Donation Funds New Art Technology

A $270,100 gift from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous will allow the University’s Center for New Art, a regional center for the investigation of art, science, and technology in the fine and applied arts and humanities, to purchase state-of-the- future robotic and color 3D printing equipment and provide enhanced programming for students, including a study abroad program in Italy.

The gift will support the purchase of a high-end seven-axis robotic system and 3D full resolution color printing equipment. It also will provide resources for development of a new course, Eco Techno, which is projected to be a foundation course that combines ecology, technology, and 3D design. In addition, the gift will support student residencies at Garfagnana Innovazione in Tuscany, Italy, through the Digital Stone Project, a New Jersey not-for-profit organization that provides artists with opportunities to use state-of-the-art digital tools including a seven-axis robot arm to create works of art using historic Carrara marble.

“This new robotic system will allow research and development with hardware and software with one of the most advanced robots available, and will specifically enable our students to carve larger than life size figures in the round,” says Michael Rees, professor of art and director of the center. “The Center for New Art is truly a unique facility in New Jersey, and this new equipment provides us with the most comprehensive tools for combining fine art and technology.”

The Center for New Art serves as a resource for students, faculty, professional artists, and art educators. In addition to courses in sculpture, digital media, and animation, the Center offers lectures, workshops, practicums, symposia, and exhibitions focused on the use of technology in the arts. In collaboration with the University Galleries, the Center offers an artist-in-residence and artist incubator program that Rees describes as “the most extensive for art and technology and a hub for our visual arts program.”

Rees, who joined the faculty in 2008, has worked with new media in his sculpture since the early 1990s. He is one of the first sculptors in the world to embrace the use of computer-aided design, 3D printing, and automated manufacture, fusing multiple disciplines into a conceptual art practice. His works have been included in numerous exhibitions, including the Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition Out of Hand: Materializing the Post Digital. He has won grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation.