History and Mission of the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts
From our early start as individual departments to our strong, centralized college, see how the arts have evolved at Ohio University.
Photo of Ohio University Tupper Hall being moved in 1896. Image courtesy of Ohio University Archives.
in 1896 Tupper Hall was physically moved— approx. 100 feet south and 200 feet east—which took forty days to accomplish. First opened as the Chapel Building and Library, Tupper Hall then served as the Music Hall, and finally as the Fine Arts Building, with the fledgling School of Photography darkroom/lab in the basement. This building was demolished in 1966, and the College of Fine Arts now exists across five buildings: Seigfred Hall (Art + Design), Robert Glidden Hall (Music), Putnam Hall (Dance), Kantner Hall (Theater), 31 Court Street (Film and Interdisciplinary Arts), and Jennings House.
1883-1930
From Piano to Painting
Before There Was a College...
There Were Fine Arts
Illustration of a musical bobcat from the 1931 yearbook
- 1883 — Piano lessons and singing classes first offered at Ohio University.
- 1889 — Department of Vocal Music established.
- 1900 — College of Music established.
Illustration of a bobcat giving a soliloquy from the 1931 Athena yearbook
- 1892 — Department of Drawing and Painting established.
- 1930 — Department of Dramatic Art established.
1936-1964
A College is Born
Born During the Depression...
Growing with the Baby Boomers
Illustration from the 1892 Athena yearbook
- 1936 — OHIO President Herman A. James reorganized Ohio’s traditional two-college structure into five new degree-granting colleges, thus creating the College of Fine Arts.
- 1958 — Elizabeth Baker purchased the Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod for theater students to gain acting experience during the summer.
- 1964 — New doctoral program in Fine Arts was established, the Department of Comparative Arts (now the School of Interdisciplinary Arts).
1967-1988
More New Beginnings
4 New Schools
The Marching 110
And the Film Festival
Photograph of an art classroom from the 1988 Athena yearbook
- 1967 — School of Painting and Allied Arts renamed to the School of Art.
- 1967 — Marching 110 founded.
- 1968 — School of Theater established.
- 1969 — School of Dance established.
- 1973 — School of Film established.
- 1974 — Athens International Film and Video Festival founded.
- 1988 — College of Fine Arts composed of six schools: Art, Interdisciplinary Arts, Dance, Film, Music, and Theater.
1995-2018
A Growing Community Presence
The Kennedy Museum
Tantrum Theater
CoARTS
The Kennedy Museum of Art at the Ridges
- 1995 — Edwin L. & Ruth E. Kennedy Museum of Art opened to the public.
- 2012 — 75th Anniversary of the College of Fine Arts.
- 2016 — Tantrum Theater’s inaugural season.
- 2018 — The Ohio Valley Center for Collaborative Arts Established.
2024-Present
New Name, New Look, New Life
A Transformational Gift
A New Building
A New Name
A rendering of the new Patton Center for Arts Education, courtesy Perkins—Eastman
For generations to come, the newly named Jeffery D. Chaddock and Mark A. Morrow College of Fine Arts will be a space where creativity and education collide to reimagine the student, faculty and community arts experience in Appalachian Ohio.
Our Mission
The Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts celebrates innovative creativity and scholarship, and engages students through a challenging and supportive learning environment. We infuse the arts into the university, the region, and the world, by embracing a broad spectrum of traditions and emerging practices.
Our Vision
The Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts aspires to be an internationally significant center of creative practice and scholarship, by launching arts initiatives that reflect a diversity of ideas and cultures.
Our Values
- The arts have transformative power on society and on individual lives.
- A diversity of arts should be both accessible and challenging.
- Traditional and emerging practices should reflect the most rigorous measures of artistic and scholarship production.
- Creative processes and the scholarly study of the arts contribute to humanity and produce skills and insights that are transferable to many other areas of knowledge.
- Students who study diverse cultures gain a deeper understanding of our changing world.
Come see for yourself and experience the arts.