| From
the March 14, 2005, edition of “Northwest This Week.”
by Dana Ternus
In
1964, after years of urging by Northwest President J.W. Jones,
the University requested $2 million in state funds for the construction
of the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building.
After reducing the appropriation to $1.5 million, the governor
gave his consent. The resulting circular, two story facility was
the first building on campus designed in the glass-and-steel style
of the post-World War II era and not built with traditional bricks
and mortar.
On November 21, 1965, the new facility was dedicated and named
for Professor Emeritus Olive DeLuce.
Joining the faculty in 1915, DeLuce brought a wealth of experience
and training in the arts to Northwest. She developed the Fine
Arts Department and served as its head from 1915 until 1955. DeLuce
was also involved in many campus activities and organizations,
including the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA),
the Art Club and the American Association of University Women.
Determined to bring art and culture to Northwest Missouri, she
was also responsible for the addition of many pieces to the University’s
art collection. Often she convinced artists to sell their works
to the graduating class at an affordable price, and those objects
were, in turn, donated to the University.
In 1939, for example, DeLuce helped the graduating class obtain
a print entitled “Cradling Wheat” from Thomas Hart
Benton. A large mosaic by Jan Roderick Carroll, the gift of the
class of 1965, still adorns the DeLuce Building’s main staircase
on the landing between the first and second floors.
Deluce’s greatest ambition was to establish a museum where
the University’s growing collection could be permanently
housed. This dream was realized following her death in 1970, when
the DeLuce Gallery was established near the building’s main
entrance.
The gallery’s centerpiece was DeLuce’s personal art
collection, which she willed to Northwest, and which was named
after her father. The Percival DeLuce Memorial Collection opened
to the public on Oct. 31, 1971, in the new gallery space. Among
other works, the collection includes two oils by Ms. DeLuce and
numerous 19th- and 20th-century paintings.
Later, the gallery also housed a special collection of Chinese
art presented to the University in 1978 by the Republic of China’s
Ministry of Education.
Today, in addition to serving as a home for the permanent collection,
the gallery is used for shows featuring the work of important
artists from throughout the United States and elsewhere. One of
the more recent featured more than 65 original lithographs and
other works by master Cuban printmakers associated with Havana’s
Taller Experimental de Gráphica.
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