Inside the doors of the Yale Center for British Art, there are masterpieces galore. But for the first time in the museum's 20-year history, the outside of the building is boasting artwork as well.
Murals created by students from Hyde Leadership School now grace the British Art Center on the corner of High and Chapel streets. "So where is the art?" is the theme of the murals, which are painted in graffiti style. The signs direct visitors to the museum shop and list hours that the center is open while it undergoes renovations in 1998.
Jeanne Lovrin, a 1993 graduate of Yale College and the art teacher for the Hyde School, coordinated the project with her students. An artist herself, Lovrin has painted and/or designed murals for the Chapel Square Mall and the New Haven Police Department, and created set designs for WTNH-Channel 8 and the Oddfellows Theater.
Located in Hamden but part of the New Haven School District, Hyde Leadership School is a "character first" high school that stresses the personal growth of each student through community and family interaction. It offers both a regular college preparatory curriculum and a "co-curriculum" that includes community service, arts and athletics.
In the past year, docents and staff members from the British Art Center have worked with Hyde Leadership's intermediate-level "Art for the Community" class, which covers the process of public art-making, from preliminary ideas and sketches to the installation of completed works. The Hyde students in this class created the mural using materials provided by the Yale museum.
The British Art Center -- which houses the most comprehensive collection of British paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and sculptures outside of Great Britain -- closed its public galleries on Jan. 5 for what has been dubbed "The Year of the Roof." While the galleries will remain closed throughout 1998, many of the museum's services continue. The reference library and the departments of rare books and of prints and drawings are open to the general public 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Visitors can enter through the museum shop, which is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. The center will re-open in January of 1999 with a new installation of the permanent collection, including several new acquisitions and three special exhibitions.