• Announcements
• Director's Statement
• University Statement
• Media and Blogs
• Letters
• About

Friends of the Fine Art Center Galleries

Information Resources for a Critical Social Movement
Sponsored by Friends of the Fine Arts Center Galleries

This page, sponsored by Friends of the Fine Arts Center Galleries, is not an official University of Rhode Island Web page. See disclaimer

Announcements

---

---

---

Director's Statement

Full Text of Statement by Fine Arts Center Galleries Director Judith Tolnick Champa (MSWord Document)

"At a time when we recognized that the arts have a substantial role to play in the Rhode Island economy, it is beyond comprehension that the inexpensive but astoundingly rich program of the Galleries would be destroyed by the University to which it has brought substantial distinction. The bang for the buck is immeasurable.”

University Statements

Full Text of Statement Issued June 6 by URI Department of Communications and Marketing (html)

“We deeply appreciate the extraordinary work that [...] Judith Tolnick Champa (director of the Fine Arts Center Galleries) [has] accomplished, but our top priority is our curriculum."

---

University Boiler-Plate Response to Letters:

This is the standard, boiler-plate response, which several letter writers have been receiving from the Provost or President:

"Thank you for sharing your concerns about and interest in the future of the University Fine Arts gallery. I very much appreciate your perspective and the many values that the gallery provides to the students, staff, and faculty of the university and the broader RI community.

"As you probably know, significant and repeated cuts in state funding to URI has created a very challenging fiscal situation for our university. A reduction of $12 million in the state appropriation this year resulted in a $17.6 million shortfall for the year beginning in July 08. The Division of Academic Affairs had to cut $12 million from its budget and had only a few months to make those reductions. As a result, every program in the university, from athletics to honor’s, unfortunately had to reduce their budgets.

"For each of the university’s colleges, the deans had to reduce their budgets by very significant amounts. In addition, in making decisions about what to cut, the deans needed to insure that we could deliver the curriculum promised to and needed by all of our students. Dean Brownell had to make very difficult and emotional decisions about what to cut and what to retain within the College of Arts and Sciences. In the highly constrained financial environment that has resulted from repeated cuts to the university budget, it is extremely difficult to impossible for the academic programs and colleges to support with state funds programs that don’t directly produce instructional credit hours. It saddens me to acknowledge this, but it is the reality of our present day situation. I know none of this helps buffer the loss that you and others are feeling and I am sorry for that.

"I do want to assure you, however, that we remain committed to insuring vital art programming at URI. We too want to retain an exciting gallery on the Kingston campus. We know we cannot maintain an active gallery entirely from rapidly declining state funds; we are actively searching for ways for URI to co-invest with interested friends, alums, artists, art enthusiasts, and foundations to insure we retain a gallery for our students, our faculty, and the broader URI community and beyond. We will continue down this path and, with your help and support, will find a way to sustain the arts programming at URI.

"Thank you again for your interest and input.

Note that is is not at all clear that "retain an exciting gallery" (last paragraph) is synonymous with retaining the person who has been responsible for the "exciting" part, Judith. It is our common belief that the galleries without their current director are essentially an empty shell.

---

URI Foundation—May 5, 2008: "The Arts at URI Benefit from Several Key Gifts Totaling $225,000."
This press release limits "the Arts at URI" to Music and Theatre only! Where is the University support for the Galleries?

Media and Blogs

---

Providence Journal, South County Edition (Arline Fleming)—June 18, 2008: "URI Cuts Target the Arts" (full article, ProJo)
"The [Art] department has 185 art majors, [Art Department Chair Barbara Pagh] said, “but it is not only art students who make use of the gallery,” citing use by students from other departments, and Honors Colloquium students who are sometimes required to view gallery shows as part of their course work.
“The galleries really are tied to the curriculum,” she said.
“I see the gallery as a forum and a laboratory,” said Tolnick Champa. “It is more than the frosting, it’s the cake. What people see here they won’t see anywhere else. These are not ready-made exhibits.”

