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2<br />

Founded in 1805, the <strong>Pennsylvania</strong> Academy of the<br />

Fine Arts (PAFA) is America’s first school and museum<br />

of fine arts. A recipient of the 2005 National Medal of<br />

Arts presented by the President of the United States,<br />

PAFA is a recognized national leader in fine arts education.<br />

Nearly every major American artist has taught,<br />

studied, or exhibited at the Academy. The institution’s<br />

world-class collection of American art continues to grow<br />

and provides what only a few other art institutions in<br />

the world offer: the rare combination of an outstanding<br />

museum and extraordinary faculty known <strong>for</strong> its commitment<br />

to students and <strong>for</strong> the stature and quality of its<br />

artistic work.<br />

President & Chief Executive Officer, David R. Brigham<br />

Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, Jeffrey Carr<br />

Vice President of Admissions & Financial Aid, Stanislaus Greidus<br />

Dean of Student Affairs, Anne Stassen<br />

Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations, John J. Berg<br />

Senior Vice President of Development, Louisa Hanshew<br />

Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Marsha Braverman<br />

Preview is published three times a year by PAFA <strong>for</strong> alumni, friends,<br />

faculty, staff, and students.<br />

Produced by <strong>Pennsylvania</strong> Academy of the Fine Arts Marketing Department<br />

Designed by Laura Blumenthal<br />

Copy Editor Gigi Lamm<br />

For comments or questions, contact Gigi Lamm, Public Relations Manager, at<br />

glamm@pafa.org.<br />

Board of Trustees<br />

Donald R. Caldwell, Chair<br />

Kevin F. Donohoe, Vice Chair and Treasurer<br />

Herbert S. Riband, Jr., Esq., Vice Chair & Secretary<br />

Thomas N. Pappas, Vice Chair and Assistant Secretary<br />

James C. Biddle, Vice Chair<br />

Mark L. Alderman, Esq.<br />

Roger H. Ballou<br />

Gerald P. Barth<br />

John B. Bartlett, Esq.<br />

Sally J. Bellet, Esq.<br />

Thomas L. Bennett, CFA<br />

Max N. Berry, Esq.*<br />

Lynn Nowicki Clarke*<br />

Jonathan L. Cohen*<br />

Robert A. Fisk<br />

John A. Fry*<br />

Anthony A. Imbargüen<br />

Michael T. Kennedy<br />

Mary Louise Krumrine, Ph.D.<br />

Ellen Berman Lee<br />

Marguerite <strong>Lenfest</strong><br />

Rev. Herbert H. Lusk, II<br />

Frances M. Maguire*<br />

Emeritus<br />

Robert L. Byers, Sr.<br />

Barbara L. Greenfield, Chair, Emeritus Trustees<br />

William A. Slaughter, Esq.<br />

Richard E. Woosnam<br />

Frank Martucci*<br />

Anne E. McCollum<br />

Francis P. Newell, Esq.<br />

Delphine Poussot<br />

Linda Richardson<br />

William L. Rulon-Miller<br />

Steven L. Sanders<br />

William H. Schorling, Esq.<br />

Alfred R. Shands, III*<br />

Carole Price Shanis<br />

Henry B. du P. Smith<br />

Martha McGeary Snider<br />

Julie D. Spahr<br />

Gerard H. Sweeney<br />

Barbara A. Sylk<br />

Steven Volla<br />

Debora C. Zug<br />

*National Trustee<br />

Ex officio<br />

Julia B. DeMoss, President of the Women’s Board<br />

James J. Lynes, President, Alumni Association<br />

Gary Steuer, Director, Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy<br />

Ahmeenah Young, President & CEO of the <strong>Pennsylvania</strong> Convention<br />

Center Authority<br />

Faculty Representative<br />

Al Gury<br />

Photo: Susan Beard Design<br />

Photo: Hinda Schuman<br />

Letter from the President<br />

I recently witnessed one of the most<br />

remarkable sights of my career as<br />

an arts professional: PAFA sculpture<br />

instructor Shane Stratton (see Faculty<br />

Spotlight, page 6) led his students in<br />

a bronze pour. This is the process by<br />

which delicate wax models become<br />

durable bronze sculptures. A group<br />

of six students wearing respirators,<br />

visors, and leather protective clothing,<br />

and using a mechanized gantry lifted a<br />

cauldron of molten bronze, heated to<br />

more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and poured it into molds<br />

