learning outside the classroom the arts
so impressive that they could intimidate rather than inspire less skilled or advanced students.”
While the arts have developed a presence on all Valencia campuses, in launching the East Campus in 1975 and locating the performing arts academic programs there, Valencia also resolved that the Campus would be a cultural centerpiece in Central Florida. The subsequent establishment of the Valencia Character Company, the Valencia Dance Company, the Wooten Fine Arts Gallery, as well as its own Performing Arts Center and Black Box Theater, illustrates how well the College kept its commitment, inspired and led by Qurentia Throm, a charter faculty member and the first Department Chair for Visual and Performing Arts.
Art Department faculty and staff, accomplished artists as well as committed professors, have also produced shows in the East Campus Gallery. The Gallery was renamed the Wooten Fine Arts Gallery in 2003 to honor Anita Wooten. Wooten, an Art Professor at Valencia, lost her courageous 10-year battle against cancer in 2001. Despite her life-threatening condition, she was a vibrant contributor to the Central Florida arts community and the combination of her artistic leadership and personal courage led to the decision to rename the East Campus Gallery in Wooten’s honor. Helen Von Dolteren-Fournier, a friend of Wooten and a Valencia Foundation Board member, was a driving force behind renaming of the Gallery.
visual arts
To honor their mothers and “women just like them,” Von Dolteren-Fournier, Brenda CoxCook, and Jamia Taylor were instrumental in the establishment, in 2000, of The Sculpture Garden in a quiet, reflective space between Buildings 3 and 4 on East Campus. The first piece of artwork to adorn the space was a bronze sculpture by Valencia Art Professor Michael Galletta. By 2006, The Sculpture Garden was also being utilized as an outdoor learning space for professors to use for their classes.
Valencia’s initial student produced visual art shows were unique. Most higher education student art shows included only works that students selected. Valencia’s student art shows, on the other hand, were juried and aimed at the public. Faculty members in the College’s Art Department selected the works that were displayed. The Valencia student art show of 1985, according to one reviewer in the Orlando Sentinel, “would be impressive in any gallery, possibly
Qurentia Throm, charter faculty member and the first Department Chair for Visual and Performing Arts (left), is pictured here with internationally acclaimed film producer Robert Wise and his wife, Millicent.
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