Media Release

For Immediate Use

 

Contact:                 Paul D. Daugherty, Executive Director             304.424.8340 (O)
                                WVU at Parkersburg Foundation, Inc.            

Abby Hayhurst, Executive Director                      304.485.3859
Parkersburg Arts Center 

 “A Legacy of Excellence” brings Higher Education & the Arts Together!
            Event to welcome new WVU Parkersburg President to the Mid-Ohio Valley

Whether it is ceramics, watercolor, sculpture, bronze, oil paintings, or acrylic, West Virginia University at Parkersburg has an extensive collection of nearly 40 unique pieces of art. 

A reception to mark the opening of the WVU at Parkersburg Foundation’s 2004 “A Legacy of Excellence” exhibit of student artwork will be held Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Art Center, 725 Market St. in downtown Parkersburg.  It will be hosted by the WVU at Parkersburg Foundation and the WVU at Parkersburg Alumni Association in partnership with the Cultural Center of Fine Arts (The Parkersburg Arts Center).

In addition, the art exhibit opening will serve as a welcoming event in honor of Dr. Marie Foster Gnage, new president of WVU at Parkersburg.   The exhibit’s reception will be from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Arts Center.  It is free and open to the public.  At 7:40 p.m., a special program will feature special greetings from Mid-Ohio Valley community leaders and comments from Dr. Gnage.  She assumed the college’s presidency in July and is the sixth president of the Parkersburg institution. 

The college’s art collection started in the mid 1980s when the WVU at Parkersburg Foundation began awarding grants annually for two student artworks. 

“The Foundation has been awarding these grants for several years now thanks to the Charles M. and Neva I. Harrison Memorial Fund.  This collection is one that is representative of WVU at Parkersburg’s amazing legacy of excellence,” said C. Randall Law, president of the WVU at Parkersburg Foundation Board of Directors.  

The exhibit reception gives the WVU at Parkersburg Foundation an opportunity to share the students’ artistic talents and introduce the college’s new president to the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Foundation Executive Director Paul D. Daugherty noted, “this is will be a great party that will allow community members from across the valley to meet the new leader of our institution and see the great things WVU at Parkersburg students are doing.  2004 is proving to be a great year for WVU at Parkersburg with the growth of our academic programs, the largest gift in the Foundation’s history, and, most importantly, the arrival of our new campus president.”

This event is being made possible through the assistance of the Cultural Center of Fine Arts.  For more information, please call 304.424.8340 or 304.485.3859.