---

South County Independent (Doug Norris)—June 12, 2008: "Arts community rallies to fight cuts"
"KINGSTON — On the last Saturday in May, Judith Tolnick Champa, curator of the Fine Arts Center Galleries at the University of Rhode Island, hosted and organized an art-appraisal fund-raiser for the Art Department titled “What is it worth?” Three days later, she learned that she and Roxana Tourigny, director of URI’s Great Performances, were being terminated, along with their programs." (full text)

Norris also had two outstanding features under the Arts & Living section (June 12 print edition; if we find an online copy we will provide links.).

• "Lights go out at URI galleries" was prefaced with an editor's note: "I've been fortunate to cover the University of Rhode Island's Fine Arts Center Galleries for the past seven years. During that time, these galleries, directed by Judith Tolnick Champa, have offered some of the most provocative, challenging and topical exhibitions in Rhode Island."
• "Checking in the day after the news went down." "There is an unreal quiet to a place the day after something bad happens, and today that sensation pervades the Fine Arts Center."

---

South County Independent (Doug Norris)—June 8, 2008: URI cuts Great Performances, closes galleries (full text)

"KINGSTON - The University of Rhode Island has eliminated its Great Performances Series and Fine Arts Center Galleries along with its directors and staff as part of a university-wide budget reduction."
...
"Tolnick, who had served as galleries director and curator for 17 years, juggling seasonal calendars for the Main Gallery, Photography Gallery and Corridor Gallery, called the move "shocking." Over the years, the galleries had grown from being strictly focused on student and faculty work to shows that garnered national and international attention. Reached by phone in New York City, she said it was "a major loss for the students and the whole cultural scene in South County."

---

Providence Phoenix (Greg Cook)—June 6, 2008: Arts slashed at the University of Rhode Island (full text)

"The decision came suddenly and sent shock waves through the state’s art community. Vesela Sretenovic, a friend of Tolnick Champa and a curator at Brown University’s Bell Gallery, says, “It was such a surprise. It was hard to react. People are still in disbelief."

---

Modern Kicks—June 12: "Cold Wind Blowing" (full text)

"While I don't mean to minimize the importance of the other affected programs, I have to say that this particular development strikes me as a shortsighted and really damaging development. Everyone knows about the difficult financial environment, but there's no equivalent for the program in the entire southern part of the state, or indeed within Rhode Island's system of higher education, in terms of range, ambition, and quality. The Fine Arts Galleries have been a major asset for the University and their loss, along with a superb curator and educator, will have a negative impact on the school and the cultural life of the state."

---

LogBlog (Pat Logan)—June 9: "Cutting to the Soul" (full text)

"What makes the final decision on the Galleries unique is the fundamental quality of the values at stake. Is URI to continue to assert its claim to be the State's public outreach institution, a core of its historic land grant mission? Does this claim extend to the arts and humanities as well as to the sciences and technologies? What are the humanistic and artistic claims of the University, and how are they reflected by this decision? What does it mean to "Think Big" and how does this decision illustrate how "We Do"?"

also...

June 23: "The Ugly Spotlight on the New Culture for Learning" (full text)

"In only three weeks, a coalition of friends and supporters of Champa and her Galleries has formed and begun to act. Representing a far broader and more valuable constituency and advocacy group than University officials have yet come to appreciate, a public movement has already put forward bold and challenging views and workable solutions to allow the University a badly needed face-saving reversal of its toxic Gallery decision. Now working through the slow process of addressing the University through its existing bureacratic channels, it is not clear whether the letharic officaldom can be jarred out of its rigid, self-justifying boiler plate retorts. The public has, at least when pricked into consciousness by loss of the Galleries and Champa, briefly awakened itself, and it is in a very bad mood. "This is not fun," the President has protested to the protesters in many of his letters. My guess is, three weeks into this horrible mistake, the real misery for URI hasn't even begun."

