Exhibits

Filippo Brunnelleschi: The Man, His Machines and His Dome-This exhibit, accompanied by a ThinkPad playing a video on The Medici, described Brunelleschi’s efforts to build a dome on top of a church in Florence. During this time, the knowledge on how to engineer such an undertaking was all but lost.

This exhibit began as a book recommendation by former Arts Reference Librarian, Rebecca Kranz. Rebecca said, “Craig, you ought to read Bruneslleschi’s Dome by Ross King.” After I read this book, I was amazed at what this man did. The technology to build a dome was practically lost. The church that would support the dome had sat open to the rain for over 100 years because no one could figure out how to place a dome on top. Brunelleschi, a former goldsmith, spent time studying the Panthenon in Rome and developed a plan. Not only did he devise a way to place a dome on a roofless building (Santa Maria del Fiore), but he designed and built the cranes and hoists as well. I like to think that Brunelleschi scaled up his goldsmithing gears to design gears to raise his cranes and hoists. Brunelleschi also devised a unique method of laying the bricks on the dome’s inner shell that allowed him to build without any internal supports. His use of 2 parallel shells to make his dome reduced the overall weight of the dome. Think about it, Brunelleschi didn’t start building at ground level-he had to start at the top of the walls, hundreds of feet off the ground. This dome is beautiful, practical, and is sybolizes the Renaissance in Italy.

Dr. Harold Tedford lent the library his collection of Mona Lisa “knock offs” and ephemera for an exhibit. These include cars, jewelry, books, etc. The exhibit was very well recieved by everyone.

Dr. Harold Tedford lent the library his collection of Mona Lisa “knock offs” and ephemera for an exhibit. These include cars, jewelry, books, etc. The exhibit was very well received by everyone.

Secrest Series 2006-2007. this exhibit highlighted all the music performing artists coming to Wake Forest this season. The Secrest Series brings internationally known artists to our campus.

The Secrest Artist Series was endowed in 1987 by Marion Secrest, a local performing arts patron, in honor of her deceased husband, Willis Secrest. The best of established artists in the performing arts and the most promising new artists appear each year, without admission charge to the students, faculty, and staff of Wake Forest University. We’ve had some great artists over the years, including Ravi Shankar and Itzhak Perlman.