From Aesthetic Integration to Applying Art: Arnold H. Maremont, the EPEC seminar, and the Planning of SIU Edwardsville

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring 2004 by Kerber, Stephen

Morris wrote to Maremont on 16 March 1961, and informed him that Harold Cohen, chairman of the Design Department in Carbondale, had been selected to lead an arrangements committee for the conference.34 On 31 March, Morris designated a "Committee of Environmental Planning for the Edwardsville Campus" that included Gyo Obata, George Axtelle (Educational Administration), Harold Cohen (Design), H. Bruce Brubaker (Education), Herrold Headley (Fine Arts), Charles Pulley (University Architect), John Randall (Assistant University Architect), and Burnett Shryock (Dean, Fine Arts). He charged the committee to organize a seminar "the purpose of which would be the consideration of the various methods for bringing the broadest concepts of sculpture, landscaping and general space relationships into their full richness and coordination with the architectural planning that is being undertaken."35

Morris and the EPEC committee rushed forward with their preparations. On 12 April, Morris sent out a generic letter of invitation to political leaders, business executives, and school administrators in Southwestern Illinois summoning them to a buffet luncheon prior to a 17 April press conference. At this event, the invitees would learn about a "unique plan" that would involve "integration of prime design and the plastic arts with actual campus construction in a way that will make the Edwardsville Campus a standard of reference for our age."36

Harold Cohen prepared a short status report for Morris on 14 April. Cohen stated that a parking lot in East St. Louis had been leased and that an inflatable "air-dome, between five and six-stories high" had been rented. All arrangements for the kickoff press conference had been finished.37

In his report, Cohen identified several speakers whose remarks would be filmed during the week of 29 April through 5 May and additional commentators who had made commitments to participate in person. Cohen reported that he expected return phone calls from Chancellor Clark Kerr of the University of California and from Mexican architect and artist Juan O'Gorman. Oddly, Cohen made no reference to Katharine Kuh, art critic of the Saturday Review, although Arnold Maremont had suggested Kuh as a likely participant.38

Delyte Morris spoke at length about the necessity for comprehensive campus planning on 25 April 1961, in Edwardsville, when he addressed the first full-scale gathering of SWICHE members since the initial 1956 organizational meeting. In his remarks, Morris stressed the importance of zoning and indicated that the campus surroundings should be in harmony with the campus itself. Morris explained that the forthcoming evironmental planning conference would involve sculptors, artists, landscape architects, and engineers in an effort to integrate the cultural arts in actual ground-up construction of the campus. In an interesting display of gratitude, SWICHE members chose to present a citation during the evening to Harold See in absentia for his contributions in developing the original concept of the Southwestern Illinois campus.39