SUPERIOR — The University of Wisconsin-Superior is hosting an anniversary celebration, and the community is invited. The guest of honor is the Holden Fine and Applied Arts Center, which opened in April 1973.
“We just wanted to do something to mark that — to open up Holden to the community and invite people in,” said Brett Jones, professor of percussion and chair of the Music Department at UWS.
It’s a chance to celebrate the center’s importance as an artistic hub for Superior, he said. The building has been home to more than 1,000 theater performances, more than 800 gallery exhibits of visual arts and more than 1,000 recitals.
The April 28 open house kicks off with a reception at 5 p.m., a program on the history of the building at 5:30 p.m. by former faculty member Jim Grittner followed by an open house from 6-7 p.m. featuring art displays, musical performances, video showings, interviews, time for tours and more.
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The building represented a $4.5 million investment in UWS at the time it was built, the equivalent of $30 million today, said David Potter, assistant professor of music and coordinator of music education at UWS, who has been diving into the history behind the bricks. A 200-plus page plan document for the building, written in 1969, emphasized that it should be designed with attention to detail, not sacrificing artistic design to cost, with an eye toward future expansion needs.
“And that is the level of commitment that the state was making in the support of this and the approval of this building,” Potter said. “Simultaneously, this level of support has historically just been so immense from the community, the service to the community here.”
The building opened to a week of fine arts — a faculty art exhibit and orchestra concert as well as concerts from a 98-bell carillon, gifted by Paul E. Holden in the name of his wife, Lucille. The famous Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington, an original valued at $300,000, was loaned to the university for display during the week.
The spring musical of 1973 was “Bye, Bye Birdie.” Directed by John Munsell, it boasted the largest cast and crew in the history of the university, according to the Peptomist, the student paper that was forerunner to the Promethean. Cast members were drawn locally “from as far away as Wentworth, Wisconsin and Two Harbors, Minnesota, the latter being the home of Steve Stark, who plays Birdie,” according to an article in the April 19, 1973 Peptomist.
The building was named after Holden, who started Holden Insurance Company and, with his wife, Lucille, established the first endowed scholarship for the UW-Superior Foundation. The 237-seat Manion Theatre derives its name from Professor Emeritus O. Gayle Manion, who taught at UWS from 1952-1983. John Webb, whose name graces the recital hall, was a music professor at UWS from 1945 until he retired in 1973.
“They knew he was retiring and dedicated (the building) in his name,” said Potter.
In addition to learning more about the history of the fine arts building, visitors to the event will be invited to share their memories of the space.
“The radio station is hoping to get stories by alumni who come,” Jones said. “So there will be student workers from KUWS who will be going around with Zoom recorders and trying to get some of that history that we don’t want to lose.”
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The Holden Fine and Applied Arts Center is located at 1805 Catlin Ave. Visit the online event link at uwsuper.edu for more information on the celebration.
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