AFTER HOURS: Art exhibit celebrates GSFA 100th birthday

The original sketches of the Quad dormitories, complete with gargoyles and bay windows, are part of a new Graduate School of Fine Arts exhibit celebrating the school's 100th anniversary. Titled "100 for 100: A Century of Achievement at the Graduate School of Fine Arts," the exhibit features 100 spotlighted projects representing the diverse talents of the school's faculty and students, both past and present. The University's Houston Hall and Blanche P. Levy Park are also featured. The exhibit, which will run until November 4, is based on a written history of the Graduate School of Fine Arts entitled "The Book of the School: 100 Years." The book's authors, GSFA Associate Dean Ann Strong and GSFA Lecturer George Thomas, were among the school officials who selected the projects. Julia Moore Converse, the exhibition curator and director of the Architectural Archives of the University, said that the show is the largest undertaken by the school in recent years. It took over a year to organize, she said. "The goal was to illustrate not only the achievements, but the diversity of the school," Converse said. "It's really a rediscovery, a celebration of the past, and a look to the future." The selected projects represent the achievements of all nine departments in the Graduate School of Fine Arts. Rocky Lee, a first-year architectural graduate student who had seen the exhibit, said he liked certain parts more than others. For instance, he said, he particularly enjoyed the models of the Vanna Venturi House in Philadelphia. Converse said that display was one of the most popular. But Lee also said that he would have liked to see more paintings and sculptures from the Architectural and Fine Arts schools. "It seemed like the Urban Design and Landscape Design Schools swamped too much of the space," he said. First-year architecture graduate student Scott Gerwig said he liked the way the exhibit traced the hisory of each project. "The most interesting part was that they showed early developmental sketches and not just the final presentation," he said. The last entry of the exhibit is a videotape presentation of the work of 100 younger graduates, called "The Galaxy: Envisioning the Future."

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