I had a wonderful two days at Ball State University this weekend attending the first ever reunion of art students from the time when Alice Nichols was chair of the department (from the late 1940's to the early 1970's). It was fun to reminisce, but even more fun to see how the school has grown. It is a "school" now, not a department, with many specific art majors at the bachelors and masters level. When I attended there we were working toward a bachelors in art education. Now you can get degrees in about twenty different areas of art and the qualifications to get accepted to the program are much stricter than in my day. I'm not at all sure I would have made it.
The area that most intrigues me is the new glass design program. We spent a fascinating couple of hours watching students working with glass, super heating and shaping blobs of glass into soaring works of art. I particularly liked one lovely "wing" shaped piece that was being created as we watched and would have liked to buy it. Unfortunately, it was being created as a thank-you award for a million dollar donor. I know that's not me. .
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