Fine Arts Department Opposes Overseers' Visual Arts Report

Eighteen months after the presentation of a report calling for a total recoganization of the University's facilities for the study of art, the Department of Fine Arts this week issued a categorical rebuttal of suggestions that it merge its faculty and resources in a Visual Arts Center.

Specifically, the departmental report attacked the proposals of a study committee headed by John Nicholas Brown '22 to 1) remove studio work to a special "Design Center," 2) locate the planned Harvard Theatre on Quincy St., and 3) effectively reduce the staff of the University's museums. The rebuttal, published yesterday, was originally presented on Monday by Leonard Opdycke '17, department chairman, to the annual Cambridge meeting of the Overseers' Committee to Visit the Department.

"Burr" on Facilities

Opdycke attacked the idea of setting up a special studio center for students of fine and applied arts as a "burr" on the University's museum facilities. Such a center would tend toward a professional art school, with little use to Fine Arts students seeking an understanding of the elements of painting, he said.

The speech also criticized the proposal to build the Harvard Theatre on land adjacent to the Fogg Museum. He said that the Theatre would compound the already difficult traffic problem on Quincy St. and would take up land that would be needed for Fogg's ultimate expansion.

Larger Teaching Staff

In addition, Opdycke's speech criticized the Brown report's suggestions to reorganize the Fogg's library staff and to bring famous painters to Harvard for temporary lectureships. The department's brief also enumerated needs for a larger teaching staff, including medieval and oriental specialists.