Message from President Kyle

Dear Alumni and Friends,

Universities are creative places. At Radford University, you can walk through the Covington Center,
Porterfield Hall or the nearby Art Annex and witness the creative process in all of its glory. In these studios and performance spaces, you can see students painting and sculpting or throwing pots. You might catch an award-winning faculty member presenting an evening recital or hear a musical piece being composed, measure-by-measure.

Elsewhere, aspiring actors rehearsing their lines for the semester play and students and faculty members exploring new frontiers in fashion and interior design help fill our campus with diverse creativity.

Alex Nyerges, Michael Schewel, and President Penelope Kyle

Alex Nyerges, Director of the VMFA; Michael J. Schewel, member of the VMFA Board and former Secretary of Commerce and Trade for the Commonwealth of Virginia; and Penelope W. Kyle, President of Radford University; enjoy the opening of “Van Gogh, Lichtenstein, Whistler: Masterpieces of World Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts” in the Radford University Art Museum.

Radford University has always been known as a center for the arts. When Barbara-lyn Belcher Morris ’66, who recently co-chaired our Centennial celebration, told us about an opportunity we had to collaborate with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) on a special exhibition as part of their 75th anniversary (and on the heels of our 100th anniversary), we immediately began planning.

It took more than a year to prepare, but the result was an historic exhibition that brought a collection of world-class art to the Radford University Art Museum in the Covington Center. Thousands of people from throughout western Virginia traveled to our campus to see the remarkable result, “Van Gogh, Lichtenstein, Whistler, Masterpieces of World Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.”

It was a fascinating and once-in-a-lifetime experience, and you can read all about it within the pages of this edition of The Magazine of Radford University.

The exhibition produced another result besides reminding us that anything is possible when we dream big and work together to achieve our goals. As is the case with the nature of artistic expression, it also inspired us.

When a team of Radford University employees met in mid-January to begin talking about a theme for this edition of the magazine, it became clear during the discussions that creativity does not exist solely in the fine arts. It is pervasive throughout the university community, and it is especially visible in the ever-changing world of information technology.

You can see creativity in this magazine in the recognition of recent faculty books and other works, in feature stories that showcase how Radford University people are using information technology to improve teaching and learning, and even in the story of an alumna who is playing women’s professional football.

Art stimulates the senses, broadens the mind and enriches the soul. But creativity does so much more.

Creatively yours,

Penny Kyle

President