Renaissance Man John Hunisak

Author: Matt Christ

The room is depressing — no windows, little light and nervous anticipation. In walks a bearded man with two hands full of slides and an infectious laugh. The gloom soon dissipates as the screen in front of the class is illuminated with history's most glorious works of art, expounded on by one of Middlebury's most accomplished professors and authors: John Hunisak, professor of art history and architecture

Hunisak, the grandchild of four Polish immigrants, grew up in the Hudson River Valley of upstate New York. His family owned and maintained a farm. Hunisak "hated the farm and everything about it." His education began in a one-room school house and continued in a gigantic district high school.

After obtaining his high school diploma, Hunisak headed to Williams College, a major accomplishment considering he was the first in his family to attend college. The $2,400 tuition cost, while a bargain by today's standards, was more than his father earned in a year. Because of his academic achievement and financial need, Hunisak was awarded the Tyng Scholarship, which included a full scholarship for both undergraduate and graduate studies.

Hunisak discovered the arts through religion. When it was time for his first communion, Hunisak went to get his picture taken. Coincidently, the photography studio also sold records and one happened to be playing. It was "Aria" from "Carmen," and it made the young Hunisak sit on the ground until it was over. From that point on, he became a "life long opera addict." At Williams, Hunisak fell in love with the renaissance and the baroque.

His passion for teaching began in kindergarten when he decided that his dream job would be to teach. A lifelong lover of history, it wasn't until graduate school and New York University that he knew art history was his calling.

After teaching at Middlebury for 32 years, he shows no sign of stopping. Hunisak loves teaching so much that during the year, he "finds it hard to know when he's not on vacation." However, he has seen very drastic changes in students and their relationship with faculty in his time at Middlebury.

In the beginning, Hunisak often found himself learning almost as much from his students as they did from him. But today his students "tend to be less aggressive than they once were." He has also noticed that students and professors do not spend as much time together outside of the classroom. He notes both an increase in the physical size of the campus, as well as an increase in the school's reputation. However, he has always felt that "the best students at Middlebury are the best students anywhere." This rise in serious academic students has also brought in "students who are not as much fun as they used to be."

When not teaching, Hunisak loves to travel. He has been all over the world multiple times, but he still has to get to Sicily and would like to spend more time in both Russia and Italy, even though Italy is his area of expertise.

As far as museums go, Hunisak recommends both the Wallace Collection and the Dulwych Museum in London as two outstanding yet little known museums. His most "extrodinary moment in art" was being admitted to the storerooms of the Louvre, where he was allowed to hold a Bernini terracotta.

Hunisak, in addition to his love for opera, is also a gourmet chef, and has to admit that he's "pretty good." While on leave last fall, Hunisak saw many operas, including Don Giovani in Pittsburgh, five operas at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and one in Chicago.

He spent much of his time on leave researching Andy Warhol for an upcoming book on the serious side of the modern artist.

Hunisak is a very well published author, and says that the work he is most proud of is "Art of Florence," a comprehensive work on Florence's art history that he completed with two other Middlebury professors.

Besides teaching in the classroom, Hunisak loves lecturing at museums. He has led many art history trips in Europe for Middlebury alumni, and recently gave a lecture entitled, "Midd at the Met," where he spoke to a group of Middlebury graduates before an opera.

The country has always been home for Hunisak, which he enjoys "very much with the proviso that I get away once a month." He spends one weekend a month in a city, and is addicted to New York.

He is "awfully happy he left the farm," and notes that working at a place where everyone is 18 to 21 years old tends to make him not notice his own aging.

He absolutely loves Middlebury, and despite making the "adjustment from one of the youngest faculty members to an old fart," he knows that he'll "be at Middlebury until he dies."