The School of Information Studies (iSchool) has selected six art installations to fill the spaces
in the ground floor window wells of Hinds Hall, moving the iSchool's Windows Project one
step closer to completion. An additional proposal by internationally renowned artist and
ceramics professor Margie Hughto was selected to receive a special Dean's Design Prize. She
and her four assistants will install the work on a wall along the first floor hallway of Hinds
Hall.
The winners are as follows:
A panel of judges-iSchool Dean Elizabeth D. Liddy, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Dean Ann Clarke, iSchool Alumni Relations Director and alumna Barbara Settel and
Deborah Ryan, senior curator at the Everson Museum of Art-selected the winners from 12
semifinalists who gave public presentations of their designs on April 30. Their selections were
based on the following criteria: quality of the idea presented, including originality, impact,
scale and connections made to its context; suitability to the proposed site; feasibility; and
durability and maintenance requirements.
"I was thrilled with the initial level of participation shown by the 34 student and faculty
teams who submitted proposals," Liddy says. "All of the semi-finalists were exceptional, and
the variety in the six selected windows will really enliven Hinds Hall. It was great fun to hear
the semi-finalists interpret the iSchool back to us when they appeared before the judge's
panel."
In the coming weeks, the winners will meet individually with a team of project coordinators,
including the iSchool's Roger Merrill and Steve Block, to plan fabrication and installation of
each of the pieces. Throughout the next phases of the project, the artists and support team
will coordinate with the University through Physical Plant and the Office of Campus
Planning, Design, and Construction to create the seven artworks. The iSchool hopes to have
all the works installed over the summer, and is organizing a large opening reception in the
fall to celebrate the completion of the installations.
Liddy was impressed with the quality of entrants, especially the work of Hughto. Her work,
"Information Spiral: From the Clay Tablet to the Computer Screen, from the Ice Age to the
Space Age," will be showcased in the high-traffic area of Hinds Hall in the first floor
hallway. Hughto and team members Shawn Rommevaux '06, Leslie Nicoletti, Randy Jones
G'10, and Tim Brockhaus '09 will be installing the piece along the main floor's curved
hallway, across from the Student Services Suite and the visitors' reception desk.
"We are honored to exhibit the work of an artist of Margie Hughto's caliber in our school,"
Liddy says. "Her vision for this piece does a wonderful job of capturing the historical
evolution of the role of information in society and speaks to the centrality of information in
human development."
Hughto has works in numerous collections across the United States, including the
Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the
Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo; and Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. She has also
completed many public art commissions, including one for the Metropolitan Transit
Authority of New York City for the Cortlandt Street subway station at the World Trade
Center entitled, "Trade, Treasure, and Travel." It survived the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the
World Trade Center.
The Windows Project was managed by iSchool Ph.D. student Jaime Snyder and VPA
adjunct professor Anne Cofer, who helped lay the groundwork for future collaborations
between the two schools.
"The interdisciplinarity revealed in the Windows Project should, and will, continue to be
supported by VPA and the iSchool, as both Dean Clarke and I are committed to it," Liddy
says.
To see renderings of the proposed art and to track the progress of the installations, visit:
http://windows.ischool.syr.edu.
