The second Sunday in September has been
proclaimed as the official start of National Arts in Education Week by Congress
(HR275, Arts in Education Week Resolution).
In reading this proclamation today, Sunday, September 8, 2013, I began to think
about the penultimate "Whereas" clause which states that "art
is integral to the lives of United States citizens and essential to the health
and vitality of communities and the Nation."
It made me think how
"essential to the health and vitality" the arts were to the founder
of Clemson University, Thomas Green Clemson. And though many today know
the University more for the performance of its teams on the gridiron than for
their Arts curriculum, the fact remains that the literary, performing and the visual
arts are, in fact, an integral part of Thomas Green Clemson’s legacy and
mandate for the institution that bears his name.
Students, faculty and alumni at Clemson
have long understood the profound importance of the visionary act that Thomas
G. Clemson, took on November 6, 1886, when he specified in his will that “Fort
Hill place,” formerly the home of his father-in-law, John
C. Calhoun, be set aside for “the establishment of a scientific
institution.” Importantly, however, Clemson
very carefully specified that this “high seminary of learning” should provide a
broad learning experience, combining both “physical and intellectual education.”
Clemson’s will also
specified that Fort Hill house should “never be torn down or altered, but shall
be kept in repair … [and] always be open
for the inspection of visitors,“ making special note that his “pictures and
paintings” remain “to adorn the Fort Hill house.”
To take Thomas Green Clemson’s will as the
extent of his relationship to the arts, however, would not merely be an
incomplete picture, but a gross misrepresentation. One need only consult William David Hiott’s
article, “Thomas Green Clemson: Art Collector and Artist,”
in Thomas Green Clemson, edited by the
late Alma Bennett:
“Thomas Green Clemson’s affection for the
arts is poignantly described in his address [at the Second Festival of the
Washington Art Association as] ‘The Beautiful Arts—the magic bonds which unite
all ages and Nations.’
“Thomas
G. Clemson’s passion for the fine arts provides an invaluable glimpse into
Thomas Clemson the man. After all, this is the person who, in 1859, insisted,
‘All organized being [are] artists—from the minute creature that built up the
coral islands and twined coral wreaths around the world up to man.’ In art as
in other segments of his career, he was an enlightened man ahead of his time. His collecting art is a conspicuous
case in point of that enlightenment. When few of his American contemporaries
were doing so, he began to collect representative samples of
seventeenth-century and nineteenth-century European paintings. He rounded out
his collection by commissioning original portraits as well as museum-grade
copies of impressive paintings he had seen or studied. When his own paintings
were added to that effort, the result was an oil painting collection that would
have rivaled any personal art collection in America at his time.
“Today, the Thomas Green Clemson Art
Collection is remarkably intact. It is
also remarkable that, by specifically giving most of that collection to Fort
Hill, Clemson established an artistic legacy for his namesake institution of
higher learning as well as a tangible and highly personal link with its
founder.”
As
such, those who experience and/or study the arts at Clemson University are
taking part in a legacy of creativity that links them to one of the most abiding
passions of its founder: the arts.
As chair of the Art Department at Clemson University, I encourage visitors to the campus who have not been to Fort Hill, and those who’ve not been recently, to stop by and see our founder's art collection (which includes several canvases by Mr. Clemson himself), and to contemplate the vision of a truly “enlightened man ahead of his time.” Entrance is free. 520 Fort Hill St., Clemson, SC 29634, USA. http://www.clemson.edu/about/history/properties/fort-hill/
§ Greg Shelnutt, Chair and Professor of Art, Clemson University, September 8, 2013, Clemson, South Carolina.
Sources:
Holmes,
Alester G., and George R. Sherrill. "The Will." Thomas Green
Clemson The Will. Clemson University, n.d. http://www.clemson.edu/TGC200/the-will.htm.
Web. 03 Sept. 2013.
