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photo by Mark Lueders At last Thursday's dedication ceremony, President Judith Rodin described the Kelly Family Gates as the "crowning touch to The Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall"--the first permanent home for fine arts at Penn. The Kelly Family Gates lead to the heart of the new interdisciplinary program in Digital Media Design, and houses other artistic collaborations and creative endeavors. |
GSFA Dean Gary Hack, GSFA chair John Moore, Penn Trustee Paul Kelly, and fine arts faculty member Mark Lueders each had a hand in the creation of the Kelly Family Gates, which welcomes visitors to the Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall at 36th and Walnut Streets. The official dedication of the gates took place at a ceremony on May 8, the first annual Arts Day at Penn.
A juried competition was held to commission the newly designed gates, and the winning entry was conceived by Mark Lueders, MFA'93, a GSFA alumnus and sculptor on Penn's fine arts faculty. His animated design incorporates finely crafted bronze sculptures of hands and tools which relate to the making of paintings, drawings, sculpture, and clay.
The creation and installation of the gates was made possible through the generosity of the Kelly Family Foundation and Penn Trustee Paul K. Kelly, C '62, WG '64, and his wife, Nancy, and their daughter Brooke, who graduated from Penn's undergraduate fine arts program in 2001.
As the newest addition to public art on campus, the Kelly Family Gates personify the creative spirit of Penn's fine arts program and symbolize the importance of the fine arts at Penn. Centrally located on the 36th Street walkway, the gates link the campus to Addams Hall, the center for undergraduate fine arts at Penn. The gates' unique design captures the quirky spirit of the renowned artist Charles Addams, for whom the fine arts building is named (Almanac April 3, 2001).
There are a total of 56 hands from 46 different people with theri respective tools representing the fine arts.
Among the hands adorning the gates are those of GSFA administrators, faculty and staff, including the following:
Gary Hack, GSFA Dean and Paley Professor of City and Regional Planning
Valerie Benson, Executive Assistant to Dean Gary Hack
John Moore, Chair and Gutman Professor, Graduate Fine Arts
Julie Schneider, Director, Undergraduate Fine Arts
Julia Moore Converse, Assistant Dean, GSFA
Susana Jacobson, Adjunct Associate Professor of Fine Arts
Becky Young, Adjunct Professor of Photography
Joshua Mosley, Assistant Professor of Animation and Digital Media
Steven Begleiter, Lecturer, Undergraduate Fine Arts (photography)
Matt Courtney, Lecturer, Undergraduate Fine Arts (clay)
Brad Johnson, Lecturer, Undergraduate Fine Arts (clay)
Sumi Maeshima, Lecturer, Undergraduate Fine Arts (clay)
Diane Lachman, BFA'85, MFA'87, Lecturer, Undergraduate Fine Arts (painting)
Donna Fee, Coordinator, Undergraduate Fine Arts Department
Rob Marcolina, IT staff, GSFA
Mark Lueders, MFA'93, Artist and Lecturer, Undergraduate Fine Arts (clay)
Birgit Lueders, artist's wife.
Mark Lueders, MFA'93, the creator of the gates, established a clay program within the department of fine arts and has taught clay sculpture, wheel, advanced clay/combined techniques, beginning digital imaging and computer graphics.
More photos from the ceremony
Photos by M.A. Morris
Fine Arts Chair and Gutman Professor
John Moore and Julie Schneider,
director of the Undergraduate
Fine Arts program at the ceremony.
President Judith Rodin looks
on as Trustee Paul Kelly
admires the
new gates.
Mark Lueders, creator of the gates,
with Nancy Kelly, donor.
GSFA Dean Gary Hack and President
Judith Rodin
listen as Paul Kelly speaks.
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Close-up
of hands holding camera, representing
the
courses in photography.
Photos by Marguerite Miller
Mark Lueders, Nancy and Paul
Kelly join Dr. Rodin
in the cutting of
the ribbon.
Mark Lueders gets help holding
the umbrella from his daughter; President
Emeritus Martin Meyerson (center) and Nancy
Kelly, wife of Paul Kelly amid the sea
of umbrellas.
Almanac, Vol. 49, No. 33, May 13, 2003
