University of New England

Former MECA dean to chair UNE Creative and Fine Arts Department

The University of New England has hired Greg Murphy of Portland, former vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Maine College of Art (MECA), as chair of UNE’s Creative and Fine Arts Department. Murphy started his new position in September.

The Creative and Fine Arts Department was created in 2001 as part of an expansion of liberal arts programs in UNE’s College of Arts and Sciences. The department currently offers an undergraduate degree in art education, but there are plans to develop majors in the fine and performing arts.

Paul Burlin, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, stressed the importance of the liberal arts at UNE.

"Employers look for people who can write, speak, think, and are both culturally and linguistically literate," Burlin said. "Bringing in someone like Greg Murphy with his many years of experience as an artist, teacher and administrator will enhance and strengthen UNE’s liberal arts program."

Murphy's Career
Before his position at MECA, Murphy spent the majority of his career in Canada, his native country. He has taught at universities all over Canada, from the Ontario College of Art and Design to the University of Saskatchewan to most recently at Georgian College in Barrie (near Toronto) as well as in the U.S., Japan and China. During his career he has also held the positions of dean, academic director, chair and department head at various schools. He earned his bachelor of fine arts at the University of Calgary and his master of fine arts at the University of Windsor.

Murphy has exhibited his work in group and solo exhibitions at galleries and art centers throughout Canada and internationally, including the U.S., England and even China and Korea. His work comprises mostly oil paintings as well as sketches and his focus ranges from figurative work to a more recent concentration in landscape painting. In most of his works, Murphy defines the landscape with the light that illuminates it. This method is reminiscent of the Luminists, a group of nineteenth-century artists who tried to uncover the divine in nature hence the title of one of his exhibitions, "Revisiting Luminism."

Murphy thinks the study of art goes beyond preparing for a career in the arts or being just a creative outlet.

"The world has become a visually-oriented place, so learning how we can use visual images even in other fields - for example, mapping an ocean floor or creating a biomedical research presentation - is a vital part of a student’s curriculum," he said.

(Press release issued Oct. 1 2005)