Muncie - Ball State University dedicated a new center for glass art on Wednesday, creating new opportunities for students and reconnecting the community to its glassmaking heritage.
The Marilyn K. Glick Center opens nearly a half-century after the last of the huge furnaces that made Muncie's fortune shut down along with the big Ball Corporation plant in 1962.
Home of the university's recently approved bachelor of fine arts (BFA) and master of fine arts (MFA) in visual art programs, the building's 10,000 square feet of creative space includes a hot shop - where molten glass will begin the transformation into works of creative expression - and a cold shop with a kiln room, where the objects will anneal into their final shape and color. Between the two, the natural light-filled facility contains a classroom, undergraduate and graduate studios as well as faculty offices, photo documentation and exhibit areas.
A visiting artist program, community and children's outreach programs and a biennial competition of art glass also are part of the university's overall plan for the new campus resource, named for one of Indiana's most influential supporters of the arts and an avid glass art collector.
"The Glick Center is relatively small as college and university buildings go, but its potential for enhancing our programs in art is enormous," said President Jo Ann M. Gora. "The visual arts inspire creativity, develop design and artistic abilities that are useful in a wide variety of pursuits extending beyond simply the museum or gallery and into advertising, publishing, fashion, stage and film production, even Web design. The university already enjoys an excellent reputation for scholarship and distinguished programs within the College of Fine Arts and Department of Art. The Glick Center sharpens our distinctiveness in this area while providing additional opportunities to our students."
The $5 million lead gift to establish the Glick Center was provided by The Glick Fund, a donor-advised fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, and announced amid much fanfare at the September 2008 launch of the public phase of Ball State Bold, the university's current capital campaign with a goal of $200 million.
Created by Indianapolis philanthropists Gene and Marilyn Glick, The Glick Fund supports a variety of causes, including organizations and programs benefiting the arts, cultural and civic causes, health care and medical research, as well as numerous other community groups and organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life of the central Indiana community.
