Class of 1980

The Hopkins Center is undergoing a major redesign as part of the “Arts District” (including the Hood Museum and the Black Family Visual Arts Center). Reopening is promised for 2025 and forms the theme for this column. I lived in that space during my six years on campus; turns out the Hop played an outsize role for many classmates—some of whom were personally or professionally inspired beyond trips to Hinman boxes!

Both Victoria Redel and Tony Garippo (visual studies majors) cite the influence of professor Varujan Boghosian. Tony eulogizes him as “the most warm, inspiring, and engaging teacher ever; a mentor who got me excited about learning and prepared me for thinking and creating with passion.” Victoria, who teaches fiction and poetry at Sarah Lawrence, credits both Boghosian and Esme Thompson for creating “a way to imagine an ongoing life as an artist.” Lovers of the word can thank Boghosian for asking Victoria at “every art critique about my poems—hinting in his gentle and humorous way” that she focus on writing. Victoria has published numerous (powerful!) volumes of poetry and fiction. Boghosian died in 2020 but the effects of his humanity reverberate.

Sarah (Clark) Davis worked as the screen-printer in the Hop design studio for a semester, making the type, creating silkscreens of the designs, and printing silkscreened posters by hand for Hop events. Sarah was “immersed in design, color theory, typography, and silkscreen techniques” and saw her work around campus as a bonus. That work gave Sarah a portfolio and skills leading to postgraduate work as a graphics designer and her ongoing, current (beautiful!) art practice.

The Hop was a hub of the college experience for many of us, including Evan Petty. He was a music major, taking many classes and using the practice rooms in the Hop. He started post-College life as a recording studio engineer and transitioned to music video production (when MTV still showed them!) and now works in filmmaking. He rarely missed a screening of the Film Society. Ty Burr was one of the mainstays of the society; he even took junior year off to work full-time there. Like many drama students, he held his “office hours” in the snack bar mainlining the fries (me too!). Ty was film critic at The Boston Globe for many years and now pens reviews for The Washington Post and on his own (great!) blog.

Bennett Samson was a history major who also logged time in the Hop, playing in the Marching Band and wind ensemble. His experiences in the woodshop (crafting a masterpiece of a paddleball racquet) represents what I suspect the Hop meant to many—a place to participate in the arts (and crafts) that might not have been an academic home but a vital space for accomplishing one goal of a liberal arts education: to be and become a full person with broad and deep (sometimes lifelong) interests.

Hope to see you at the renewed Hopkins Center in June.

—Kal Alston, 948 Euclid Ave., Syracuse, NY 13210; alstonkal@gmail.com; Wade Herring, P.O. Box 9848, Savannah, GA 31412; (912) 944-1639; wherring@huntermaclean.com