The new Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art/WSU, located directly south of the CUB on Terrell Mall, is a stunning addition to the Pullman campus with its unique mirrored glass exterior.
The six galleries of the Crimson Cube will feature visiting exhibitions, featured artists, and works from the museum’s permanent collection. Read about the grand opening of the museum.
(All photos by Robert Hubner except JSMOA entrance by Zach Mazur)
The ornate Washington State University mace, a convocation and commencement fixture, is perhaps the most widely recognizable of artist Tim Doebler’s creations.
But his artwork is interwoven throughout the University. Commemorative and recognition placards in building lobbies. A stone monument on Terrell Mall. Finely crafted tokens of appreciation awarded to University leaders and supporters.
“I see this as part of the fabric of the University,” says Doebler ’84 MFA, who is retiring in November after 38 years as an engineering technician with WSU’s fine arts department.
A Vietnam veteran and survivor of the bloody Easter offensive, Doebler returned to the States in 1972 and … » More …
The creations of Tim Doebler ’84 MFA can be found all over the campus of Washington State University. Doebler is known for his sculpture and metalwork.
Artist Jim Dine gave WSU The Technicolor Heart in 2004. Now he has donated a significant collection of more than 200 of his prints to the University, including the selections in this gallery.
Read more in “Where the heart is.”
Courtesy WSU Museum of Art
An alumna artist brings out the kids in us
Tarah Luke felt like her hands would fall off after completing 120 pages in adult coloring books over five and a half weeks.
Luke ’05 didn’t color the pages, though. The Seattle-based artist designed and drew the images featured in the four books. The Eiffel Tower, a marching band, an octopus, and a movie camera are just a few examples from the series of themed volumes divided into places, music, animals, and inventions.
Luke’s collection is part of a growing national trend. Adult coloring books, usually featuring complex patterns within images, have become an increasingly popular … » More …
A map of sculptures on the WSU Pullman campus.
» More ...
Broken Arrow sits in the foyer of the Terrell Library. Thousands pass by it each week, most not realizing it is the work of artist Harold Balazs ’51, or that it was a gift from the Friel family whose lives entwined with the history of the school long after graduation.
Though he planned to be a teacher, Jack Friel ’23 started his 30-year career as the Cougars’ head basketball coach in 1928. As a student, he met Catherine (Matthews) Friel ’23, ’58 MAT in the original college library. They married a few years later and raised their family just a few blocks from campus. Three … » More …
In the late sixties, Harold Balazs ’51 helped build a public arts tradition in our region. Along with several members of the Washington Arts Commission, including artist Jacob Lawrence, he created Washington’s Art in Public Places program. Starting in 1974, the program began directing one-half of one percent of all state building budgets toward purchasing contemporary art. The pieces would be owned by the state but could reside at the site of the project.
Having traveled in Spain and Italy, Balazs had realized that the United States could easily support more arts and culture. “Countries in Europe do so much more than one percent,” he … » More …
We trace the history of Harold Balazs ’51, one of the most prolific public artists in the Northwest. Settling in Washington, he has made our corner of the universe a nicer place to be.
» More ...
“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled,” writes art critic and author John Berger in his 1970s Ways of Seeing.
Berger, a mainstay for students of art and Western culture, examines how a large part of what we see when we look at something depends on our habits and conventions, the things we think we know.
As men and women, Berger notes, we may see things differently. Our teachers, our books, even our communities tell us what we’re looking at and what it means. Children see things differently, again. Lacking preconceptions, they may recognize qualities in a work of … » More …