Honoring the exceptional work of Lafayette faculty at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

The exceptional work of Lafayette faculty was honored—Hollywood-style—as the College’s Bicentennial celebrations continued this month. 

More than 50 Lafayette alumni, family members, faculty, and staff gathered March 19 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for a showstopping installment of the “Lafayette Legacies: Honoring Our Past, Serving the Future” event series. 

President Nicole Hurd and Provost Laura McGrane welcomed the evening’s featured speakers, Katherine Groo, associate professor and director of the arts, and Eric Hupe, assistant professor of art, who highlighted innovative work taking place at Lafayette.

Groo spoke about the interdisciplinarity of the arts and cinema, emphasizing their long history of integrating creativity, science, and technology. She went on to describe how Lafayette brings together the arts, emerging technologies, and other disciplines through new programs, hands-on lab experiences, and faculty collaboration to create a dynamic educational experience for students. 

A $500,000 Arts and Technology Grant the College received from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation in 2021, which comes to a close at the end of this academic year, she explained, has particularly transformed how Lafayette students and faculty explore the arts—not only honoring the past, but also opening up new opportunities for the future. 

The grant made possible the installation of a state-of-the-art projection system in Williams Center for the Arts, three new interdisciplinary arts labs, new courses on topics like generative AI, and much more. 

“The arts exist in collaboration with other disciplines, other ways of making and thinking. But those other disciplines also exist in collaboration with us. That is the power of ‘and.’ We are bound together,” Groo said. “The arts are not optional; they are not decorative additions to a robust education. They offer crucial ways of knowing and living. They help us make sense of the past and understand the lives that we are living now. They show us what other lives are like and what other futures might be possible. Above all, they make life worth living.”

Guests experienced this innovation firsthand during Hupe’s demonstration of his work with students that uses virtual reality to digitally recreate art historical sites. Using VR headsets, attendees were able to “visit” major works of art from around the world. 

An added bonus for Lafayette guests was the opportunity to tour the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures prior to the event. Guests explored various exhibits, including one dedicated to the Oscar-winning film Jaws as well as others on the history of the Academy Awards. The fact that the Oscars had taken place nearby just days prior to the celebration charged the air with excitement.

“The Academy hosts an annual awards ceremony, but it also maintains a collection of 52 million historical film artifacts, making it one of the largest and most important film archives in the world,” Groo said. “It is the foundation for so much American film history, and its existence made my own academic life possible.”