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from Arkansas State University

For Release: May 2, 2002
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Arkansas Arts Center Director 
to speak at spring commencement ceremony

Townsend Wolfe, director and chief curator of The Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, Townsend Wolfe (click to access 200 dpi jpg image)will be guest speaker for Arkansas State University’s spring commencement ceremony on Friday, May 10. The ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. in the Convocation Center.

Andrea Smalec of Mountain Home, recipient of the R. E. Lee Wilson Award for 2001-02, will speak on behalf of the students. Approximately 880 students are candidates for degrees at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Dr. Les Wyatt, president of ASU, will present the various diplomas.

Following the ceremony, a reception for all graduates and their guests, faculty and staff will be held on the north mezzanine, between the blue and green entrances of the building.

The Arts Center has grown from a small museum and arts school to a large, multi-disciplined cultural institution serving communities throughout the state and enlisting more than 5,000 members during Wolfe’s 34-year tenure. He has established a major drawing collection at the center and developed a children’s theater, a decorative arts museum, a public arts school and an extensive system of states services.

Wolfe holds a bachelor’s degree from the Atlanta Art Institute and a master’s degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He also received a certificate from the Harvard Institute of Arts Administration, and honorary doctoral degrees from two other institutions.

In addition to serving on the National Council of the Arts, Wolfe is a member of the National Museum Services Board and the board of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York. He was curator for an exhibition in the First Ladies’ Sculpture Garden at the White House in 1995, and was the recipient of the 1997 Distinguished Service Award (outside the profession) by the National Art Educators Association.

Over the years, Wolfe has served in a variety of capacities for the Association of American Museums, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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