The Pollak Building on 325 N Harrison St opened in 1971 and is named for the founder of VCUarts, Theresa Pollak. She was just 29 years old when she founded our school, and at the age of 72, she was presented with a building dedication plaque commemorating her achievement and service.
Pollak had retired from her professorship only two years earlier, though she remained an active independent artist in Richmond the rest of her life. Remarking in her 1969 book An Art School: Some Reminiscences, “I see these forty years of the growth of an art school in terms of a huge everchanging canvas on which one works endlessly, painting in and painting out, struggling always for a stronger degree of formal integration and significance and, though the canvas remains always imperfect, there is achieved and maintained within it a high degree of the sharp keen savor of life.”
Pollak was a figure universally recognized throughout VCUarts. Though she no longer taught, her towering influence was so profound that the administration decided to name its newest major building after her.
“Your name carries a tremendous meaning to a great many students and alumni,” remarked Warren W. Brandt, then-VCU president, in a 1970 letter to Theresa Pollak. “It symbolizes the spirit of VCU: dedication, enthusiasm, concern for students, outstanding teaching, and exciting programs of study.”
The year the building opened, VCUarts held a dedication ceremony and tour on November 14. In an introductory address, Dean Herbert J. Burgart said, “Miss Pollak needs no new building for us to recall the fresh, youthful and invigorating leadership she continues to give us, for that will show itself in every positive way as we meet present and future challenges.”
“I am personally gratified though,” he continued, “when the entire faculty and student-body sought the privilege of naming this new School of the Arts building in her honor, our administration and Board of Visitors saw with equal clarity our desire to recognize, this time in concrete and steel, a beautiful woman, and the honest affection we all hold for her.”
Today, the building is home to the administrative offices for VCUarts, including the office of Dean Shawn Brixey. Pollak also houses classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices for the departments of Fashion Design + Merchandising, Graphic Design, Interior Design, and Photography + Film.
In 2011, VCUarts also installed a beautiful green roof on the fifth floor that makes the Pollak Building a more sustainable and environmentally conscious facility.
Slide the interactive photos below to see how the building has changed over 47 years.
2018 marks 90 years of creative daring at VCU School of the Arts. To mark this occasion, VCUarts is spending this school year reflecting on our shared history and envisioning how we can continue to pave the way for creative practice in the 21st century and beyond. Visit the VCUarts 90th Anniversary webpage to learn more about the many stories that have shaped our school, and to share memories of your own.
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