The Center for Visual Arts and the Atelier InSite at Clemson University welcomes Mary Beebe from the celebrated Stuart Collection at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) located in San Diego, C.A. for a guest lecture entitled, “The Stuart Collection: Making Art Happen on Campus” on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 6-7 p.m. in 1-100 Lee Hall.
Mary Beebe has been the director of the renowned public art collection known as the Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego, for over three decades. The Stuart Collection is a garden of sculptures set around the 1,200 acre campus at the UCSD in which the commissioned artists use specific sites on the campus to install their work. Beebe will discuss within her lecture the process of selecting and producing 18 installations by internationally known artists on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.
The collection has received considerable national and international recognition. It received two awards from the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; one award for the collection as a whole and another award for Alexis Smith’s Snake Path. It has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt and received a National Honors Award from the American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.). A book documenting the first 20 years of the collection entitled, Landmarks: Sculpture Commissions for the Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego was published in 2001 by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Beebe was personally awarded the Public Art Network Award from Americans for the Arts in 2011.
Beebe’s guest lecture and visit is significant to Clemson University as the institution begins to accelerate its own public art program called Atelier InSite. More than a decade ago university funds were set aside in support of the Art Partnership Program, a collaborative effort among the Office of the President, the Department of Art and other academic units on campus. The program solicits and commissions the creation of site-specific works of art, which are permanently featured at various campus locations.
Clemson’s design guidelines for current and future campus projects stipulate, “All capital development projects that are anticipated to exceed two million dollars will consider the benefits of public art and will apply 1/2 of 1 percent of the construction budget for such work.” Recently, the Clemson University Administrative Council voted to make the public art provision a University policy.
Atelier InSite is a new paradigm for the implementation of public artwork on university campuses that capitalizes on a cross-disciplinary and inclusive approach that is predominantly student driven. Students in this creative inquiry program engage in direct, hands on processes to determine the artwork placed around campus. They also conduct research on the nature of public art as well as investigate the design build process, conduct site analysis, and identify site locations for artwork on the Clemson University campus.
Read a recent Clemson University press release regarding the Atelier InSite public art program.
Admission to the “The Stuart Collection: Making Art Happen on Campus” guest lecture on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 6-7 p.m. in 1-100 Lee Hall is free.
Contact: David Detrich, 864-656-3890, ddavid@clemson.edu
Media Contact: Meredith Mims McTigue, 864-656-3883, mmims@clemson.edu