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On the Arts
April Dance Series: Spring in Their Steps
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Some years after he left the Lawrenceville faculty, Thornton Wilder penned Our Town, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938. A century after Wilder came to the School, the Periwig Club brought Our Town back to the stage this spring at the Kirby Arts Center, introducing a new generation of Lawrentians to tiny Grover’s Corners, N.H.
Lawrenceville’s advanced dance class stepped up to the barre in April for a master class taught by Pau Pujol, a demisoloist with the Philadelphia Ballet, and dancers Ashley Lewis and Ana Perez of Philadelphia Ballet II, a company of young professional dancers who perform at Philadelphia-area schools and other community venues.
The class was “a good way to bring people together” and give Lawrentians a “realistic view of what it is like to be a professional dancer,” according to Randy Benedict, Philadelphia Ballet II program manager in school partnerships. Pujol, Lewis and Perez answered students’ questions about the experience of dedicating their lives at such a young age to their art.
The class was part of a growing partnership between Lawrenceville and the Philadelphia Ballet. Last December, Lawrenceville dancers watched the troupe perform The Nutcracker at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, then met the evening’s stars backstage.
A Day to Plié with Philly Ballet
Philadelphia Ballet demi-soloist Pau Pujol leads Lawrenceville’s advanced dance class.
FIELD DAY
Lawrenceville debuted its refurbished Getz Sports Complex in April.
Backed by the girls’ and boys’ lacrosse teams, Tripp Welborne H’58 P’21 ’24, dean of athletics and co-curricular education, welcomed everyone to the Getz Sports Complex.
With a bright sun signaling its approval, Lawrenceville dedicated its newly refurbished and enhanced Getz Sports Complex on April 2. All-new turf fields for soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey are now joined by upgraded spectator stands and a lighted path from the field house, with additional facilities on the way, including a new track.
“All of this fits into a vision for the campus for a unified community, unified by its spirit and by its healthy pursuits,” said Jonathan G. Weiss ’75, chair of the Board of Trustees, who later cut the ribbon officially marking the opening of the complex.
The Getz Sports Complex, whose two fields now bear the names of the Violich Family and the Howard Family, resulted from the beneficence of Sandy and Bert Getz ’55 H’56 P’85 GP’18 ’20, Susie and Bert Getz Jr. ’85 P’18 ’20, Samuel G.T Fisher ’07 and Family, Kit and Robert Howard GP’15 ’16 ’19, Michael Tiernan ’68 P’01 ’05 ’09 and Family, and Paul Violich P’87 ’08 GP’25. Tripp Welborne H’58 P’21 ’24, dean of athletics and co-curricular education, and Weiss ’75 were joined by the Big Red teams and coaches who now call the facility home.
“I’ve been very fortunate that I experienced Lawrenceville a student, as a trustee, and as a parent, and as a parent, you really get to see what the School means, what a community is,” said Bert Getz Jr., adding that it’s the individuals who constitute that community that make it so valuable. Getz, noting the athletic accomplishments of his father, Bert ’55, who captained the swim team, and his own involvement in several sports, said supporting Big Red felt right.
“Athletics has been a big part of our family and a big part of our fabric, so that was a very natural fit,” he said.
The Getz Sports Complex is part of the Emerge Transformed capital campaign, which concludes in 2023. Weiss says such investments in campus only enhance the School’s already considerable appeal.
“It’s just one more reason for some of the great young people around the country to be interested in Lawrenceville,” he said, “and then once they get here, to have amazing facilities, coaches, and support, to pursue their athletic dreams and pursue that concept of sound body and sound mind.”
Julia Violich P’25 and Mackey Violich ’08 high-fived as a list of Getz Sports Complex amenities were cited.
Above: Board Chair Jon Weiss ’75 cut the ribbon to officially dedicate the new complex.
Left: Susie and Bert Getz Jr. ’85 P’18 ’20 and the facility that now bears their family's name.
WORTH THE WAIT
After a two-year delay due to the pandemic, Audrey and Martin Gruss ’60 dedicated the Gruss Center for Art and Design.
If, as the old saw says, patience is a virtue, then it marks at least two such qualities we can ascribe to Audrey and Martin Gruss ’60. The other is generosity.
More than two years after it first opened in January 2020, only to have students sent home weeks later due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple was finally able to return to campus to tour and then dedicate the Gruss Center for Art and Design, or GCAD, on May 20 of this year. The ambitious expansion and renovation project was made possible through a $17 million gift from the Audrey and Martin Gruss Foundation.
GCAD pulls together collaborative energy from all departments, extending the Harkness table by providing space for experiential and project-based learning across disciplines. A community hub for innovation, collaboration, and creativity, the open environment of GCAD was designed to inspire ingenuity and support spontaneity.
Lawrenceville began studying best practices for development of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) facility and related programming in fall 2016, when the School’s Board of Trustees adopted a strategic plan, Lawrenceville 20/20, which called for “energizing academic culture” through experiential learning. Onsite surveys of corporate innovation hubs and visits to Stanford University’s d.School (the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design).
“Audrey and Martin, who joined us for the retreat, were particularly inspired and saw the potential for transforming what was already the Gruss Center of Visual Art into a state-of-the-art makerspace and creative design center,” said Jon Weiss ’75, chair of the Board of Trustees. “In the spring of 2018, they made a transformative gift to make this happen.”
The Gruss gift also enabled improvements to the adjacent art studios, and support from Debbie and Glenn Hutchins ’73, with help from Jean Fang ’90, funded a renovation of the Hutchins Galleries and collections storage space.
“Art and design touch our lives in so many ways. Just look around, and you’ll see that virtually every surface has been touched by art and design,” said Martin Gruss, a trustee emeritus. “I think it’s great that students at Lawrenceville have an opportunity to know about it and learn about it and make about it. So I’m very happy that this GCAD building is here.”
Once students returned to campus for in-person learning, it didn’t take long for GCAD to quickly be reanimated.
“It truly has become a creative hub, which was the vision at the outset,” Head of School Stephen S. Murray H’54 ’55 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21 assured the Grusses. “It’s located at both the intellectual and physical heart of the campus, and the placement couldn’t be better in terms of drawing kids in and becoming the hub that you envisioned.”
Learn more about the Gruss Center for Art and Design at gcad.lawrenceville.org.
Allison Haworth ’22 explains her project to Audrey and Martin Gruss ’60 inside GCAD.
Rex Brodie, director of design and fabrication in the Visual Arts Department, explains GCAD’s implications for robotics.
Above: Martin Gruss ’60 cut the ribbon to formally dedicate the Gruss Center for Art and Design in May.
Left: The Grusses accepted a beautifully intricate wooden box with inlaid wood design made by Rex Brodie, director of design and fabrication, in GCAD.
