Students need not trek to Campbell Hall or the Bayly Museum to see works of art on campus.
Old Cabell Hall is now graced with the work of Maine artist and former University visiting professor of art Lincoln Perry in a multiple panel mural entitled "The Student's Progress." The mural depicts a student experiencing different phases of college life, who falls into some bad places but ultimately succeeds and graduates. The background features a view of the area behind Old Cabell.
"It's an attempt to recreate the view of the mountains that would be there if [Old Cabell] wasn't there," Perry said.
Pathology Prof. Donald J. Innes said that Perry used the roofs of Old Cabell and the University Hospital as a vantage point to sketch the landscape.
"The Student's Progress" is 12 feet by 40 feet and is executed with oil on canvas.
A committee called the Cabell Hall Centennial Mural Project, chaired by Prof. Innes, commissioned the mural from Perry about four years ago after seeing a need for lively art in Old Cabell.
"[University Council for the Arts committee members] Ruth Cross and Gertrude Weber and I were at a reception, talking about how drab and dull [Old Cabell's] lobby is," Prof. Innes said.
The Cabell Hall Centennial Mural Project members helped mobilize support and funding for the mural, which arrived in Charlottesville on June 5 and was glued to the walls of Old Cabell from June 6 through June 11.
Innes said the mural cost about $250,000, which was paid for with private donations from "people who feel strongly about art."
Innes said that the Mural Project committee members felt that of the handful of painters in the U.S. who could undertake such a venture, Perry was the best choice.
"He really knew [the University] since he had been here for 10 years [from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s], and so he was the ideal person" to do it, Innes said.
Innes added that Perry has painted the University many times and also has been commissioned for work in metropolitan centers around the country.
Perry commented on the importance of students and the general public to have works of art in public places.
"Public art is useful and important," Perry said.
Innes said he felt art on the University Grounds "helps us reflect a little bit on who we are, and we ask artists to help us reflect on that."
The University Hospital Arts Committee also has collected and commissioned some art, but there is not much around main Grounds other than Allyn Cox's Clark Hall murals that have existed since 1932.
He added that there may be a dedication for the mural and a related symposium sometime next fall or winter.
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