School Notes: School of Art
May/June 2020

Professor’s art illuminates New Haven underpass

Construction has begun on a new public art project by Sheila Levrant de Bretteville ’64MFA, professor and director of graduate studies in graphic design. Installed within the highly trafficked Route 34 underpass on Union Avenue, between the Union Station and downtown New Haven, the piece is entitled Lighting Your Way and has been in the works since 2012. The permanent installation spans the length of the underpass and takes the form of an array of choreographed motion-activated lights and spotlights triggered by pedestrians as they walk beneath, in an effort to increase both accessibility and walkability in the city. The project marks the first time that the Connecticut Department of Transportation has approved a public artwork that is integral to the structure of the bridge.

Alum inaugurates façade exhibition at the Met

For the first time since construction was completed in 1902 on New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, artwork has been installed on the façade of the building, in four niches that were always intended to house freestanding sculptures, but never have until now. A series of four bronze sculptures created by Wangechi Mutu ’00MFA inaugurates what will be an annual commission by the museum to see these public spaces continually filled. Entitled The NewOnes, will free Us, these four figures free the historically female form of the caryatid from her role of providing structural support to buildings. Shortly after the installation of these works last fall, Mutu participated in a panel featuring School of Art alumni, “Looking Back at 50 Years of Change in the Visual Arts,” which took place at the Yale University Art Gallery and marked the 50th anniversary of African American studies at Yale. The NewOnes, will free Us will be on view through June 8.