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Mann Gallery

“Many thanks for the wonderful tour of Mann. As you could tell from my reactions, I think the renovation is fabulous! I could never have envisioned such a complete transformation that retained so much of the original look and personality of the building.”

Anne DiGiacomo
Class of 1980
College of Human Ecology

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Accessible from the Bissett Collaborative Work Center and adjoining reading rooms is the new Mann Gallery, a highly visible community display space for showcasing artwork and multimedia coursework by Cornell students. Gallery features include a two-story ceiling, a sound-absorbing cork floor, a flexible hanging system, and directed indoor lighting as well as diffuse natural lighting streaming in from a large window opening to the Students’ Centennial Garden between the back of Warren Hall and the Mann Library addition.

Seeds for the concept of a display gallery in Mann Library were planted by two forward-thinking undergraduates, Pam Hannah (DEA ’05) and Laura Borden (Communication ’05) as part of a collaborative senior year project. In a final project report, Hannah and Borden proposed an annual Student Expo program showcasing student work from different courses across the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Human Ecology. Their report also described faculty survey results showing high enthusiasm for a display program to feature student work. Design input from Design and Environmental Analysis professor Jan Jennings and Landscape Architecture professor Amaechi Okigbo helped shape the specific features of the gallery space.

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The new Mann Gallery will showcase some of the fresh “outside the box” thinking that Cornell students and researchers are known for, and already, the Gallery’s Fall 2007 display roster is looking solidly booked. Installations planned for this space during the fall 2007 semester include the Gallery’s inaugural exhibit, “Visualizing Meaning,” by Jeni Wightman (see http://martha.mannlib.cornell.edu/charts for more information) a display of student work by graduate students of the Department of Landscape Architecture; and “Earth Patterns,” an exhibit of geographic imagery by artist Jay Hart.