By Mike Greife,
January 17, 2018
WARRENSBURG, MO – The University of Central Missouri Department of Art and Design
will celebrate the release of “Art and Design at Central,” a history of the Department
of Art and Design at UCM, Thursday, Feb. 1, in the UCM Gallery of Art and Design,
217 E. Clark St. The public is invited to attend.
Festivities will kick off with a reception, book sale and signing by the author, Professor
Emeritus Rich Monson, from 5-6 p.m. Copies will be available for sale that day, and
Monson, along with other emeriti art faculty, will be there to sign individual copies.
The book will also be available soon through a special offer to benefit endowed scholarships
for art and design majors.
In the book, Monson tells the story of dedicated teachers, inspired students and the
transformation of a teacher education “normal” school into a comprehensive university
with nationally recognized and accredited art and design programs.
The book details the founding of the institution in 1871, the early days of Mayme
Harwood and Elizabeth Shannon at the turn of the 20th century, the tragic campus fire
in 1915, and the expansion through a core of faculty who came to the institution in
the late 1950s and tumultuous 1960s. Monson, with testimony and assistance from his
emeriti colleagues, tells the story of a growing department striving to be its best
for students.
Richard Monson taught art at UCM from 1965 until his retirement in 1997. He was assisted
in the research and process of writing this history by his longtime colleagues, emeriti
faculty Richard Luehrman, George Sample, Jerry Miller, Leroy McDermott, and Neva Wood.
Special thanks to Gersham Nelson for his encouragement to pursue the goal of recording
this history.
