Campus group reveals art for Ballantine Hall

One for Diversity, the student group dedicated to putting more art up on campus, unveiled its plans to beautify the bare walls of Ballantine Hall during an assembly Tuesday night.\nSenior Brett Warnke, president of One for Diversity and an Indiana Daily Student columnist, showed pictures of the artwork currently up in buildings around campus. The photographs were of the white bare walls of Ballantine Hall and the library.\n"I think we can do better than this. We should have methods of expression other than bare walls," he said.\nIU spent $1.3 million on the Information Commons and its walls are completely devoid of art, he said.\n"I believe we have a responsibility to get art into our academic spaces," Warnke said. "Art exalts the soul and gives us the definition of who we are. It is a portal into an individual's soul."\nOne for Diversity rose out of the controversy surrounding Woodburn Hall's Thomas Hart Benton Mural, a visual montage of Indiana's history that includes images of the Klu Klux Klan. When some organizations argued to destroy the mural because of its racist implications, others came together to fight to save the art for its historical importance. People from different organizations got together and began discussing the need for more art on campus.\nOne for Diversity was organized under the direction and funding of former Chancellor Sharon Brehm. \n"Brett has really been the head of this," Brehm said.\nSince its inception, Warnke has taken the project head on, working with various art groups across campus to make buildings beautiful. \n"(Brett) is a ball of energy," said IU staff member Patricia Efiom, who is helping Warnke with the project.\nWarnke is working with Sherry Rouse, curator of the IU Art Museum, and the IU archives to get art out of storage and onto the walls.\n"Pablo Picasso once said that art 'washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,'" Warnke said. "I argue that the dust has been piling up in Ballantine since its construction 45 years ago. It is a dust and dirt of apathy. With resources readily available ... there should be no reason why art is not adorning the walls of our academic areas."\nThe first art display collected by One for Diversity will soon adorn the walls of Ballantine Hall.\n"I think the idea of putting the art in the halls is fabulous." Brehm said.\nBrehm said she thought art had not yet been put up in campus buildings because of a lack of resources and time on the part of the administration.\n"There are many, many things that go on at the University and it takes some money. It needs to be a project that the students care about to get going," Brehm said. "It's very much a student group and that's how it's going to last."\nWarnke revealed the artwork for Ballantine Hall. One of the displays focuses on student activism and protest. It includes covers of magazines from the Vietnam War era and pictures of protests on campus. Framed grave rubbings taken from a cemetery in Great Britain will be put up on the first floor of Ballantine, as well as a series of Professor Emeritus Rudy Pozatti's printmaking images of faces.\nWarnke said he hoped by bringing art into the buildings students would become more aware of IU's history.\n"We can get art that expresses the hopes, dreams, travail and reality of who we are and where we are going," he said.\nVoices of Hope, IU Tae Kwon Do Club and IU Essence all performed in support of One for Diversity.\nSo far, One for Diversity has raised $6,000 to acquire new art. While art can be donated or moved out of storage to help the group's cause, it needs more money to get the IU's academic halls looking cultural, Warnke said.\nWarnke said he hoped One for Diversity would help people understand how important it have art on campus.\n"My friend Beth is in IUSA and was recently asked to write down three of her top problems on a sheet for discussion," Warnke said. "She wrote student parking, the park and ride bus and the sports fee. Art doesn't seem to be one of the top priorities of the day, but I hope, after today, in some of your minds it will be."\n-- Contact arts editor Jenica Schultz at jwschult@indiana.edu.