Tuesday, Oct. 26, President Randy Lowry welcomed students, faculty, and guests to Collins Alumni Auditorium to celebrate the completion of the final phase of Lipscomb 2010.
Photo courtesy of lipscomb.edu
This phase came in the form of the James D. Hughes Center, the new home of the Department of Art and the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering.
“Because of generous donors, because of a visionary board, because of a tireless administration and an extraordinarily creative faculty, we can know wind up the Lipscomb 2010 plan,” Lowry said.
The late James D. Hughes served as the Metro Schools’ director of art education for 30 years. His wife, Elizabeth, assisted Dr. Lowry with the ribbon cutting.
Guest speakers included Susan H. Edwards, the executive director and CEO of the Frist Center, and Stephanie Valdez Streaty, senior manager of Philanthropy and Diversity of Nissan North America, Inc.
Edwards thanked Lipscomb for its belief in the power of art while Streaty is excited to start impacting the community through a partnership between Lipscomb and Nissan.
“We can’t be a fine liberal arts college if we don’t have excellent art, excellent music and excellent theater,” Lowry said.
The new $4.1 million building includes studios for ceramics, drawing, painting and printmaking, a photography darkroom, an outdoor sculpture work space, and a gallery. Engineering students will enjoy updated technology systems and a number of brand new lab spaces including two LearnLabs, the first of their kind in Middle Tennessee.
Photo courtesy of lipscomb.edu
“After spending three years in the basement of McFarland, I am overjoyed to be in a brand new, sunlit building,” said Parker Loudermilk, a senior mechanical engineering major from Old Hickory, Tenn.
To showcase their accomplishments, the Department of Art is breaking in the new John C. Hutcheson Gallery with an art show featuring the work of Lipscomb alumni from the past 50 years. The show displays 40 works of varying styles and wraps up Oct. 28.
The completion of the Lipscomb 2010 plan does not mean the end of construction on campus. It is only the beginning of many new buildings to come, the next of which is a new home for Lipscomb Nursing.
“Now we will pause for 96 days,” Lowry said. “In February our board will approve the Lipscomb 2016 Plan. The plans are ambitious, the vision is great, and with God’s help, you will see that the next six years leading up to our 125th anniversary will be some of the greatest in our history.”
To take a virtual tour of the Hughes Center, click here.
Slideshow (photo) credit: Whitney Jarreld