They marched in the annual graduation procession wearing bright berets, Scottish golf caps, hand-woven Kente vestments from Africa and giant strawberry costumes.
And that was the faculty.
The Maryland Institute College of Art?s 180th commencement was, as always, a bit whimsical. This year, too, the memorable moments included the addresses ? not just the dresses.
Twenty-something illustration major Brian Mead and 61-year-old Master of Fine Arts candidate John Moran?s brief speeches to their 386 fellow MICA graduates stole the show Monday afternoon at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
Mead teased his classmates about how terribly cliché most were dressed in black with black berets during their last official hours as art students. The cum laude grad had the standing-room only crowd laughing out loud as he chided the seniors? eclectic art school habits, while noting in comparison the conventions of their “numbers and letters” counterparts.
Admitting to be among the “weird and passionate,” Mead encouraged students to keep engaging in those confrontational, idea- and aesthetic-driven conversations with friends, acquaintances and strangers. He also implored them to keep “dumpster diving” and creating.
Moran, retired from the federal government after 31 years, said his time studying painting at MICA, “was probably the best two years of my life.”
Sam Gilliam, the renowned Washington-based painter, with work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in the nation?s capital, was the featured speaker.
Maria Alethea Canlas, a fiber major, was named the 2006 recipient of the $25,000 Jacques and Natasha Gelman Travel Award ? believed to be the largest undergraduate honor for art students in the country, MICA President Fred Lazurus IV said.
Benji Derdeyn, a new graduate from Dallas, was one of the seniors taking a playful turn with graduation, donning a 1970s-style, burnt-orange three-piece suite.
“I think the difference between MICA and other schools,” Derdeyn said, “is the diverse, interesting people here. It?s just a different type of student altogether, but we come together. We hang out with people we might not have in high school and get to know each other. It becomes a good place to create.”
