Jackson Selected As Inuagural Houchens Professor
(l-r) Herb Jackson '67 and his undergraduate art professor, Douglas Houchens
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9/19/2003
Contact: Bill Giduz 704/894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu
Herb Jackson ’67, a professor in the art department for more than thirty years, has been named as the college’s first Douglas Houchens Professor. The new professorship was created by a gift from an anonymous donor this spring, and President Robert Vagt ’69 announced Jackson’s appointment at the Ne Ultra Society dinner on September 18. Those who attended the dinner had an opportunity to see a retrospective exhibit in the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center of Houchens work that serves as a fiftieth anniversary tribute to his employment in 1953 as the college’s first art professor.
Jackson’s appointment forges a fitting link between the art department’s modest birth and its powerful presence in the contemporary Davidson curriculum. Houchens nursed and nurtured the program as a solo venture for many years. And the smartest thing he may ever have done was befriending Herb Jackson from the moment he set foot on campus in the fall of 1963, then staying out of his way for the next four years!
Houchens was able to arrange Jackson’s employment as a “temporary” faculty member in 1968, helped advocated for his continued reemployments, and finally turned the art program over to him upon retirement in 1978. Jackson’s dedication to teaching, promotion of art as a valuable liberal art, and personal artistic career have helped the program grow to occupy its own building, employ seven faculty members, attract multitudes of talented students and professional exhibitions, and gain recognition as a nationally outstanding college art program.
During his student years at Davidson, Herb Jackson took all the art courses Houchens offered.
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The two men got together recently in Houchens’ home studio to talk about their experiences and Davidson College art. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.
Doug Houchens:
I had already earned my MFA at Ohio State, but after serving in the Army during the war I earned the right under the GI Bill to take more courses. I did that, but I was really ready for a job. I applied to the Southern Teachers Agency, and Davidson responded that they were looking for an artist, and invited me for an interview. When I got to Davidson a young student was there to pick me up, and it was Sam Spencer, which was the beginning of our long association.
Well, Frontis Johnston and George Abernethy and others interviewed me. I had never taught before, and didn’t know what I was to do. They asked, “How are you going to grade studio art?” I answered that what students created and what they assimilated would probably give me an indication about their grade. I heard nothing in response. There was just cold silence. Then I said well, maybe I could give monthly tests, and they seemed to like that!
They gave me the job, Maggie and I bought a Jeep station wagon and we drove on down. I had about a week to get all my courses together! I was teaching in a room in Phi Hall, and had to drag the tables around depending on whether I was teaching art history or studio. I had no slides for art history, and had to project images out of books.
Douglas Houchens joined the faculty in 1953 as Davidson's first art professor.
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Art was a sideline here for a long time, but I did the best I could. I did get support from some other faculty members, though. Dr. Bill Cumming in the English department pushed for art because on standard exams our students were doing fine except for questions about art, which they failed abysmally, so he was all for it.
The faculty began to accept it over the years, and absorbed younger people who had different rhythms, and it just evolved like that. There was another professor added in the late 1960s, but we ran into a problem when he decided not to try for his doctorate. Sam Spencer said, “We ought to have Herb and Laura for artists-in-residence.” I was pretty desperate and said “No, let’s have Herb teach!” That was a turning point for us.
Student interest in art rose with the increase in offerings that Herb brought. And all over the country there was an increased interest in art. When I came here, most colleges just had one art person. All this great stuff was happening in New York, but it hadn’t yet caught on in the rest of the country. Gradually colleges and more people became enthusiastic about art, and the prices went up!
Herb Jackson:
Though I was an artist from an early age, I came to Davidson to be premed. Money is a great convincer, and I was told I would be cut off and not sent anywhere unless I was going to be premed. Davidson was my free will choice, but medicine was definitely second on my list.
I had never seen the campus, and knew very little about it. When I arrived, part of freshman orientation was to walk the gantlet of the faculty. All the faculty and some of their wives and family lined up on the sidewalk headed toward Phi Hall, and you went along and introduced yourself. Being naturally shy, I was scared to death. I didn’t know who they were, and they all looked grand and austere and much older than me. We were wearing our beanies and a name tag, and when I got to Doug and Maggie, Doug said, “I know who you are!” I almost fainted! But he recognized that I had won a competition in Raleigh for one of my paintings. I was astounded anyone knew who I was, much less the art professor!
Houchens still paints regularly in his studio at his home in Davidson.
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Davidson didn’t have an art major at the time, and I ended up going Junior Year Abroad to Marburg and majoring in German. But I took every one of the four art courses that was offered—basic and advanced studio, and two art history classes. Doug was real kind to me, and mostly left me alone. He gave me supplies and was just over in a corner working away. He came over from time to time and talked with me about what I was doing, but mainly he just gave me a lot of freedom to grow. That’s one of the best forms of teaching, to let people grow.
Doug Houchens:
I don’t think any of my students except Herb went on to become famous artists, but I remember several of them strongly, like Alex Porter ’60 and Dabney Stuart ‘60, and still keep in touch with them. I remember Dabney would work long after class ended and wouldn’t let me go! He would ask my opinion as he went along, but then when he found something that he thought was right he would say, “That’s enough, don’t tell me now!” I worked very closely like that with students.
Laura Calhoun ’77 was another one I worked with closely. I’ll never forget, she brought in this painting and put it on the floor and I looked at it and I said, “Maybe we can do something about this.” And I took my brush and just started moving it around on her canvas. I was actually doing something unforgivable, but she liked it because it fit at the time. We would meet at the studio often outside of class and just work on her art.
It was an involvement. With studio you’re not up there to lecture and turn pages, it’s hands-on. In studio you can experiment with things.
Later I had this crazy notion about having a class make a movie. So I laid this film on the table and students started working on it, putting whatever they wanted on it. And they spliced that together with footage from a real movie I brought in. And it worked! Everyone in the class was enthusiastic, and they showed it at the Mint for a competition.
Herb Jackson:
I joined the faculty one year after I graduated, while I was working on my MFA at Carolina. They called and said they needed someone to fill in for two years because of a resignation and Doug’s sabbatical. We worked together for one year, then he was gone for a year in Majorca. The faculty passed the art major in 1970, my second year, while Doug was away. The tricky thing was that when Doug went on sabbatical they allowed us to hire an art historian, and the original idea was that I would leave, and the department would be Doug and the art historian when he returned. Then they said, “Well, Herb, you changed things so much, how about staying another two years to help us straighten things out?” So I said OK.
I had been introduced to the trustees in Charlotte as a “fill-in,” but then they hired me again, and here I am today! Doug and I worked together until he left in 1978. Our first goal was getting the major established, and when Doug got back from his sabbatical he introduced film making as a regular pursuit. And after that we had a new building as a goal. That was first promised to us in 1978, and it opened in 1993.
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