---

Letters

To President Carothers from Randall Rosenbaum, Executive Director, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (full text PDF)

"But I must challenge the rationale in the URI statement that these programs only provide "enrichment to the University and the wider community," and that their elimination would not affect the University's curriculum in undergraduate and graduate programs. I believe that these programs are an integral part of the curriculum in the visual and performing arts degree programs at URI and, as was attested to in a meeting held on campus this week, they play an important inter-disciplinary role for the University at-large. Professionally-curated and managed performing and visual arts programs like the ones being eliminated at URI are of proven value, in exposing students to diverse voices as they form their own aesthetic, and in helping students and teachers use the arts as a bridge to understanding in the natural and physical sciences, philosophy, and other areas of study."

---

To President Carothers and Provost DeHayes, from Natalie Coletta, Chair, Department of Art, CCRI

The move to close the URI Galleries is a profound decision that will have effects upon a much greater arts and learning community beyond the Kingston campus. Faculty at the Community College of Rhode Island regularly assign students to view and write on the exhibitions programmed by the Gallery Director. This allows students who commute to CCRI from the south to study on-site. Urban-based students often visit Kingston for the first time and potential transfer students become exposed to the superior quality of learning made available through the Fine Arts Center.

Exhibiting and viewing imagery firsthand is part of the mechanics of arts curriculum. It is vital to learning about how to see and critically analyze the visual world around us. Robotics cannot function without labs, and arts cannot function without galleries.

What such a decision mainly threatens is the development that Tolnick Champa has carefully built over many years. She is a tremendous asset, and cutting her position would be foolish. Her value as an outside-the-box educator, her intelligence in programming, her knowledge of artists and contemporary art history, her savvy to fund-raise and attract serious talent to this State, her steadfast commitment to very high quality exhibitions, her presence at museums and galleries as a representative of the Colleges, CANNOT BE UNDERESTIMATED or ignored.

The quality of programming at the University Galleries is well known to be extraordinary, and the teaching value of HOW they are programmed has been of long-standing value to the State and it's educational institutions.

Rather than cut all programming, work to FIND AN ALTERNATIVE on how this elemental resource can be afforded. Because without it, the students that we are teaching will suffer and the State of Rhode Island will lose a human resource in Tolnick Champa that is simply irreplaceable.

---

To President Carothers and Provost DeHayes, from Carl Chiarenza, Fanny Knapp Allen Professor Emeritus & Artist-in-Residence, University of Rochester (full text)

"Judith has consistently, for 17 years (!), brought to URI some of the most educational, creative, innovative, challenging, informative exhibitions seen anywhere - especially on college campuses. Exhibitions at your institution have been hailed by the art community throughout the nation. This loss is shocking, especially at a time when universities and corporations have begun to understand the importance of creativity in the arts as a way to train people to think and work innovatively in all walks of life, including, importantly, educating people in science and in business."

---

To President Carothers and Provost DeHayes, from Christy Woods, Associate Publisher, artscope magazine (full text—MSWord)

"On another note, as the former manager of an academic gallery, I have a unique understanding of just what an asset you possess in Ms. Champa. I can not tell you how floored I was, knowing what sort of program the FACG present, to discover that she has no full time staff and only limited part-time staff. I do not know how she does what she does...but I know that if I were a university administrator, I would be trying to bottle her energy and dedication rather than disposing of it."

---

To President Carothers and Provost DeHayes, from Barbara Pagh, Chair of the Department of Art, UIR (full text—MSWord)

"As Chair, I often give tours to prospective students and their parents. I usually point with pride to the galleries as an asset to our program. Now we may be the only State University in the country without a gallery. This is especially discouraging as the Art and Art History Department is in the process of developing many new and exciting events and programs planned around the University galleries.

"For many years Judith Tolnick has taught a “Gallery Internship” course, and these students had an invaluable experience as her hands-on staff. They learned all aspects of the gallery, sometimes assisting in the development of a particular show, writing press releases, hanging exhibitions, and unpacking and packing the artwork. Some of these students have gone on to work in galleries or pursue degrees in Museum Studies. In fact, our President’s Excellence Award recipient in studio art this year, Emily Bibb, is going to NYU for Museum Studies."

---

To President Carothers, from artist Jill Moser, NYC (full text)

"Your decision to close the Fine Art Galleries and dismiss Judith Tolnick Champa has shocked and dismayed the art community well beyond Rhode Island. As any artist who has exhibited work in the URI galleries under the extraordinarily careful and vibrant curatorial guidance of Ms. Champa will attest, the opportunity is one in which you can't help but be aware of the significant impact your work and presence has on both the academic and local community."

