By Mike Andrews

The new year will bring in some new faces at Radford University’s Art Museum at the Covington Center, as RU announced an exhibit of  a painting by legendary artist Vincent Van Gogh.

Starting Friday and going  until March 4, 2011, students, faculty, staff and guests will be able to see “The Wheat Field behind St. Paul’s Hospital”, an oil on canvas painting by Van Gogh.

The university worked with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to bring the painting, as well as 27 other works of art from many periods and cultures to RU as a part of VMFA’s 75^th anniversary celebration.

Steve Arbury, Director of the RU Art Museum, worked with Dr. Richard Bay and Kim Cochran, RU Art Museum Registrar, to make the exhibition possible.

Renovations to the museum, including an improved climate control system, new lighting, and new flooring had to be made to prepare for the extensive exhibit. In addition to this, extensive security measures had to be taken to ensure the safety of the painting.

The museum upgraded the security system, adding new alarms, security cameras, and human monitors in the gallery when it is open to the public. Steve Arbury has complete confidence that the security features will be successful in keeping the paintings safe.

“There are contact alarms on the doors as well as motion detector alarms which means if you beamed in from outer space you would still set off the alarm.”

On a campus where it is often hard to get students to come out for various events, the RU Art department has already done nearly everything to reach out to not only the RU community, but the New River Valley community as well.

“An electronic invitation has already gone out to…approximately 10,000 people, and more announcements will be sent out to others through the Public Relations Office, the RU Foundation and Alumni Affairs,” said Arbury.

In addition to this, most of RU’s art classes will visit the exhibition and discuss it in class. RU currently has nearly 1000 students enrolled in art classes this semester.

Vincent Van Gogh is best known as an Expressionist painter and is considered one of history’s greatest artists.  He also suffered from mental illness, and cut part of his own ear off. One of his most popular paintings, “The Starry Night” is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

RU Art Museum hours are Monday thru Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.