Graduation: historic landmark building
Exhibition: Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building
118-128 N. Broad Street
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts will honor artist and long-time instructor Louis B. Sloan ’57 with its third annual Distinguished Alumni Award during graduation ceremonies for Certificate and Masters students on Friday, May 6. Graduation ceremonies begin at 3 p.m. in the Academy’s historic landmark building (118 North Broad St.) following the awarding of $50,000 in artists travel scholarships and prizes.
At 5 p.m., the 104th Annual Student Exhibition and 13th Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition open – for the first time - in the new Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building. Seventeen MFA graduates and 90 Certificate students will display nearly 1,000 paintings, sculptures, prints and works on paper. The student exhibition runs through May 29.
The Distinguished Alumni Award honors a prominent Academy graduate who has made an outstanding contribution to the arts community. Louis Sloan taught still life, landscape, portrait and figure painting classes at the Academy from 1962 until his retirement in 1997. Originally encouraged by Academy instructor Julius Bloch to study at the Academy, Sloan went on to receive the Philadelphia City Council Scholarship in 1952 and, four years later, the Pennsylvania Academy’s Cresson Travel Scholarship. He also worked as a conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1963 to 1981.
“It is a particular privilege for the Alumni Association to present our award to a former student who not only went on to achieve significant success as an artist, but also returned to the Academy to inspire the next generation of American artists,” said Vincent Desiderio, president of the Alumni Association. “Lou Sloan as a teacher inspired us with his extraordinary technique but moreover with his compassion, his dignity and his unflinching regard for his fellow artists. During my years at the Academy I knew of no one who was more giving and supportive to students than Lou Sloan."
During his career, Sloan has received many prestigious awards including the Louis Comfort Tiffany grant, the Academy's Jennie Sesan Gold Medal, The Emily Lowe grant, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the James Van Der Zee Award from Philadelphia’s Brandywine Workshop. Sloan is represented in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Woodmere Art Museum and numerous private collections.
“As we continue to celebrate the Academy’s 200th anniversary, it is entirely fitting to pay tribute to an artist so clearly committed both to the making and to the teaching of art at a very high level,” said Derek Gillman, president and Edna S. Tuttleman Director.
Irving Petlin, the distinguished painter and founding faculty member and critic in the Academy’s Master of Fine Arts program, will address this year’s graduates as the 200th Anniversary commencement speaker. Petlin resides in Paris and also teaches at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.
Irving Petlin has held major exhibitions at Galleria Tega in Milan, Gallery Kent in New York and Gallery Jan Krugier-Ditesheim in Geneva. His work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Hirshhorn Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy and major international museums including Centre Georges Pompidou and Stedelijk Museum.
In addition to the Distinguished Alumni Award, the Academy will present honorary degrees to Leon Golub (posthumously) and Nancy Spero. The work of Leon Golub (1922-2002), whose son Stephen will accept the degree on his behalf, used Abstract Expressionist techniques to reflect the tumult of the late 20th century, resulting in powerful images of Vietnam and the Holocaust. The Academy purchased two of Golub’s works before his death, creating a turning point in the Academy’s collecting history.
Nancy Spero uses a variety of media and techniques ranging from traditional to experimental. She might begin with a print, then add images and text to achieve a political statement through her art, frequently challenging long-accepted perceptions of women.
The Annual Student Exhibition and Graduate Thesis Exhibition offer a preview of the future of American art. The public opening frequently attracts 2,000 attendees. Over the course of the month-long exhibition last year, some 250 students works, valued at nearly $300,000, were sold at prices ranging from $150 to several thousand dollars.
On the evening of Thursday, May 5, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., a private Preview Party sponsored by the Women’s Board of the Academy will allow guests to enter the exhibition at intervals of time according to their ticket level.
Academy hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Academy is located at 118-128 N. Broad Street in Philadelphia, two blocks north of City Hall. Admission is $7 adults, $6 seniors and students with ID, $5 children/youth ages 5-18, and free for members and children under age 5. Discounted parking is available at nearby Parkway facilities
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Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has been home to America's artists for 200 years. The Academy collects and exhibits the work of distinguished American artists, and is renowned for training fine artists. The school will grow from nearly 300 to 400 full-time students by the 2007-2008 academic year. Outreach programs serve an additional 16,000 children and adults annually. Under the leadership of Donald R. Caldwell, Board Chairman, and Derek A. Gillman, President and the Edna S. Tuttleman Director, the Pennsylvania Academy is in the second phase of a $50 million capital campaign to create a new campus at 118-128 N. Broad Street, bringing the school and galleries together for the first time in 40 years.
Notable alumni include Rembrandt Peale, William Harnett, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Cecilia Beaux, Henry Tanner, Maxfield Parrish, Robert Henri, John Sloan, Violet Oakley, John Marin, Arthur B. Carles, Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, Robert Gwathmey, Edna Andrade, Charles Searles, Jody Pinto, Bo Bartlett, Vincent Desiderio, Sarah McEneaney and filmmaker David Lynch.
Programming during the 200th Anniversary Celebration is supported in part by a grant from the Pew Exhibitions Initiative, a grant program funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Renovations to the Academy's historic landmark building are funded in part by a grant from the Richard C. von Hess Foundation.
The growing list of 200th Anniversary Celebration partners includes AmtrakÒ; ANNODYNE interactive; Bank of America; BUCKS Magazine; Philadelphia LMG Super Network Cadillac Dealers; Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia; Ketel One Vodka; Loews Philadelphia Hotel; Parkway Corporation; PECO, An Exelon Company; Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority; Philadelphia Daily News; Philadelphia Magazine; Philadelphia Weekly; Radisson Plaza - Warwick Hotel Philadelphia; Sotheby's; Tiffany & Co.; U.S. Airways; U.S. Trust; Verizon; the Richard C. von Hess Foundation, Wachovia Foundation; Westin Philadelphia Hotel, and WPVI-TV/6 ABC.