Lupo Fiasco The CFA sorely lacks panache

Author: Kate Lupo

While many people moan at the sight of them, it is always such a pleasure for me to see tour groups on campus. I always make an effort (much to the embarrassment of my friends walking with me) to give the parents and high school students in these groups a robust "WELCOME TO MIDDLEBURY!" hello when I pass by. In response to my greeting, I generally get many smiles and enthusiastic "Thank you!" from the members of the tour group who then trudge on, following their tour guide to the next picturesque location.

I have a habit of mentally documenting the places where I usually stumble upon tours in progress - it gives me a sense of how tour routes are strategically planned out to show off the most impressive aspects of Middlebury's campus. Recently, I have seen a lot of tour groups in the library, McCardell Bicentennial Hall and in Ross and Atwater dining halls. You can bet, however, that the ugly construction sites at Proctor and McCullough are most certainly avoided.

One location where I hardly see tour groups is at the Center for the Arts. When I do see tours there, the group will usually hover at the edge of the street. The tour guide may briefly introduce the building, but will then usher their herd away to the more aesthetically pleasing, newly renovated Axinn Center.

Let's all face it: Middlebury's Center for the Arts is an utter eyesore on this campus. The exterior reminds me of a large troll's den and the interior, with its many strange windows, walkways, nooks and crannies, looks like a chapter out of Alice in Wonderland. Walking through the CFA, I often look around and notice all of the wasted space, which could have been used to create more rehearsal rooms for the poor dance and theater students who seem to be constantly in need of facilities.

The most unfortunately planned aspect of the CFA is, in my opinion, the space allotted for the Middlebury Museum. Not only is the museum hard to find and in an awkward location on the bottom floor of the CFA, it is also much too small. Thankfully, the Middlebury Museum has a dedicated and hardworking staff who have learned how to work around the museum's spatial inadequacies to create beautiful exhibitions year round. As a Museum Assistant, I have also witnessed the success of the Museum's amazing education program that provides tours for Vermont middle and high school students throughout the school year.

While the Museum does a wonderful job of acquainting tour groups from outside of Middlebury with the collections, there has not really been a reciprocal effort to encourage actual Middlebury students to visit the campus Museum. It may not be the pimped out Williams' College Museum of Art, but students should know that Middlebury happens to have a really impressive art collection for a college of our size. Did you know that we own multiple Andy Warhol prints, including a huge orange Marilyn? The Museum's collection is also particularly strong in photography and 19th century sculpture.

With such an impressive collection, the Museum is fast outgrowing its five galleries, which are essentially the size of classrooms. I sincerely hope, even in the current economic climate, that there will be future efforts at Middlebury to create a separate, more prominent building for the Middlebury College Museum. The wonderful men and women who work in the Museum deserve a bigger, better and more centrally located facility that is more easily accessible to outside visitors and to the Middlebury student body. In addition, creating a new museum will further advance Middlebury's reputation as a school that is dedicated to the arts - an impressive fact that prospective students always love to hear.