STILLPOINT Archive: last updated 03/30/2007
Story Cyndi McMahon
Photos Daniel Nystedt '06
Professor of art Bruce Herman, M.F.A., was installed as the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in the Fine Arts on August 30, 2006. The Lothlórien Chair is the first fully endowed chair appointment at Gordon and was made possible by the generosity of Walter and Darlene Hansen, longtime supporters of the arts and of faculty development in Christian higher education. "This is a landmark appointment for Gordon College in many ways," says College Provost Mark Sargent. "Not only is it our first fully endowed chair, it also reaffirms Gordon's leadership role in the visual arts both within our region and within the Christian community nationwide."
The Hansens chose to name the chair for the "golden wood" of mallorn-trees in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Overseen by Galadriel, the most powerful elf of her age, and her husband, Celeborn, Lothlórien was a place of great beauty and peace, far from evil and danger, and resistant to the slow decay of time. Lothlórien, in the words of Tolkien, opened a "window that looked on a vanished world." Full of "gold and white and blue and green," Lothlórien was a place of great color and beauty--it provided sojourners a waking dream of ancient days and a vision of hope.
Dr. Hansen addressed Herman and his friends and colleagues at an evening reception held at the Barrington Center for the Arts. He began his remarks by saying, "Bruce, imagine you are sitting in a beautiful chair called the Lothlórien Chair. Inscribed upon its four legs are four lines from J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Fellowship of the Ring. These four lines are the mandate for your mission as the occupant of the Lothlórien Chair."
These four mandates, in brief, are as follows:
Photos
1. Bruce Herman with Darlene and Walter Hansen at an evening reception held at the Barrington Center for the Arts celebrating Bruce's installation.
2. Bruce speaks at his installation as the first recipient of the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair
3. Bruce greets friends and colleagues at the reception.