The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 11, 2008 Page: 9 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, JANUARY 11,2008
Book sculptures kick off new effort to increase campus art
by Margeux Clemmons
THRESHER STAFF
The stacks at Fondren Library
seem to have taken on lives of their
own following the permanent instal-
lation of Mike Stilkey's art exhibit
When the Animals Rebel, just the first
evidence of Rice University's recent
efforts to increase art on campus.
The art pieces, which feature
ceiling-high piles of colorfully bound
books painted with whimsical boxing
kangaroos and opossums perched
on flowering trees, were originally
on display this summer at the Rice
Gallery in Sewall Hall. Thanks to the
exhibit's popularity and the work of
Kimberley Davenport, director of
Rice Gallery, and Mary Bixby, execu-
tive director of Friends of Fondren
Library, the cantankerous animals
have a new home in the library.
"They're quirky, something to il-
licit a laugh," Kelsey Zottnick, a Will
Rice College freshman, said. "You
see a giraffe made out of books, and
that's something I wouldn't think to
make out of books."
Comments like Zottnick's are
exactly what inspired Davenport to
ask Stilkey to create a large-scale
piece for the Rice Gallery's first
summer exhibit. She discovered the
new artist's work while searching for
gallery commissions in Los Angeles.
At that time unfamiliar with the art
business, Stilkey told Davenport he
was surprised and honored when he
learned about the space he was being
asked to transform and the artists he
was following.
The exhibit was originally estab-
lished merely to keep something
in the window during the summer
months when the Rice Gallery was
not in full operation, but according to
Davenport, the unusual enthusiasm
over Stilkey's work set a precedent
for future summer exhibits to be
more than a modest enterprise.
Nearly 150 people attended a talk by
the artist Aug. 30, making it talk the
most well attended Rice Gallery talk
to date, Davenport said
When it came time for the ex-
hibit to be changed, Bixby stepped
in to save the work from the usual
fate of large installation pieces:
permanent dismantlement.
"I think it brings some whimsy
to the library," Bixby said. "It brings
some warmth into the spaces."
Bixby first heard of When the
Animals Rebel while she was organiz-
ing the library's annual book sale, a
major fundraising event for Fondren
Library. Friends of Fondren Library
donated over 100 books for the art
project out of a total 5,500 hard-back
books used in the installation.
The effort of relocating the
exhibit was tackled by Rice Gallery
Curator David Krueger. Krueger
led a team who disassembled the
art piece, storing the painted books
in meticulously labeled boxes for
their trip to Fondren. For one seg-
ment of the piece, library volunteers
pushed at least 90 boxes from Sewall
on carts.
Krueger also oversaw the place-
ment of the various animals and
surly human faces throughout the
library, locating the works in un-
expected places. Plans for the last
pieces of Stilkey's exhibit have been
completed in the last few weeks,
including the flock of birds near
Fondren's reference desk and one
piece near the Digital Media Center,
a technology-based branch of the
library in Herring Hall, to illustrate
the relationship between the facility
and the main library building.
When the Animals Rebel is only
one brush stroke on overall picture
of the future of campus art. Both
students and administration have in-
creased their efforts to commission
pieces with more diverse media in
recent months. One of these changes
is the June hiring of University Art
Curator Jenny Strayer.
Already Strayer has organized
the commission of three major
permanent installations, which will
be finalized in the coming weeks.
She is also working with the Student
Association on a low budget project
to install temporary student art ad-
jacent to current construction sites
on campus and on a larger annual
project that will call for one student
art exhibit to be featured throughout
the year and possibly auctioned off
at the end of its display.
"We really look at it [art] as
MICHAEL ROG/THRESHER
A sculpture from Mike Stilkey's exhibit When the Animals Rebel stands on the third floor of Fondren Library. Once a tem-
porary summer exhibit at the Rice Gallery, the sculptures are now on permanenet display throughout the library.
another educational experience for
Rice students," Strayer said, men-
tioning that some of the artists Rice
commissions are highly respected
both in art circles and among the
general public.
Strayer also said that besides taking
Rice culture and potential sites into con-
sideration when choosing art finalists
during the commission process, she
looks at large-scale art as appealing
to the greater Houston area.
"This is a way of building bridges
with the community," she said,
stressing that projects such as the
one being planned near the Collab-
orative Research Center on Main
Street hold particular potential.
But the list of recent university
actions to improve aesthetics on
campus does not stop at Strayer's
new position. The university has
also established a policy that will
ensure 50 percent of all new large
construction project budgets will
be dedicated to commissioning an
artist specifically for that structure.
Buildings on the list include the
new residential colleges and the
Brochstein Pavilion.
Despite these future plans,
Davenport said many existing
high-profile pieces on campus go
unnoticed or unappreciated, includ-
ing the sculptures in the engineering
quad by popular contemporary artist
Michael Heizer.
"There are a lot of things hidden
in plain sight," Davenport said. She
also suggested that a student project
featuring current Rice art through
a brochure or guided campus tour
would highlight Rice's unique his-
tory and myths.
Nevertheless, many students,
faculty, and off-campus patrons agree
that more art at Rice will be enjoyed
by all and enable the university
to stand its own amidst Hermann
Park and the Museum of Fine Arts
Houston.
"You don't have to be a curatcy at
the MFA to have something to say,"
Strayer said.
■BIWH—
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows Program
ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT
GRADUATE STUDY LEADING TO THE PH.D.?
IF SO, READ ON.
The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows Program (MMUFP) at Rice University has three goals. First, it seeks to increase the
number of minority students, and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs
in core fields in the arts and sciences. In doing so. the program aims to reduce over time the serious under-representation on the
faculties of individuals from certain minority groups, as well as to address the attendant educational consequences ot these
disparities. Second, it seeks to nurture these students to he the researchers, teachers, and mentors of the highly diverse college
student bodies of the future. Third, it seeks to encourage study abroad experiences as part of their research agenda. The fields
that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has targeted for support are: Anthropology. Art History. Classics, Computer Science,
Demography, Earth Sciences, Ecology, English, Ethnomusicology, Foreign l anguages. History, Literature, Mathematics.
Musicologv, Philosophy, Physics, Political Theory, Religion and Sociology .
Applicants should normally be completing their sophomore year as a student at Rice University. Juniors are invited to apply as
Associate Fellows. Selection will be based on a number ot attributes including but not limited to academic standing and potential,
life experiences and interests, commitment to building bridges in multicultural settings, and interest in pursuing graduate
education. Students who participate in the program receive a yearly stipend of $2,000. work closely with a faculty mentor tor
two years, and are also eligible for participation in summer fellowship programs at the end of their sophomore or junior years.
Finalists will be interviewed. Announcements will be made in March. Visit our table at the Undergraduate Research
Opportunities Fair for more information on Thursday, January 17, 2008 in the Grand Hall. RMC at 7:(X) PM.
For more information and to download the application go to:
http://w vv w. rice.edu/me 1 Ion may s
Application deadline is February 4,2(IPS
MICHAf l ROfl THRESHfR
CONTACT:
Dr. Roland B. Smith, Jr. or Gloria Bean
Office of the Associate Provost
Rice University
713/348*5688
This sculpture by Stilkey is also located on the third floor of Fondren Library.
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 11, 2008, newspaper, January 11, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443076/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.