Joyner Portrait Gallery Aims to Bring Literary Figures to Life
By Melyssa Allen

Joyner Hall, which houses Meredith’s English department, is now decorated with the portraits of authors including William Shakespeare, Zora Neale Hurston and Geoffrey Chaucer. These portraits, and those of 15 other authors, are part of the new Joyner Portrait Gallery.

The project, organized by Robin Colby, associate professor of English, and Linda FitzSimons, associate professor of art, was designed to help make the authors real for Meredith students.

The gallery includes portraits created by Meredith art students and biographical profiles of each author, which were written by Meredith English students. Contributions from Dr. Ione Knight funded the portrait gallery and Nancy Joyner funded the framing of the portraits.

The project began in 2001, FitzSimons said.

“Robin Colby asked me two and a half years ago if I would work with the English department on a collaborative project creating portraits of the English department’s favorite English and American writers,” said FitzSimons.

“Robin wanted the authors to ‘come to life’ for the students the way that they already ‘are alive’ for the teachers. My art students would joke with each other that the English teachers seem to think that they really know all these authors personally, even the ones that died years ago. Robin wanted the students to also feel that they knew these authors in a more personal way.”

Colby said the project began when she noticed that students “had the tendency to refer to a writer as ‘they’ in papers.” Colby decided that the portrait gallery might help students to see the each author as a “real, living human being, not as some anonymous ‘they’.”

Research played a big part in this process for the English students, who created 200-word biographical profiles for each of the authors.

“I learned more about Charlotte and Emily Bronte, two Victorian authors I admire, by researching and writing about their lives,” said Leesha Austin, ’02, whose profiles of the Bronte sisters are included in the gallery.

The art students who helped create the gallery also did extensive research in order to learn more about the person who they were painting.

FitzSimons said students in her Drawing II and Painting II classes “were required to choose one of the pre-selected authors to research, read selections from their work, and write a research paper on the portrait traditions during the time in which the author lived.”

“A thorough insight into the author’s writings, era and personality is necessary to capture the spirit of the writer in the portrait,” said FitzSimons. “The portrait had to be in a style that would have been used during the writer’s lifetime and also with an appropriate medium for the time. After completion of the portrait, each artist wrote an artist’s statement that is included under the biographical information with the portraits.”

The graphic design for the formatted biographies and artists’ statements was also a class project. FitzSimons chose a format from those created by students in the graphic design studio class taught by Blair Ligon, assistant professor of art.

Those involved believe all the effort put into the Joyner Portrait Gallery will serve an important purpose.

“I hope that future Meredith students are able to relate more directly to the works they are studying by viewing the portraits and reading about the writers’ lives,” Austin said. “I am confident that students who are writing a critical analysis of literature by one of the authors will appreciate being able to connect a name with a face and information about the author’s life and work.”

Working from the Past, in the Present, for the Future : Alumnae Offer Valuable Recruiting Assistance
By Erin Hege, ’04

Meredith College alumnae are a driving force behind the College’s recruitment process. The admissions office works very closely with alumnae and the Office of Alumnae and Parent Relations to provide programs and resources alumnae can use in their recruitment efforts.

Carol Kercheval, director of admissions, enjoys using the energy alumnae bring to the recruitment process. She said, “Alumnae light up when they talk about Meredith. They have the greatest story of Meredith to tell – their own.”

An easy and efficient way for alumnae to become involved in recruitment is to become an Alumnae Admissions Representative (AAR). AARs assist by visiting high schools in their communities, attending college fairs, and contacting prospective and accepted students in their local areas.

The admissions office also holds Alumnae Legacy Day where alumnae bring their daughters, nieces, granddaughters or friends who are prospective students. This day is an opportunity for the prospects to learn more about Meredith and for the alumnae to interact and become reconnected to the College.

Meredith also sponsors an Alumnae Voucher Program through which an alumnae can give a prospective student a voucher that waives her application fee. This year, 95 percent of prospective students who have received an alumnae voucher have applied for admission for the 2004-05 academic year.

Alumnae who do not live near Meredith’s campus still find many ways to help admissions in their area. In September, the Richmond, Va., alumnae chapter held an open house for prospective students. At this event numerous alumnae, Catherine Rideout, ’95, director of alumnae and parent relations, and Kercheval were in attendance. Since then, 70 percent of the students in attendance have visited campus. Alumnae can hold open houses for prospective students in their areas anywhere in the country. They also participate as guest speakers at “Think Meredith” parties throughout North Carolina.

Rideout said, “Alumnae are the best ambassadors for the College and we look to them to help recruit the best and brightest students who will benefit most from the Meredith experience.” One such alumna is Deborah Dove Smith, ’80, Alumnae Association president. Smith is an active recruiter who volunteers her time speaking at open days for high school students.

Alumnae recruiting is especially beneficial because of the personal Meredith experience they share. They are able to reach prospective students in a different way by relating their memories to Meredith today.

“Alumnae can tell the story of Meredith unlike anyone else. The relationships they formed during their years here with their faculty, staff and classmates have kept their bond with Meredith strong,” Kercheval said. “Whether you are talking to alumnae from ’55, ’75, or ’95 the same bonds are there, and that is the hallmark of the Meredith education and the Meredith experience.”

December was “Season of Giving” at Meredith
By Erin Hege ’04

Groups from all across the Meredith campus recently pulled together to sponsor service projects to help many different groups and charities, turning December into a “season of giving.”

Meredith students collected canned foods, donated toys, and made Christmas cards. Students in Christa Devitt’s First Year Experience class held a food drive for the Second Harvest Food Bank, which feeds needy families in the Wake County area. The Association of Meredith Commuters (AMC) decorated holiday cards and collected donations to send to the children at the Raleigh Rescue Mission.

Some students from the senior class also volunteered at the Raleigh Rescue Mission, a faith-based homeless shelter located in downtown Raleigh. Senior Randi Miller, who volunteers on a regular basis at the Mission, wrote a Christmas play for the children who live in the Mission. Miller and other volunteers practiced with the children every Sunday night for two months getting ready for their big production. The play was performed in Jones Chapel on December 12.

Faculty and staff also participated in holiday service projects.
The Staff Affairs Committee (SAC) sponsored two holiday drives. First, SAC teamed up with the Ronald McDonald House of Durham to hold a food drive, to provide items to aid in the cost of feeding the residing families. The Ronald McDonald House is a charity that houses families who are staying out of town because they have a child in the hospital.

SAC also worked to provide the Duke Cancer Patient Support Program with goods and supplies. The Patient Support Program is a group of volunteers that provide refreshments, counseling and support to patients in the clinics and their families. The program also supplies Duke cancer patients with hats and wigs.

Director of Volunteer Services Lynne Wheatley was thrilled to see so many service projects around the holidays.

“Service is a gift to both the giver and receiver that is continually opened and always remembered - it comes from the heart, expressing our compassion and joy for humankind,” she said. “Meredith campus members care for our community, as seen in the numerous projects for the holidays, because we treasure our community, and the worth of our actions is not signified by the monetary value of the gifts, but by the laughter, joy and smiles it brings forth.”

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