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Art Program and Exhibitions | The Dudley H. Davis Center | ̽̽(title)

With two galleries and countless spaces to hang art throughout the building, the Davis Center offers numerous exhibition spaces for ̽̽ students, staff, faculty and local community members to showcase their art.

Our galleries

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In addition to the countless spaces in meeting rooms, hallways, and eateries throughout the building in which we display art, the Davis Center has two main galleries for robust exhibits:

Scarlett Oak Lounge — A smaller exhibition space, located on the third floor in the space adjacent to the stairwell leading to the fourth floor.

Fireplace Lounge — Our main gallery space, located at the entry way of the fourth floor.

Permanent installations

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Self Portrait at the University of Black Vermont

1987 • David Bethuel Jamieson

David Bethuel Jamieson, a black American painter and printmaker, was born in 1963 in Washington D.C. In 1983, Jamieson received his G.E.D. and enrolled at ̽̽, majoring in American History and taking courses in the art department while he pursed his art independently in a studio in Burlington.

Jamieson's last series of work chronicles the 1991 student takeover of the ̽̽ President's offices and Waterman Building in protest of institutional racism and lack of diversity on campus. His Self Portrait at the University of BLACK Vermont uses a dark palette, harshe brush strokes, and rigid blocks to convey the anger and frustration he and his peers were experiencing at the time.

David Jamieson's paintings are compositionally, texturally, and emotionally complex. Incorporating a variety of artistic traditions and techniques, the work is driven by emotion - revealing, in turn, pain, playfulness, anger, sadness, and hope.

Jamieson died in 1992 from AIDS-related complications. His self-portrait is a testament to the importance of creative expression, hope, and beauty despite the struggles that exist within.

In addition to the Dudley H. Davis Center, David's work is held in many private and public collections, including , , The Robert Hull Fleming Museum, and .

Related links

 

Flukes

Gordon Gund P • ’91 • ’93

Gordon Gund’s interest in sculpture traces to his childhood, attending Saturday morning art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He would study water color in college, become an avid photographer during four years in the U.S. Navy, and eventually find his way to sculpture when a friend introduced him to wood carving some thirty years ago. Gund increasingly turned his attention to art after retiring from a successful career in business and his family’s continuing philanthropic work, including support of ̽̽’s Gund Institute for Environment.

The sculptor, who is blind after losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa in 1971, says, “While with my eyes I can’t see the shapes I create, I feel them over and over again with my hands and my mind, and the result is in my mind forever... It takes me more time and patience than most with sight and letting go is generally felt with more uncertainty. So, it is extremely satisfying to finish something that I have doubted along the way, woken up with in the middle of the night, spent a lot of time on and given a lot of love.”

The “Flukes” bronze at ̽̽ is rooted in Gordon Gund’s experience helping to free pilot whales beached on Nantucket several years ago.

 

Areté Blu

Richard Erdman • ’75 H’16

Sculptor Richard Erdman has a long relationship with ̽̽, dating back to his undergraduate days when he worked with two legendary mentors—artist Paul Aschenbach, who helped him find his calling, and varsity ski coach Chip Lacasse, who helped develop him into a two-time All-American in alpine.

Post-graduation, apprenticeship with stone carvers in Carrara, Italy, would also be key to Erdman’s development as an artist. Today, his work is on display in museums, and corporate and private collections worldwide. His monumental sculpture “Passage” sits at the entrance to the Donald M. Kendall sculpture gardens at PepsiCo in Purchase, New York. Carved from a 450-ton block of travertine, the 25- by 16-foot “Passage” is the largest sculpture in the world carved from a single block of travertine.

Erdman says the gift of “Areté Blu” completes a full circle with his ̽̽ experience, a symbol of what the university gave him as a student—“where individualism and risk-taking were encouraged, where education was not just an assimilation of facts, but the training of the mind to think and dream.” Describing the particular work, the sculptor says, “Its emotive and energetic stance beckons visitors to live
actively, live dangerously, live passionately—and in its contiguous form, live in continuity.” 

“Areté Blu” joins Erdman’s “Primavera,” a gift of the Class of 2010, situated outside Jeffords Hall. Erdman also recently gave the university two more pieces, “Confluence” and “Belladona,” that will go on display at a later date.