Calvin alumni celebrated the opening of the new

Grand Rapids Art Museum

on Thursday, October 11, 2007
6-9 p.m.

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Alumni Gather at New Grand Rapids Art Museum

More than 600 Calvin alumni streamed into the new Grand Rapids Art Museum on the evening of October 11 for what became one of the biggest Calvin Around Town events put on by the Alumni Association ever. With progress on the innovative new building hidden behind construction barricades for over three years, it’s not difficult to understand why so many turned out for the event.

John Straatsma ’72 works just across the street from the east side of the GRAM for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and has been watching the construction project from his office.

“It seems like it took a long time to go up,” he said. “And it wasn’t until the last month or two that the concrete building began to take shape with steel and glass going in.”

Though he’s monitored the progress of the GRAM construction since it began in September 2004, he had yet to see the inside of the 125,000 square foot building. The Calvin Around Town event was ideal for him and his wife, Barb Straatsma ’72, to explore the facility and its collection of art.

Groups of 200-250 guests listened to a 30-minute presentation meant to introduce them to the new museum and to the GRAM’s special exhibit featuring modern and contemporary art from the Netherlands.

Chuck Stehouwer ’65, GRAM board member and former Calvin Around Town board member, began the presentation with a few words about the long planning process for the new museum facility—and the CAT event celebrating its completion.

“Years ago, when I was on the Calvin Around Town committee, we said, ‘One of these days we’ll have an event at the new art museum!’ Tonight is a culmination of all that planning,” he said.

According to Stehouwer, one key donor to the $60 million building gave the museum board a difficult ultimatum when asked to give to the project.

“I’ll only be a lead donor if you build a LEED-certified building,” the person said.

The GRAM is now the first art museum in the world to receive certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. It features numerous design innovations, from a water collection system that reduces demand for city-treated water to 70 percent natural lighting, making it a truly green building.

GRAM director Celeste Adams spoke about the new building designed by workshop Hakomori Yantrasast (wHY), a Los Angeles firm known for its innovative use of simplicity and tranquility in design.

“The organization of the building is designed to be very logical and beautiful, an oasis of calm in this metropolitan center,” she said.

The simple, logical design of the facility only allows the exhibits to shine even more.

“There are surprises around every corner,” Adams said. “And the building itself holds special surprises with its use of natural light.”

Calvin art history professor Lisa Van Arragon spoke about some of the surprises visitors would find in the new museum. Her talk, subtitled “Lessons in Modern and Contemporary Dutch Art for the 21st Century,” gave CAT guests a framework for understanding the artwork they would later see in the inaugural exhibit, “A Faithful Eye: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Netherlands.”

The pieces of art featured in the special exhibit are not the traditional landscapes or portraits of earlier Dutch artists and they aren’t the more abstract, progressive paintings of Dutch modernist painters like Vincent Van Gogh and Piet Mondrian. Rather they are works created in the post-World War II era that examine the fall of utopian ideals and look to the past to find out what went wrong.

With their thick, uneven paint and fragmented shapes, the works of Karel Appel depict the failures of modernism, Van Arragon said. Similarly, the works of Armando respond to modernism, looking back to historical Dutch artists like Lucassen and Van Gogh with a critical eye. Marlene Dumas brings attention to the ubiquitous use of photography with her photograph-like painting “Magdalene.”

After the presentation, Van Arragon spoke of the role of the GRAM in the Grand Rapids community.

“It constructs history and identity by keeping and displaying objects. …The visiting exhibition, ‘A Faithful Eye,’ shows us another important role for the museum: to educate and challenge us. The exhibition is a survey of Dutch post-war art—some of it very recent—and it is eye-opening, not only in terms of Dutch art, but also as contemporary international painting,” she said.

For some, the post-war Dutch art was difficult to swallow.

“It’s going to take Grand Rapiders a lot of time to get used to,” said Susanne Karsen.

Karsen’s husband, Jim Karsen ’50 replied, saying, “…And I haven’t got a lot of time left to get used to it!”

Muskegon resident R’na Kamanek ’77 was impressed by the art displayed in the new GRAM. She plans to come back and spend more time viewing the collection.

Despite varying preferences in art among the 600 Calvin guests at the GRAM, excitement and intrigue was high as alumni meandered through the beautiful, three-story museum.

The event drew an unusual number of young Calvin alumni. Heather Willett ’04 said that this kind of new, chic venue for Calvin Around Town would be more appealing to young alumni like herself. Pam Haralakova ’05 and Joanne Henderson ’04, leaders of the alumni networking group Meeting Business Alumni, advertised the GRAM event among their young alumni group members, though there was no way to measure the success of their efforts.

Phil Lucasse ’50 has watched the evolution of the Grand Rapids Art Museum in the many years he’s spent in the Grand Rapids community. He was more than pleased to be present at a Calvin Around Town event that celebrated the opening of the GRAM’s very own facility.

“An old federal building turned into a post office turned into an art museum is not great for an art museum, but an art museum built to be an art museum, now that’s phenomenal!”

Photo Gallery

• View 81 photos of alumni and friends at the GRAM