Anne Litle Poulet '64, director of the Frick Collection in New York City, will deliver the Sweet Briar College Founder's Day address and launch a yearlong Arts Lecture Series celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Pannell Art Gallery. This year's recipient of the SBC Distinguished Alumna Award, Poulet will speak on Friday, Sept. 24 at 3 p.m. in the Babcock Fine Arts Center, Murchison Lane Auditorium.
Founder's Day - an annual celebration of Sweet Briar's heritage - culminates in a procession to Monument Hill to place memorial flowers on the grave of Daisy Williams, who died in 1884 at age 16. Her family founded the College in her honor in 1901.
The day also serves to kick off Sweet Briar's Alumnae Council Weekend. Sponsored by the Alumnae Association, the event brings key alumnae back to campus each fall for informational workshops and volunteer training; academic symposia; opportunities to network with fellow alumnae, current students, and faculty; and updates from administration on the state of the College and its mission.
Founder's Day activities begin with the dedication of the Kitty Corbett Powell '38 Reading Room at 11:30 a.m. in the Mary Helen Cochran Library. Powell's recent $3 million gift will help launch the renovation of the original library structure, the first step in the expansion of its Library and Technology Center. SBC President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld will speak at the ceremony.
Poulet will deliver her address, "The first statuary in the world": Houdon and Thomas Jefferson, at Babcock before accepting the 2004 Distinguished Alumna Award. Poulet graduated from Sweet Briar cum laude in 1964 with a bachelor of arts degree in art history and in 1970 received her master of arts degree from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. She honed her expertise at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C., and in October 2003 was named the fifth director of the Frick Collection. Housed in a mansion built by Henry Clay Frick, the Frick Collection is one of New York's most beloved cultural treasures.
Poulet's address is the first in the Arts Lectures Series to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Pannell Art Gallery (see schedule below). In fall 1984, Sweet Briar dedicated the Anne Gary Pannell Center and Gallery to establish a home for its notable collection of artworks. With support from the SBC Board of Directors, Friends of Art, and faculty and staff members, the 100-year-old refectory building was renovated to house Sweet Briar's art collection, art library, a distinguished exhibition hall, and the department of art history.
Capping off Founder's Day activities is a performance by the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. in Murchison Lane Auditorium. Conducted by Jonathan Green, dean of the College, the orchestra includes musicians from Lynchburg; Greensboro, N.C.; Roanoke; Harrisonburg; Charlottesville; and beyond. The ensemble will perform Beethoven's Symphony No. 3; Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Nicholas Ross, SBC assistant professor music, as soloist; and premiere "Ars Vitae," which Green composed in honor of the of Pannell Gallery anniversary. The concert is free and open to the public.
The Arts Lectures Series is sponsored by the SBC Lectures and Events Committee, Pannell Art Gallery, the Friends of Art, and the Arts Management Program.
Arts Lecture Series Schedule 2004-05- Friday, September 24, 3 p.m.
Anne Litle Poulet, director of the Frick Collection,
"The first statuary in the world, Houdon and Thomas Jefferson"
Babcock Auditorium
- Thursday, October 21, 8 p.m.
Jane Alexander, actress and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts,
"ARTS AND MINDS"
Memorial Chapel
- Wednesday, November 10, 7:30 pm
Griselda Pollock, feminist art historian,
"Charlotte Salomon's Theatre of Memory:
Femininity, Modernity and Difference in the 1930s"
Memorial Chapel
- Thursday, March 31, 2005, 8 p.m.
Faith Ringgold, artist, civil rights activist, womens' rights activist,
"Faith Ringgold: More than 30 years"
Memorial Chapel
- Friday, April 1, 2005, 8 p.m.
Miriam Schapiro, artist and feminist,
"An Artist Talks About Quilts"
Florence Elston Conference Center, Boxwood Room
- Monday, April 11, 2005, 8 p.m.
Joan Holladay, art historian, medievalist, feminist
"Medieval Queens and Modern Women:
Feminism and Art History Twenty Years Later"
Pannell Art Gallery
