The University Gallery announced its milestone birthday with a 14-by-14-foot banner along the side of the building.
The gallery is turning 50 this year and dedicated its anniversary exhibition — open through Feb. 27 — to Roy Craven, the gallery’s founding and longest standing director of 25 years.
Richard Heipp, the interim director and a professor in the UF School of Art + Art History, said the banner was necessary because most students aren’t aware of the University Gallery, located on campus on Southwest 13th Street.
“The students in the community don’t know about it and don’t know what it does or what a rich resource it is,” Heipp said.
The exhibition will feature art relocated from the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, originally displayed in the gallery when Craven was director.
Heipp said he hopes the anniversary will help get the word out for the gallery.
Katy Estes-Smargiassi, graduate assistant for the University Gallery and a 24-year-old UF second-year museum studies graduate student, said she feels that some visitors stumble upon it by chance.
“A lot of people come in not really realizing what we are,” Estes-Smargiassi said, “and they get surprised when they walk in and they look around.”
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 2/4/2015 under the headline “University Gallery celebrates 50th birthday, wants new visitors"]
Three performance artists pose in front of portraits printed on leather on display at Naomi Fisher’s reception for “Lay of the Land” at the University Gallery on Friday.
