of course I also wanted to enhance my knowledge of the history of my field and build a decent professional library,” he adds.H. (Henry) Williams. Elements of drawing: exemplified in a variety of figures and sketches of parts of the human form. Boston: R.P. & C. Williams, 1818. Image courtesy the Albert A. Anderson Jr. and Evelynn M. Ellis Art Education Collection, Special Collections Library, Penn State Libraries.
Soon after the Libraries acquired the materials, William Joyce, head of the Special Collections Library and a member of the Grolier Club, began talking with the club’s director about a show featuring the Anderson/Ellis collection (along with a few selected works from the library’s other rare book holdings), and a date was set for May 2006. Joyce and Anderson, also a member of the Grolier Club, curated the exhibition with Sandra Stelts, curator of rare books and manuscripts in the University Libraries. “Bill and Sandy were crucial to putting the exhibition together,” Anderson says.
Their efforts were rewarded when an extensive and illustrated review of the exhibition by leading art critic Michael Kimmelman appeared in the arts section of the New York Times on July 19, 2006. The coverage extended to a color reproduction of a plate from one of the books on the paper’s front page. Although Anderson had heard there might be a mention of the exhibition in the Times, he says he and his colleagues were “ecstatic” to discover the amount of space devoted to it. “We couldn’t have wished for a more perfect outcome for the exhibition than the review by Kimmelman. I consider him among the foremost art writers in the country,” says Anderson.
Kimmelman’s review sparked great interest in the exhibition, both in the United States and abroad, and produced numerous inquiries from art critics, scholars and historians about the materials, including one from a noted art museum interested in exhibiting works from the collection. According to Anderson, the attention paid to the exhibition “will undoubtedly help to generate scholarly and art world interest in the early history of American art and art education.” He adds, “All the attention has raised even my consciousness of the visual appeal and historical importance of these unique artifacts and I have every intention of continuing to collect and write about them. They deserve to be seen and appreciated.” –AMM
