A $250,000 gift from Frederic C. and Jane Hamilt will fund the hosting of two artists per year at the School of Art and Art History (SAAH) for the next five years.

SAAH hosted New York ceramics artist Walter McConnell last week April 4-9.

McConnell is chair of the ceramics department at Alfred University in New York.

He worked with students in ceramics classes at DU, giving feedback and critiques, as well as involving them in a ceramic sculpture installation he is completing at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) over the past two weeks.

McConnell also gave a talk on his work at the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery on Thursday evening as a part of his visit.

The visiting artists will participate in classes, demonstrations, workshops and lectures during their time at DU, and each will complete an installation or project at the Denver Art Museum (DAM). Student will have the opportunity to be involved the installations and displays.

“Our students will have close contact with a wide variety of amazingly productive and successful professional artists, said M.E. Warlick, director of the SAAH.

“Each artist will bring new projects and new areas of expertise to our students, who will also learn a great deal about being successful professional artists from our visitors.”

The first artist to visit was Steina, an electronic media artist, who was at DU Feb. 14-28. Students in the Electronic Media Arts and Design (eMAD) program worked closely with Steina on digital programming. They also were able to work with her husband Woody Vasulka, who was at DU as a Marsico Visiting Scholar.

During her time here, Steina recreated one of her most important performances of the 1970s.

Steina, a professionally-trained violinist, electronically linked a violin to several video clips. When she played the instrument, she changed and manipulated the images on the video with the different notes.

The performance also involved showing a video that she had recorded in this way in the 1970s, as well as natural images she has drawn from Iceland and the American Southwest.

Student reaction to Steina’s visit was very enthusiastic, said Warlick.

The establishment of the program included the creation of four new internships for students to work as assistants to each artist during his or her stay.

Faculty members are also pleased, as each professor in the school will eventually host a visiting artist, and will benefit from the interactions and exchanges, she said.

The visiting artist program was designed to reinforce the links between DU and the DAM, as well as giving students the opportunity to learn from a wide variety of professional artists.

“The goal is to strengthen the traditional bonds and official link between the University of Denver and the Denver Art Museum by inviting nationally-renowned artists to Denver to participate in projects at the Museum and at the same time to interact with students in the School of Art and Art History,” she said.

The next artist visit is scheduled for winter quarter 2012, but no one has been selected.

Over the next five years the school is hoping to invite artists whose works include painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking and drawing.