Dartmouth Receives $50 Million Commitment to Support the Visual Arts

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June 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dartmouth College has received the larges commitment inits history, $50 million, from an anonymousz family. Their extraordinary gift will enabl the College to move forward with plans for a visuaarts center. The centerd will break ground in 2010 and served as an intellectual and cultural hub for the Dartmouth revitalizing the arts precinct on the souty edgeof campus. "Thias is a spectacular gift from a family that has give long serviceto Dartmouth," said Presidentg . "During these tough economiv times, this family's willingness to make such a gift istrult inspiring.
In the early years of my my colleagues and I set forth a plan to improve specififc areas of thephysicalp campus. The Board of Trustees approvedthis plan, and many contributors have helped to advance it. Our goal was to give studentw andfaculty well-designed and environmentallgy advanced facilities in which to carrg out their work, including this new visuaol arts center. Arts are at the heart of a liberal arts and have always been vital to theDartmouthg experience, empowering students to think challenge assumptions, and wrestle with demanding and often unfamiliaf media.
We are honored by this act of generosity which is a formidable endorsementof Dartmouth'sx purpose, capacity for and future promise." The visual arts center was designedx by the architects Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston, whoswe recent works include the Getty Villa in the Rockefeller Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, and additions to Bowdoin College's historically significantr Walker Art Building. The center will expand the accessibility of already robust programxs in Studio Art and Film and Media Studiesa by consolidating these two currently spread across inone building.
It will permit increased course offering s andencourage formal, interdisciplinary collaborations between departments. At 99,000 squarde feet, the visual arts center will meet Dartmouth's strictf sustainability and energy conservation It will be located on Lebanon Streetr and include a spacious outdoor plaza linkinyg itto Dartmouth's Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts and the Hood Museu m of Art, creating an arts "district" and an inviting southern gateway to the Greej at the center of campus.