18 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN Gans was the first woman hired as a tenure-track professor in the Department of Art and Architecture. It was 1981, and after working at other institutions, the young art school grad came to teach and create. At Lehigh, she wasn’t pigeonholed—she could teach both 2-D and 3-D and direct her own art studio practice, creating sculpture and drawings. She could pursue her interest in women’s studies and feminist issues. Gans became an advocate for the importance of art in a liberal arts education, which was the title of the graduation address she gave in 1988 in Packer Memorial Church at the invitation of former Lehigh President Peter Likins. “I love introducing students to art making. I think of art as a lifelong skill that one can always fall back on regardless of what their profession is,” she says. “I think the way I’ve shaped art education has been to put everyone in front of a diverse array of ideas and modalities. To show students there isn’t just one way to solve a problem and that we can learn so much from things that can go wrong and how to push through and keep going.” Gans’ optimism and passion influenced Stacie Brennan ’03, who is now the inaugural curator of education at Lehigh University Art Galleries, after spending five years as senior director of visual arts at ArtsQuest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her job at Lehigh is to create opportunities for both campus and community to engage with the collection and build visibility for the museum. Brennan came to Lehigh as a marketing major, but soon found she wanted to explore her love of art. As her advisor, Gans helped Brennan craft a dual-degree program that led her to a rewarding career supporting artists and connecting them with their communities. “She is someone who is so passionate and is able to help others find their passion,” says Brennan. “You can feel the creativity bubbling out of her.” One of Gans’ major contributions to Lehigh was advocating for every art professor to have one’s own studio. It took six years, her entire pre-tenure period, for her to finally get her own studio on campus, and though the space was cramped at first, she was able to create and work on campus in view of her students and colleagues. Gans also was pivotal in the development of the Women’s Studies program, now the Women, Gender and Sexuality program. As the first faculty director in 1991, she built the entry-level classes. She overlaps women’s studies with her art education, and is well known for her advocacy on behalf of women and social justice issues. In 2013, Gans became the Louis and Jane P. One of Gans’ major contributions to Lehigh was advocating for every art professor to have one’s own studio. Visual Arts LUCY GANS Lucy Gans was honored with her first major retrospective, “Reading Between the Lines,” in Fall 2023. MATTHEW BLUM
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