SHERMAN, TEXAS — Austin College officials will dedicate the college’s new Betsy Dennis Forster Art Studio Complex, Friday, March 7, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the facility located on the north side of campus adjacent to the Jordan Family Language House. Tours will be offered and the program will begin at 5:30 p.m.  Faculty members from the Department of Art and Art History plan to begin classes in the new complex as soon as possible.  

Betsy Dennis Forster, Austin College Class of 1965, and her husband, Peter Forster, provided initial gifts in excess of $4 million toward the 20,000-square-foot facility. Betsy, a landscape artist, will exhibit her work in connection with the dedication. The Forsters live in Washington, D.C., and in Jackson, Wy. 

 Currently, the Austin College Art and Art History Department occupies the east wing of Craig Hall. That building, constructed in 1962 and enlarged in 1972, is shared by the Music and Art Departments. Most of the Art Department’s approximately 8,500 square feet in that facility was originally designed as classroom space and has been modified over the years in an effort to accommodate what has become an essentially studio-based program. Today, the department’s enrollment includes approximately 160 students. Individual class size varies from seven to 25 students.   

The new facility, designed by Cunningham Architects of Dallas, includes faculty offices and a limited number of small classrooms, but the major difference in the old and new facilities is the studio space available. Dedicated studio space is included for painting, photography, drawing, and fundamentals, as well as a darkroom. The second building of the complex includes an outdoor studio for metal sculpture, workshops for metal and wood and for ceramics, and outdoor kilns. The Forster Art Studio Complex will support multiple flexible uses for both academic programs and public outreach, including exhibition opportunities for students, as well as bringing art, artists, and art professionals to campus. The facility also opens possibilities for broader curricular offerings, such as an exhibition management dimension, which would involve classes in gallery management, art history and training in the technical preparation of exhibitions.  

Following the initial gift from Peter and Betsy Forster, a number of additional donors made substantial gifts toward completion of the Forster Complex. John R. and Janie G. Dickerson and family of Kilgore, Texas, have made gifts to name the Caroline Ross Ceramics and Sculpture Building within the Forster Complex. Members of the Austin College Board of Trustees and other friends made donations to allow the naming of The Kellye Wright Samuelson Digital & Photographic Art Center in the complex, announced in November by the College’s trustees to honor long-time Board of Trustees chair Bob Wright and his wife, Mary, of Dallas, whose daughter, Kellye Wright Samuelson, died in January 2004. The effort to honor of the Wrights was led by major donations from trustees Carolyn Harte of San Antonio, Texas; Todd Williams of Dallas; Bill Warren of Dallas;  JoAnn Pettus of Graham, Texas; Clifford Grum of Diboll, Texas; Robert M. Johnson of MacLean, Va.; and George and Julia Jordan of Houston; as well as friends Todd MacLin of Dallas; Jim Deatherage of Irving; and Anna Laura and Oscar Page, president of Austin College.  

Additional major gifts came from Robert Trost of Dallas to name the Trost Family Courtyard; from trustee Annadelle H. Ross, Class of 1966, to name the Daniel L. Ross Student Gallery; from Robert and Lee Dean Ardell, trustee and Class of 1974 of Houston, Texas, to name the Fundamentals Studio; and from the Wilcox Family of Denison, Texas, to name the Slide Library. 

Grants in support of the new complex were made by the Brown Foundation of Houston; the Carruth Foundation of Houston; the Collins-Binkley Foundation of Fort Worth, Texas; the Beulah Kahler College Fund of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; the W. B. Munson Foundation of Denison, Texas; and the Elias & Hannah Regensburger Foundation of Sherman.  

Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located approximately 30 minutes north of the greater Dallas metroplex in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges that Change Lives.