Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 Office of Public Information (212) 854-5573
Columbia University tonight (Wednesday) announced the creation of The LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies with a gift of $6 million to the School of the Arts from the celebrated American artist. The Center will offer superior, innovative instruction and research in the art of printmaking.
Mr. Neiman, painter and teacher, is the artist of the Olympics whose vividly colored, popular sporting scenes have made him one of the best-known painters and printmakers of our time. He has just completed painting dancers across the facade of the St. James Theater in New York City, where "Busker Alley" with Tommy Tune begins next month.
"This gift is the largest ever received by the School of the Arts," Columbia President George Rupp said in his announcement. "It is a vital, first step in making this school the most innovative arts training program in the country. We are deeply grateful to LeRoy Neiman for his farsighted generosity."
Robert Fitzpatrick, newly appointed dean of the school, said: "This magnificent contribution will allow us to significantly expand our offerings in the visual arts and to explore new techniques and expressive forms in printmaking that will make Columbia's programs preeminent in contemporary art."
The LeRoy Neiman Center is expected to accommodate up to 200 students a year in graduate and undergraduate work, serve as the site of advanced research in printmaking and become a base of operations for outstanding artists drawn to the campus by the initiative. The gift will endow a LeRoy Neiman Professorship, to be held by an internationally recognized artist, who will direct the work of the Center.
Simultaneously, the University has made a $5 million commitment to permit total renovation of Dodge Hall on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus as a new home for the School of the Arts.
More than 7,000 square feet in the building will be devoted to the LeRoy Neiman Center for state-of-the-art studios in intaglio, lithography, silkscreening, photography and computer art. The gift will also support fellowships for graduate students earning the Master of Fine Arts degree.
With vigorously applied colors that create the effects of motion, LeRoy Neiman's depictions of social and sports events have appeared as paintings and prints, in murals, on television, in computer graphics, in books and in major magazines and newspapers. He was artist for the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, official artist for ABC-TV at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and computer artist for CBS-TV for the 1978 Superbowl.
His work is in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Fine Art, the Armand Hammer Collection in Los Angeles, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museo De Bellas Artes in Caracas and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The artist has exhibited in one-man shows throughout the world and remains active. He was educated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois and DePaul University. He later taught at the Art Institute of Chicago for 10 years. Among numerous accolades, he won the Award of Merit as the nation's outstanding sports artist from the Amateur Athletic Union in 1976 and the Olympic Artist of the Century Award in 1979. He is the author of several books of his works. He and his wife, Janet, live in New York City.
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