Yale Bulletin and Calendar

August 26, 2005|Volume 34, Number 1

Dean Richard ("Chip") Benson has overseen the re-location of the School of the Art to a new building as well as the introduction of new digital technologies for artistic creation.

Benson to step down as dean
of School of Art after this year

A search committee will be announced soon for a successor to School of Art Dean Richard M. ("Chip") Benson, who will step down from the post at the end of the 2005-2006 academic year.

In a letter to members of the art school community, President Richard C. Levin said he accepted Benson's decision to resign "sadly and reluctantly." Benson has served as dean since 1996.

"Chip has been an extraordinary leader," said Levin in the letter. "He guided the School of Art through its re-location from A&A [the Art & Architecture Building on York Street] to Green Hall, and his constant presence, day and night, has infused the new building with a spirit of caring and community. I know from my periodic reviews of the school that Chip is adored by students and faculty alike. He is admired for his prodigious artistic talent, insight and high standards. And he is cherished for his deep commitment to the school and the individuals that comprise it."

The School of Art -- the oldest university-based art school in the United States -- is devoted to teaching in four media-based areas: painting/printmaking, graphic design, sculpture and photography. During Benson's tenure, the school acquired additional space with its move in 2000 to Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall on Chapel Street and an adjacent new building at 353 Crown St. Benson worked with University administrators, architects and planners on a $26 million renovation of Green Hall.

The dean also oversaw significant advancements in the school's digital technology (while remaining committed to the use of traditional and older technologies for the creation of art) and the establishment of the Digital Media Center for the Arts, which operates under the direction of the art school dean. The new center has helped to encourage work crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries.

A renowned printer and photographer who won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship -- also known as a "genius grant" -- in 1986, Benson is an expert on producing fine prints for both vintage and contemporary photographs. He has long been interested in the historical and artistic relationship between printing, photography and the computer, and has worked to adapt traditional reproduction technologies of the past to new digital forms.

Benson selected the photographs, designed and wrote the commentary for "A Yale Album: The Third Century," a special history of the University released by the Yale Press in conjunction with the Tercentennial celebration in 2001. His other publications include "A Maritime Album" (with John Szarkowski), "Hart Crane's, The Bridge," "Lay This Laurel" (with Lincoln Kirstein), "Coppelia, The New York City Ballet" and "Classic Photographs of New York City: Views of Lower Manhattan." For more than three decades, he has made reproductions for photographic books, including "A Portrait: Georgia O'Keeffe, Photographs by Alfred Steiglitz" and four volumes of "The Work of Atget."

Benson's work is in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery, among numerous others, and is in many private collections. Since becoming dean, his work has been shown in several exhibits at Jonathan Edwards College, including one featuring images of Abraham Lincoln printed by Benson for a book about the U.S. president, and another organized by the dean that traced the history of printing technologies.

Since joining the Yale faculty in 1979 after running his own photographic studio in Newport, Rhode Island, for two decades, Benson has received many honors, including the Rhode Island Medal, Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and two Guggenheim Fellowships.

In his letter announcing Benson's decision to step down at the end of the academic year, Levin noted that Benson is simultaneously a gifted artist, teacher, writer and administrator:

"I have heard Chip lecture, read his graceful prose, and watched him critique the work of students," said Levin. "We are so fortunate that a man of such exceptional talent, such genius and such modesty has been willing to devote himself for a decade to strengthening Yale and the School of Art."

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Margaret Grey is named dean of School of Nursing

Benson to step down as dean of School of Art after this year

Team discovers new planet in the outer solar system

Grant will fund center for study of nervous system

Study: Alligator eggs show effect of oxygen on development

Yale Librarian Prochaska appointed to a second term

New master's program prepares nurses for leadership roles

Exhibit explores the 18th-century 'worlds' of Francis Wheatley

Private portrait miniatures showcase the faces of public figures

Gallery hosting festive open house . . .

Architecture gallery to feature traveling art show 'Ant Farm'

Sterling Library launches new academic year with two exhibits

Researchers create powerful tool for decoding gene functions

Galapagos tortoises more diverse than once believed, say scientists

Team identifies 'signatures' of protons in water

'Canary Database' shows animals offer health warnings for humans

Team digitally reconstructs long-extinct 'Lamp Shell'

'Gene trapping' reveals how flower development is controlled

Discovery may aid development of treatment for melanoma

Drinking alcohol may lower risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Lyme disease prevention program launched in Connecticut

For 35 students, summer was a time of service in New Haven

IN MEMORIAM

John Ostrom: He revolutionized field of paleontology

Robert Abelson: Psychologist was adviser to presidential candidates

Greer Allen: University printer was inspiration to School of Art students