The Stark Center for the Moving Image in the Liberal Arts provides a worthy home for Conn’s growing Film Studies Program
With a snip of the ceremonial ribbon on Saturday, Oct. 28, Connecticut College officially opened The Stark Center for the Moving Image in the Liberal Arts, a 2,500-square-foot vibrant new home for Film Studies funded by a $1.5 million gift from The Fran and Ray Stark Foundation.
“The Stark Center for the Moving Image in the Liberal Arts serves as the first-ever centralized social and academic hub for one of the fastest-growing majors and fields of study at the College,” said Professor of Film Studies and Chair of the Film Studies Department Ross Morin ’05. “It allows Conn to offer, for the first time, our own state-of-the-art editing lab, a versatile production studio and an advanced film studies seminar room to enable our students to pursue their creative and scholarly visions in the Department of Film Studies.”
Located in one of Conn’s longest-standing buildings, Hillyer Hall, the Stark Center seamlessly folds the high-tech into the College’s existing architecture. Established as the campus’s first social space in 1917, Hillyer is also home to the Tansill Black Box Theater, providing ample opportunities to bring Film Studies and Theater faculty and students together in new ways for creative thought and collaboration.
Professor of Film Studies and Chair of the Film Studies Department Ross Morin ’05 led visitors on a tour of the Stark Center for the Moving Image in the Liberal Arts.
The new Stark Center features:
A flexible production studio space that allows faculty to teach all the fundamentals and advanced techniques of motion picture production.
Student access to an impressive array of professional cinema lighting, a professional dolly with track, a 12-foot crane, camera gimbals, Glidecams and shoulder-mount rigs, wireless audio kits and 16mm film cameras.
An editing lab that serves as a teaching space, an active lab for student film projects, and a screening area for students to screen works in progress and completed work for class critique.
An equipment room to store high-quality professional cinema equipment.
A renovated lobby that provides ample space for students to gather for study or for a more informal exchange of information and ideas.
The centrally located facility continues a strong history of support for Film Studies at Conn by the Stark Foundation. While Film Studies was first introduced as a minor in 1989, a $300,000 grant from the Stark Foundation in 2002 allowed the College to develop a film studies major integrating film theory, criticism and production and providing students with a sophisticated understanding of mediated imagery as it relates to our increasingly image-saturated culture. Additional grants from the Stark Foundation totaling more than $600,000 have supported the Stark Distinguished Guest Residency in Film Studies, which brings leading scholars and filmmakers to campus for intensive engagement with students.
“As one of the taglines of the program states: Studying film at Conn is like film school, but better, because it is where a critical theoretical lens, interdisciplinary engagement, and larger questions of self and society meet first-rate filmmaking opportunities,” Dean of the Faculty Danielle Egan told the audience of students, faculty, staff, trustees and friends of the College gathered at the ribbon cutting and dedication event.
“The new Stark Center for the Moving Image provides our students something we could not have imagined when the program began 21 years ago: state-of-the-art production and viewing spaces where students can think, create and critique their work. It will change our students’ thinking, analyzing and producing … It will change their understanding of Film Studies in powerful, powerful ways.”
Following the ribbon cutting, guests were invited to tour the Stark Center and attend “Respecting the Audience,” a spotlight discussion between Morin and screenwriter, television producer and emeritus trustee Kevin Wade ’76.
Allison Gorsuch Corrigan ’03 and her mother, Wendy Stark Morrissey P’03, who serve as directors of the Stark Foundation and have been instrumental in the Foundation’s support of the College, were guests of honor at the opening celebration. They were given the honors of cutting the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the new facility and were presented with a framed plaque commemorating the dedication.
The event also included remarks by Board of Trustees Chair Debo Adegbile ’91, Morin and Taylor Austin ’24, a film studies major and chair of the Film Studies Department Student Advisory Board. Following the ribbon cutting, guests were invited to tour the center and attend “Respecting the Audience,” a spotlight discussion between Morin and screenwriter, television producer and emeritus trustee Kevin Wade ’76.
During her remarks, Austin described how she and her fellow film studies students are already using the Stark Center to create, innovate and inspire.
“My peers and I can feel that this space is designed for us and for the collaborative nature of the work that we do in all of our courses,” Austin said. “Our faculty and staff have a keen understanding of what students want and need out of a film studies hub, and have executed this vision perfectly. I’m so grateful that so many students will get to enjoy the space for years to come.”
Film students work with Professor Ross Morin ’05 in the new Stark Center. Amira Hakimi ’05 practices motivated camera movements in early October as part of her “Tools of Motion Picture Production” course.
