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26 October 2006 LCVA earns regional awards for excellence The Southeastern Museums Conference has honored the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA) with an Award of Excellence for the spring exhibition, Reflecting Centuries of Beauty: The Rowe Collection of Chinese Art. The group announced the winners of its annual Curator’s Competition at its business meeting in Chattanooga, Tenn., on October 18. The LCVA won the top honor in the category of museums with an annual budget of $25,000 through $1 million. LCVA was also recognized with an Honorable Mention award for the Reflecting Centuries of Beauty catalog in the same competition. The winning exhibition, Reflecting Centuries of Beauty: The Rowe Collection of Chinese Art, showcased 160 works representing all major periods and dynasties. Valued at more than $1 million, the featured collection was a gift from Bernice Beazley Rowe, a 1970 Longwood graduate, and her husband Dr. Henry Rowe. Significant for its breadth and depth, the collection is one of the most important in the Commonwealth of Virginia. LCVA Director K. Johnson Bowles curated the exhibit and noted, “The exhibition offered a rare opportunity to study and marvel at six thousand years of Chinese artistic production. I’d like to thank the Rowes for making it possible.” The exhibition remained on display at the LCVA from March through June 2006, and portions of the collection may still be seen in the Rowe Gallery in Lancaster Hall on the Longwood University campus. The award committee of the Southeastern Museums Conference judged nominations from museums in its territory, which includes 12 states plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The committee did not look solely at the quality of the artifacts in the exhibition, but also at the overall presentation, the scholarship that supported the exhibition, and the accompanying catalog and other educational materials that the LCVA produced as part of the exhibition. Longwood University President Dr. Patricia Cormier explained, “This is the sort of regional and national recognition that the LCVA in particular, and that Longwood University in general, have earned. This honor speaks to so many strengths – the generosity of our donors, the stewardship of our gifts, the creativity and scholarship of our faculty and staff, and the overall excellence of our endeavors.” |