of their own making. It took only twenty minutes to accomplish<br />

the pour, but it reflected millennia of tradition, years of Stratton’s<br />

training being conveyed to a group of PAFA’s undergraduate<br />

students, and hundreds of hours of student preparation. In<br />

addition to the six students directly participating, another dozen<br />

were gathered nearby observing this carefully choreographed<br />

exercise. I was awed by the chance to observe our students<br />

learning valuable foundry skills that will expand the ways they<br />

can express themselves artistically and giving them technical<br />

abilities that can lead to professional art-foundry jobs.<br />

Later in the afternoon, I toured with a patron through the galleries<br />

of PAFA’s museum, including the Henry Luce Sculpture<br />

Study Center and the Tuttleman Sculpture Gallery that together<br />

<strong>for</strong>m a veritable survey of American sculpture. The works on<br />

view span from the 18th century to the 21st centuries, and<br />

include a number of bronzes by the likes of Thomas Eakins,<br />

Alexander Stirling Calder, and more contemporary bronzes by<br />

David Smith and Lee Bontecou. My appreciation <strong>for</strong> their work<br />

was deepened by the process I had seen that morning in our<br />

teaching foundry.<br />

At the end of my tour, I guided the patron to see the foundry<br />

where the bronze had been poured about four hours earlier.<br />

The space was quiet except <strong>for</strong> one student perched on the<br />

floor with a hammer and chisel in his hands, breaking away<br />

the concrete shell from his sculpture that had been cast that<br />

morning. He showed us a somersaulting figure that was half<br />

emerged from its casing. As we each marveled at the result,<br />

he looked up and told us with a broad smile, “It’s the first time<br />

I’ve ever cast a bronze sculpture.” A day like that is only possible<br />

at the <strong>Pennsylvania</strong> Academy of the Fine Arts, and I will<br />

never get tired of participating in such moments of wonder and<br />

discovery.<br />

David R. Brigham<br />

President & Chief Executive Officer<br />

Become a Member of the Peale Circle<br />

Roxana Pérez-Méndez: Este Es Mi Pais<br />

Morris Gallery, Historic Landmark Building<br />

May 22 - September 26, 2010<br />

Presenting a series of solo exhibitions by emerging artists,<br />

the new Morris Gallery season begins with an installation<br />

project Este Es Mi Pais by Philadelphia based artist<br />

Roxana Pérez-Méndez.<br />

Pérez-Méndez is a multi-media and per<strong>for</strong>mance artist<br />

whose work examines the fragile nature of history and<br />

identity through the lens of her own experience as a<br />

Puerto Rican woman. Este Es Mi Pais is an installation<br />

that combines paintings from the collection of PAFA with<br />

Pepper’s Ghost holograms, video images, and readymade<br />

material. In a work where illusion and reality overlap,<br />

it addresses the ambiguities of historical representation<br />

and draws into question the certainty of vision itself.<br />

Roxana Pérez-Méndez received her MFA from the Tyler<br />

School of Art and attended the Skowhegan School of<br />

Painting and Sculpture. She was a finalist <strong>for</strong> both the<br />

Joan Mitchell Award and the Pew Fellowship in the Arts in<br />

By Louisa Hanshew, Senior Vice President of Development<br />

There are three kinds of people: those that make things<br />

happen, those that watch things happen, and those who<br />

don’t know what’s happening!<br />

The new Peale Circle is that group of people who make<br />

things happen. At the $1000 giving level and above,<br />

PAFA is pleased to announce the creation of our new<br />

Peale Circle. Using the templates of the <strong>for</strong>mer Charles<br />

Willson Peale and Potamkin Collectors Societies as our<br />

guide, and enhancing membership benefits to reflect the<br />

role the Academy plays in our artistic future, members of<br />

The Peale Circle will be able to participate in a variety of<br />

exclusive new programs, trips, lectures, tours of private<br />

collections, wine adventures, and more.<br />

Committed to a leading role in the financial support of<br />

PAFA, the Peale Circle is a group of individuals who are<br />

dedicated to the cultural achievements that have shaped<br />

American art. Members join because art matters, because<br />

it supports PAFA as we continue to grow into our third<br />

century, and because it is educational, interesting, and<br />

fun.<br />

Please let us tell you more about what’s to come and<br />

how to get involved. Contact Bill Swoope, Director of<br />

Stewardship at 215-972-2103.<br />

Vik Muniz (b. 1961), Charles Willson Peale from the series, Pictures of Ink, 2000<br />

60 x 45 inches, Dye destruction print.<br />

Roxana Pérez-Méndez, Boricua, 2010, Pepper’s Ghost hologram, mixed media diorama, DV video and<br />

components, overall 60 x 72 x 36 inches. Courtesy of the artist<br />

2006. Currently, she is an artist/member of the collective Vox Populi<br />

Gallery in Philadelphia and an Assistant Professor of Sculpture<br />

at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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