Director's Choice lecture series continues on December 6 | Press Releases

The purpose of each of this season's Director's Choice lectures at Fairfield University is to complement the visual works in the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery. Toward that end, the next lecture, scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 12:30 p.m. and presented by Diana Mille, Ph.D., director of the gallery, will focus on early modern European sculpture, providing insight into what inspired the works that are currently on display there.

"I will be giving a lecture on early modern European sculpture, late 19th and early 20th century," said Dr. Mille. "This lecture will focus on the early developments in modern sculpture, many of which provided the foundations for the works that we see in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition currently in the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery."

The lecture will take place in the gallery, which is located in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on the Fairfield campus. Tickets are $5 and participants are invited to bring their lunches to the hour-long talk. The event is open to the public. For more information, please call (203) 254-4000, ext. 2969.

Those attending the lecture are encouraged to view the gallery's current exhibition, the National Sculpture Society's 2006 Annual Awards Exhibition. It includes approximately 50 works from artists nationwide. Their work is in an array of mediums. The exhibit is on display until Sunday, Dec. 10.

The lecture is the latest given by Dr. Mille on Modern and Contemporary Art, as part of the Director's Choice lecture series. Upcoming lectures are scheduled for Feb. 7, and April 18.

About 50 works - from a delicate ceramic vessel to a 350-pound marble piece - are part of the National Sculpture Society exhibition. Open to NSS fellows, sculptor members and associates, it features works from across the country. Connecticut artists featured are: Alice Sue Chism and Jeremy Davis, both of Old Lyme; Janice Mauro of Redding; Lisa Nonken of Hebron; and Virgil Oertle of East Lyme.

First presented at Fairfield University in 1991, the exhibition was met with such tremendous academic and community success, it was decided it was time to bring it back, according to Dr. Mille. It certainly complements many of the Visual and Performing Arts courses being offered at the University, while offering an unique opportunity to see large scale sculptural works by contemporary artists outside of the museum setting, she said.

The National Sculpture Society is the oldest organization for professional sculptures in the United States. Master sculptors and architects including Daniel Chester French, Augustus St. Gaudens, Richard Morris Hunt and Stanford White founded the NSS in 1893. The non-profit organization promotes excellence in figurative and realist sculpture and its membership numbers about 4,000. Current members are represented in museum, corporate and private collections and have contributed public sculptures across the nation.

The exhibit is on display Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call (203) 254-4000, ext. 2969.