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The Memphis Brooks Museum’s final large-scale exhibition in Overton Park pays tribute to the college that closed in 2020 after 84 years.
“Memphis College of Art, 1936–2020: An Enduring Legacy” will be on view through Sept. 27.
“An Enduring Legacy” is organized in groupings of a professor and students (generally one to four). Ninety works are included in the exhibition, which spans painting, photography, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, artist books, video, installation and printmaking.
Marina Pacini, the Brooks' chief curator from 2002 to 2019, is the guest curator of “An Enduring Legacy.” There is an exhibition publication which includes the history and impact of the college, as well as a research essay from Pacini.
Pacini sent questionnaires to faculty and students to determine the groupings, asking faculty which students they mentored and students which faculty mentored them. Sometimes the groupings are what one would expect, such as the works of a photography professor near the works of two photography students.
“All the teachers were fine artists and loved to teach,” said Murray Riss, who established the photography department at Memphis College of Art and taught there for close to 20 years.
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Pacini said she got the grouping idea after hearing a talk with Memphis College of Art alumni Tommy Kha and D’Angelo Lovell Williams at Rhodes College. Both photographers are grouped with photography professor Haley Morris-Cafiero.
Sometimes the groupings are cross-medium or feature works in different styles. Such as a photo from a photography professor (Riss) near a piece of pottery created by one of his students (Brin Baucum).
 Photography professor Haley Morris-Cafiero’s work (left) is grouped with the works of D’Angelo Lovell Williams (center) and Tommy Kha (right). (Elle Perry/The Daily Memphian)
“Creativity does not have a particular way to voice it,” said Maritza Dávila-Irizarry, who taught printmaking and drawing at Memphis College of Art from 1982 to 2018, and is featured in the exhibition, next to artists like Jay Crum, an illustrator and designer.
Moko Fukuyama is one of the 90 artists featured in “An Enduring Legacy.”
The multidisciplinary artist graduated from Memphis College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2004. She is now based in Brooklyn, New York.
 Maritza Dávila-Irizarry s “Jardín para Tía Puruca (Garden for Aunt Puruca).” Silk aquatint collograph, polymer photogravure, chine collé (Courtesy Brooks Museum)
Fukuyama is paired with a professor who didn’t directly teach her, but influenced her: Kim Beck.
“I did not take her class, but she was my inspiration,” Fukuyama said. “I was really interested in contemporary art.”
There is a sculpture by Ted Rust, longtime Memphis College of Art director (from 1949 to 1975), in the exhibition.
“... (He) took it through so many improvements, changes and growth of the college,” Pacini said. “He was a sculptor and did not teach classes, but so many of the students talked about how significant he was in terms of mentoring.”
The former Memphis College of Art building is set to become the Metal Museum’s second — and main — location, in September. Its original, remaining location is south of Downtown.
The Brooks Museum will move to a new location Downtown, dubbed the Memphis Art Museum, in December.
 Memphis College of Art alumna Ebet Roberts’ photo of Sid Vicious performing with the Sex Pistols at the Taliesyn Ballroom in Memphis on Jan. 6, 1978. (Courtesy Brooks Museum)
Memphis College of Art and the Brooks Museum both owe their beginnings to the Memphis Art Association. And, for more than six decades, art-minded Memphians and others visited the two institutions while they were neighbors in Overton Park.
“An Enduring Legacy” events include a lunch-and-learn with Pacini and exhibition tour on April 3 and an “Art & Aperitifs” talk with MCA alumni Kong Wee Pang, Amy Hutcheson, Lurlynn Franklin, Sharon Havelka and former professor Fred Burton on April 19.
There will also be a three-part, invitation-only dinner series for donors and community leaders. The dinners — including their archival items, design elements and curated menus — correspond to different eras of the institution. The James Lee Memorial Art Academy Dinner is on April 22. The Memphis Academy of Art Dinner is on May 20. The Memphis College of Art Dinner is on June 24.
Adrian R. Duran, who taught art history at Memphis College of Art from 2005 to 2012, described the professor-student relationships as they exist now.
“They were our students,” he said. “Now we’re their fans.”
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