Information
About Emison
The William Weston Clarke Emison Museum of Art reflects DePauw University’s commitment to the visual arts. The expansion of spaces where art can be exhibited on campus allows for a more diverse and comprehensive range of exhibitions that complement DePauw’s educational mission. It also provides additional space for the display of a larger selection of objects from the University’s permanent collection.
The museum is the home of the University’s permanent art collection of more than 4,000 objects. Areas of strength include 20th-century works on paper and regional art from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as strong holdings in Asian art and anthropological artifacts.
The Emison Museum of Art is an all-inclusive teaching museum, where art objects and artifacts are used as teaching tools. Offices for faculty members in Religious Studies and Asian Studies and a seminar room are also located on the second floor, close to the exhibition areas. This proximity encourages interaction and meaningful engagement with the objects. The museum’s link of the academic and exhibition spaces unifies the teaching and learning of students and faculty members with artworks and objects on a daily basis.
The University’s Asian collection emphasizes Japanese and Tibetan art. In the 1990s, Arthur E. Klauser ’45 donated the Arthur E. Klauser Asian and World Community Collection of art from Japan. The collection includes Buddhist art, notably statuary and mandalas, objects related to the Japanese theater and samurai culture, painted screens, and woodblock prints from the 18th and 19th centuries. Selected objects from this collection are displayed in the Shidzuo Iikubo Gallery.
Gifts of Tibetan art donated by Bruce Walker ’53 complement the Asian collection and include an impressive grouping of tangka paintings from the 18th to 20th centuries as well as religious and ceremonial objects.
A first-floor gallery is dedicated to displaying anthropological and ethnographic objects from the University’s collection. Highlights of the extensive holdings in this area include African sculpture from the Vandiver-Haimann Collection of African Art, donated to the University by Theo and Ruth Haimann, Audrey L. Levin, and Thomas K. Vandiver ’73 and Carolyn Vandiver. The University’s collection of African art also contains Kuba textiles and other African objects given by Dr. Steven G. Conant ’71.
A collection of ancient Peruvian ceramics and textiles donated by Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Jennings in 1995 includes ceramic vessels from the Chavín, Moche and Chimú cultures (900 BCE–1470 CE) and Chancay textiles and masks (900–1532 CE). Melanesian objects from New Guinea and New Britain donated by Cedric H. Marks in 1965 and 1967 include shields, ancestral poles and figures, and masks.
History of Emison
The cornerstone of the Andrew Carnegie Library was laid on April 23, 1908. It was built and dedicated with a grant of $50,000 from the industrialist, plus a subscription from donors of $57,000 for maintenance. Designed by Indianapolis architect Oscar Bohlen and constructed entirely of Bedford, Ind., limestone, the building featured four Ionic columns at both the front entrance on the west side and facing East College on the south side.
Many DePauw alumni remember this building only as the old library; for many years, that was its sole function. On the ground floor were a large reading room and stacks with seminar rooms; departmental libraries were on the second floor. As the need for more space became apparent, plans were made for a new library on campus.
In tandem with the completion of Roy O. West Library, the University converted the Andrew Carnegie Library to an art center in 1958. This was made possible through an initial $75,000 gift from Benjamin Blumberg ’10 and Mrs. Blumberg of Terre Haute, Ind. Additional gifts from DePauw friends and foundations led to the complete remodeling of the building. Even a new south entrance was created. After remodeling, the interior was not recognizable as the old library.
Prior to this, art classes were held in numerous locations on campus. Under the leadership of painter and art professor A. Reid Winsey (1935-70), the art department had occupied no less than seven temporary homes. The art department needed a permanent location, and the newly renovated building had a spacious art gallery on the main floor. Classroom space provided in the three-story structure included painting and design studios, a projection and lecture room, commercial art workrooms, and rooms for the teaching of ceramics, woodworking and photography.
In the fall of 1986, DePauw renamed and dedicated the art center to honor a family connection that dates to the beginnings of the University. It recognized the contributions of the Emison family over four generations. The art center was named for William Weston Clarke Emison, one of the founders of Indiana Asbury University (the name under which DePauw was founded by the Methodist Church in 1837).
William Weston Clarke Emison sent two of his sons to Indiana Asbury University – Thomas Posey Emison in 1849, followed by John Wesley Emison Sr., the first in his family to serve as a trustee of the University. Four consecutive generations of Emisons have served on the board of trustees – meaning that for more than half of DePauw’s history, an Emison has served on the board. In the University’s 168 years, more than 40 members of the Emison family have attended DePauw.
Speaking on behalf of the Emison family at the dedication in 1986, E. Rabb Emison Jr. ’47 said: “In a larger sense, this celebrates all the families who love and support DePauw. We’ve always been proud of this school. It’s for this simple reason that we continue to support it. We wish for all who use this building the rich, fulfilling influence that a DePauw education has meant to each of us.”
The William Weston Clarke Emison Museum of Art was dedicated on October 29, 2005.