The following is a message from President Nathan Hatch: 

While commencement season always brings about a sense of new beginnings and opportunities, it’s also a time to say thank you and bid farewell to many of our friends, colleagues and mentors who have called Wake Forest University home.

Please join me in congratulating and commemorating a marvelous class of Reynolda Campus faculty and staff retiring from Wake Forest this year. We are grateful for the many contributions from this remarkable group of individuals, who together have more than 800 years of service to the University: Continue reading »

“Yellow Pillow”

Page Laughlin, a professor of art, was recently selected to have her work displayed the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.

The display is titled Dwelling: Interiors and is composed of paintings by Laughlin and photographs by Pamela Pecchio from the University of Virginia. The exhibition compares the artist’s investigations of interior spaces from their recent bodies of work. Both artists are interested in the role domestic spaces play in our lives.

“Currently, my paintings are based on photographs of interiors from high-end shelter magazines like Architectural Digest,” Laughlin shares. “These commercial images are compelling subjects for my painting because they reveal much about our consumptive desires. I am interested in what these fantasies reveal upon closer inspection and what is veiled in seduction.”

The exhibit will be on display at the North Carolina Gallery of the N.C. Museum of Art until July 28. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday and admission is free of charge. For additional information, please visit the official exhibition page.

There’s a new face at Reynolda House. Elizabeth Chew has been named the Betsy Main Babcock Director of the Curatorial and Education Division.

Chew comes to Reynolda House from Monticello, the historic Virginia estate of Thomas Jefferson, where she served as curator. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“The story of Reynolda is much more than a local or regional story; Reynolda is an American story,” Chew says. “I don’t see Reynolda as an art museum in a historic house – or as a historic house with an art museum. It is one seamless and unique experience, and I want to help push those identities closer together.”

Chew will provide direction and leadership for the development of interpretation, programming, education and research of the museum’s collections and exhibitions. The collections of Reynolda House are comprised of the nationally acclaimed American art collection; the historic house collection, which includes decorative arts and costumes; and the archives.

“Elizabeth brings to Reynolda House and Wake Forest a wealth of experience. She is an established scholar widely respected by American historians and art historians alike, with the rare ability to translate deep academic analysis into significant knowledge and new understandings for all,” says history professor Michele Gillespie. Continue reading »

See a list of employees joining and leaving the University in August 2012: Continue reading »

See a list of employment milestones reached by faculty in August 2012: Continue reading »

Lecturer in Art Leigh Ann Hallberg plans December opening for Revenants

With funding from the Hoak Family Fellowship, senior lecturer in art Leigh Ann Hallberg sculpted eight enormous iron heads with connective netting, then shipped them to Italy for a public art exhibition.

When speaking about the sculpture series, entitled Revenants, Hallberg frequently mentions the serendipity inherent in their creation.

She says that in casting, “the process was rudimentary and subject to happenstance, which I embrace as metaphor, and irregularities become part of the product.”

However, when choosing a location for the Revenants’ first exhibition, Hallberg left nothing to chance.

The Rocca Possente di Stellata, a fortress dating from the mid-1500s near Ferrara, Italy, seemed perfect. Its long history recalled for Hallberg the sculptures’ ancient Roman inspiration, while its location along a border and site of frequent disputes echoed the theme of boundaries and permeability their hollow eyes and tentacle-like rope netting are meant to evoke.

She explains, “The heads symbolize humanity, and the nets both tie them together and allow permeability. They force viewers to reflect on the location’s history and situate the viewer within that history.”

When Hallberg finalized the location at the Rocca in May, she thought the four-year-long process of creating the Revenants was over. They were ready to be revealed in August of 2012.

Two days after Hallberg left Italy, on May 20, a 6.0 earthquake rumbled through the Emilia-Romagna region, toppling both ancient and modern buildings, claiming 24 lives, and cracking the foundation and roof of the Rocca di Stellata. Continue reading »

See a list of employment milestones reached by faculty in July 2012:

Continue reading »

Wake Forest staff and faculty have contributed nearly $28,000 in the annual campaign for The Arts Council of Winton-Salem, topping the $26,000 contributed last year.

Led by professor of art David Finn, the formal stage of the Reynolda Campus campaign took place in March and April. Staff and faculty still wanting to contribute to the current campaign may give through Sept. 30 by visiting the Arts Council’s website at intothearts.org.

Romance Languages received recognition as the department which has the most  new donors, while the School of Divinity was honored as the school with the most new donors. The Arts Council gave a “special honorable mention” to the Athletics Department for several new donors. In all, Wake Forest added 29 new donors to the campaign this year.

Locally, The Arts Council’s 2012 overall campaign goal is $2.35 million. It will support 21 arts organizations, such as the Piedmont Opera, the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Hispanic Arts Initiative. In addition to providing annual operating support for artists and arts organizations, the Arts Council supports such projects as the “City of Arts and Innovation” branding campaign, as well as the ongoing operation of the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts.

See a list of employment milestones reached by staff in April 2012: Continue reading »

See a list of employees joining and leaving the University in January 2012: Continue reading »