NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 28 number 3 - Spring 2008

Patrons of the Arts Collections

By Anna Dahlstein, External Relations

During his thirty-year career at North Carolina State University, Associate Vice Chancellor Emeritus of Student Affairs Henry Bowers worked tirelessly to make the arts a part of each student's university experience, whether as a creative participant or an appreciative member of the audience. "North Carolina State has traditionally not offered many degree-granting programs in the arts--all the music and crafts courses, for instance, have been considered a part of Student Affairs. The advantage of that is that it has resulted in broad access and participation. The actors in our theater productions, for example, have not just been drama students as is often the case at other colleges, but might be majors in such programs as crop science and electrical engineering," explained Bowers.

Today, NC State's Crafts Center is recognized as one of the best in the country, the Thompson Theatre building is undergoing an extensive renovation, and newcomers to campus are duly impressed by the quality and variety of the Gregg Museum of Art & Design exhibits and Center Stage shows.

This level of cultural vibrancy was not the case when Bowers joined NC State in 1957. Serving first as an assistant director of student activities and then as director of the University Student Center and a senior administrator in the Student Affairs division, he helped to create a wide range of opportunities for undergraduates and enriched the wider community with excellent arts programming. As administrator of the Friends of the College concert series, he brought world-class performing artists to Raleigh, and with the help of hundreds of volunteers, ensured that tickets remained accessibly priced. Community season ticket sales eventually exceeded 19,000. After retiring from NC State in 1987, Bowers led the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County.

In all these efforts, he was joined by his wife, Sory Guthery Bowers, herself an active and passionate advocate for the arts. A former elementary and middle school teacher, Sory Bowers currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Library. Both were inspired to establish the Henry and Sory Bowers Endowment for the Visual and Performing Arts Collection as an incubator fund in the mid-1990s. It became a full endowment in 2004 thanks to their generous and consistent contributions over the years.

One source of inspiration was Ellen B. Winston, who donated an extensive collection of classical recordings, scores, librettos, and books of music criticism and history to the Libraries, as well as funds for an endowment. She and her husband, Sanford R. Winston, remained devoted patrons of the Friends of the College concert series and the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild. Because the substantial Winston Endowment supports multimedia acquisitions in the area of music and music appreciation, the Bowers decided to "round things out" by creating a complementary endowment dedicated to other art forms, such as photography, sculpture, theater, and dance.

Library acquisitions in the arts support numerous academic programs--the doctoral program in communication, rhetoric, and digital media that addresses issues in areas ranging from digital literacy to online information design; the bachelor of arts program in arts applications, that requires students to complete analytical/historical and performance/studio courses in film studies, music, theater, or the visual arts; and interdisciplinary courses touching on, for instance, technology in the arts, arts and politics, or cross culture contacts. 

However, the impact of these library collections goes even further than that. In an increasingly visual culture, scholars in a wide range of disciplines are showing greater interest in image collections, works on iconography, and related resources. As it turns out, the arts are not only an important component of the "university experience," but are also entwined in the cutting-edge research taking place at NC State.