Special Collection Opens New Art Building

November 9, 2001

Oklahoma Baptist University will officially dedicate its refurbished art facility this weekend with a ceremony at the Art Building at the corner of Kickapoo and Midland Streets and a Homecoming art show exhibiting works by current students and renowned works on loan from a private collection.

Visitors to the 11:15 a.m. Saturday ribbon cutting ceremony will have the opportunity to tour the completely reworked building and view the Homecoming show in the facility's new art gallery. Admission to the exhibit is free of charge.

The special artwork exhibit is from the private collection of Dr. and Mrs. Ted Violett of Oklahoma City. Included in the Violetts' collection currently on display in the gallery are works from Leonard Baskin, Bruno Bruni, Alexander Calder, Hal Holoun, Peter Hurd, Robert Motherwell, Curt Walters, and Tomoe Yokoi.

Dr. Violett, a 1952 graduate of OBU, is a retired pathologist and former co-owner of Snoddy & Violett, Inc. He also is a former member of OBU's board of trustees.

The refurbished art facility includes two faculty offices, an art gallery, photography lab, a general classroom, a computer graphics art lab, a weaving and stained glass lab, and a ceramics lab. The art department also uses a facility adjacent to the art building to house drawing and studio art classes.

Funding for the renovation of the art building came from alumni and friends who contributed through the Foundation for the Future campaign for unrestricted purposes.

In addition, several foundations contributed toward overall fine arts renovation projects in Raley Chapel, Dorland Theatre and the Art Building. Those foundations include the Jess L. and Miriam B. Stevens Foundation, the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, the Cleo L. Craig Foundation, and the McCasland Foundation. One foundation, the George I. Alden Trust of Worcester, Mass., specifically designated its gift toward the renovation of the art building.