---

To President Carothers and Provost DeHayes, from artist Suzanne Volmer (full text—MSWord)

"Cutting enrichment programs often translates into lower national ranking, which negatively affects the potential for income generated by out-of-state enrollment as well as impacting on the local applicant base. Strip an educational institution of its cultural programming and it becomes a less compelling draw for future students and less interesting for contributors and benefactors as well."

---

To President Carothers, from Assistant Professor of Modern Art History, Pamela Warner (full text—MSWord)

"I am writing to express my extreme distress at the news of the cancellation of the University Fine Arts Center gallery and the elimination of Judith Tolnick’s position as director of it. Having just finished my first year teaching in the Art and Art History department at URI, I can attest to the importance of the gallery to at least four of the fundamental missions of the university: service to the community and state population, pedagogy, professional training, and scholarly research. Indeed, the presence of the gallery was a major attraction to me in considering URI’s job offer last summer."

---

To President Carothers and Provost DeHayes, From Rhonda Shumaker, Director, South County Art Association (full text—HTML)

"If the University intends to present itself as a nationally competitive institution they need to not only maintain their gallery and its director, but also to think about expanding their arts programs."

---

To Provost DeHayes, from John Kotula, Wakefield, RI(full text—MSWord)

"I could give many examples of ways in which the gallery has enriched learning for students and the community.... Three or four years ago, Judith arranged for the Rhode Island artist Ana Flores to present her exhibit Cuban Journal in the gallery. I suggest that a thoughtful viewing of this show had as much to teach about Hispanic culture, international studies, Cuban-American relations, the Cuban Diaspora, and politically informed art making as any course in the curriculum or any assigned textbook."

---

To Provost Donald H. DeHayes, from Brandy Belanger ('08) (full text—MSWord)

"I understand that your "top priority is our curriculum" but this WAS part of your curriculum. Not only was it a class in which to earn 3 credits, it wan an experience that cannot or should not be measured in dollars. It gave myself and many other students the tools needed to examine and explore a realistic job market for our futures. Judith not only introduced us to wonderful contemporary art she also introduced us to the artists and a whole new world."

---

To Provost Donald H. DeHayes, from Kristina Cinquegrana ('08) (full text—pdf)

"How does a University get rid of one of its biggest cultural centers? It is stated within the online “Greetings from the President” that “Together, URI’s faculty, staff and administrators are striving to bring focus to our vast array of programs, create closer working relationships between students and faculty, replace large lectures with integrated seminars that blend the teaching of theory with the learning of life skills, and provide students with a rich culture which will foster their learning.” I do believe, Provost Dehayes, that this cut destroys that “rich culture” which is supposed to foster the learning of URI’s students."

---

About Friends of the FAC Galleries

This page is a response to a decision by the University of Rhode Island to terminate the position of Director of the Fine Arts Center Galleries and to close them. Because of the vital nature of the Galleries, and because we recognize the unique genius and contributions made by Director Judith Tolnick Champa to the University and to the State of Rhode Island, we protest.

Ironically, the announcement came after a fundraiser—a well attended session featuring art appraisers from Boston's Skinner, Inc.—an event called, "What is it Worth?" We believe that the State's only public arts gallery is simply priceless. It is essential to the soul of URI. We will do all we can to save it.

Responding to dismay and pervasive calls for a reversal of this decision, Friends of the Galleries is posting this page as an informational resource. We will monitor public accounts of expressions of concern or outrage, calls to action, meetings, happenings, etc. We will post links to newspaper accounts, blogs, or official statements. We welcome copies of letters sent to Donald H. DeHayes (Provost and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Green Hall, URI, Kingston 02881) or President Robert L. Carothers (same address).

Submit your ideas, comments, and encouragements to Director Judith Tolnick Champa (JTolnick@mail.uri.edu), or if you would like to post anything to this page, contact Dr. Patrick Logan (mayfly@uri.edu)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."—Margaret Mead