History
The idea for a class project to catalog and showcase the art and artists at York College of The City University of New York dates back to 2001-2002, when art historian Margaret Vendryes (Department of Performing and Fine Arts, 2000-2007) recognized the treasure trove of African, African-American, and other art on campus.
Mentor's Mark (2007), by Steed Taylor
In 2002, in the context of an African-American Art course, Dr. Vendryes involved her students in a significant inquiry project aimed at documenting the artists whose work is on display throughout the College. Ten students' work on this project, plus Dr. Vendryes' description of York College's Brozozdowce III by Frank Stella, eventually made it into a document that survives in electronic (PDF) form. This work also appears in print form adjacent to each of the dozen works of art cataloged that semester. While Dr. Vendryes hoped to continue this project and take up additional works of art, the project lay dormant for the next five years. Dr. Vendryes left York College in 2007.
In Summer 2007, Michael Smith (Department of Performing and Fine Arts) and Michael J. Cripps (Department of English) discussed the potential for the project to be continued in the context of an upper-division English course entitled Writing for Electronic Media. Professor Smith forwarded the original PDF catalog to Dr. Cripps, who recognized the potential for the project to function as a large-scale, collaborative web project that would also enable students to consider differences between writing for print and writing for the web. In short, the project was a perfect fit for a course on writing for the web. This website is the product of that work.
At least eleven works of art at York College were secured through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York's Percent for Art initiative, with nine works commissioned and produced specifically for York College.1 York College's permanent campus was completed in 1986; construction on the Academic Core was under way in 1983, the year that New York City enacted the Percent for Art legislation.2
Still, much of the art on campus was acquired through other means. A number of important pieces were donated by artists in residence, former members of the faculty, and others. Perhaps the most recent installation, a road tattoo by the artist and AIDS activist Steed Taylor named "Mentor's Mark", came to the College through an association with the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.3
Notes
- Information about the acquisition and commissioning of some of York College's art collection comes from Michael Brenson, "Works for Urban College Raise Hard Questions" (The New York Times, 8 April, 1988). (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4D81E3CF93BA35757C0A96E948260)
- Information about the history of Percent for Art in New York comes from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/panyc/panyc.shtml)
- Electronic correspondence between author (Michael J. Cripps) and Noel Gamboa, 25 February, 2008.
- Michael Brenson, "Works for Urban College Raise Hard Questions" The New York Times(8 April 1988). (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4D81E3CF93BA35757C0A96E948260)
- Original photograph by Susan Voll. York College News, Vol. 21, No. 3 (March/April 1988).
