Pokin Around: The painting of Carrington Hall that found its
way to building’s 2nd floor.
Steve Pokin – Springfield News-Leader:
An artist has to create art, right?
So painter Xuehua “Woody” Jin, a 2019 graduate of Missouri State University with a master of fine arts degree, looked out from the Campus Chinese Baptist Church on National Avenue, where he works part-time, and painted what he saw.
He painted historic Carrington Hall, with its stately four columns, and the college’s picturesque quadrangle in the foreground.
His canvas, approximately 3½ feet by 4 feet, now hangs in the hallway outside the college president’s office on the second floor of Carrington Hall.
Carrington Hall is Missouri State University’s first building; it was finished in January 1909, when the school was a teachers’ college with the scintillating name “Normal School No. 4.”
I can only assume that Nos. 1, 2 and 3 were taken.
William Thomas Carrington was the school’s first president.
Jin and his wife were both baptized at the Campus Baptist Chinese Church, where acclaimed MSU professor Wenping Qiu is a lay pastor. Both men are from China.
At MSU, Qiu says, he works for Smart but at the church, he adds, he works for the “Big Boss.”
It took Jin about a month to finish the painting. Qiu, who does cutting-edge grapevine research at MSU’s Mountain Grove campus, watched and admired.
Jin wondered: Who do I give my painting to?
He gave it to Qiu.
“I love art,” Qiu says. “I love painting. I took it home.”
For several months it hung in his Springfield home.
A grateful professor
One of the first things Clif Smart did after he was named MSU’s 11th president in October 2012 was agree that he and his wife Gail would pony up $250,000 — over several years — to create an endowed professorship in agriculture.
(Smart had been interim president since June 2011.)
Qiu was named to that agriculture professorship.
He held it from 2012 to 2019 and when I met him Friday afternoon in Smart’s office he made it clear that he is eternally grateful to the Smarts for making it clear early in his presidency that academics and research matter.
It’s not that Qiu was demoted after 2019. Endowed chairs routinely are rotated among professors.
Qiu, in turn, has given the painting to Smart.
“I knew he was coming over to our house,” Smart says. “But I didn’t know he was bringing this big painting.”
Qiu appreciates the generosity and the priorities of Smart and his wife.
“I just wanted to give this piece as my sincere appreciation to our president,” he says. “An endowed professorship is the highest honor you can give a professor. And that was my first impression of our new president and his vision for the university. I am inspired by what President Smart has done during his tenure here.”
So Smart took down the 10 black-and-white photos of the MSU presidents who preceded him. They were on the wall outside his office where Jin’s painting now hangs.
“I thought the painting was a better option for the university than the photos of the presidents and that far more people will be able to see it here,” Smart says.
Smart points out he is also a practical president regarding the endowed professorship.
“It helped keep him (Qiu) here,” he says. “We did not want to lose Wenping to the University of California at Davis, for example.”
It’s the land-grant schools like the University of Missouri that typically do world-class research, Smart says.
But what MSU is known for is its research in grapevine biotechnology. It’s the school’s calling card when it comes to research known worldwide.
The Smarts provided the funding; they were not involved in picking the recipient.
Smart says he and his wife are now committed to four more endowed professorships — to the tune of $250,000 each — over time.
I wasn’t a math major but I think that comes to a total of $1 million.
One of them will be in political science.
“I’m a political science major,” Smart says. (He is also an attorney.)
One will be in English.
“Gail is an English major.”
The other two will be in music and musical theater.
“We both love music and musical theater,” he explains.
These are the views of News-Leader columnist Steve Pokin, who has been at the paper for nine years, and over his career has covered everything from courts and cops to features and fitness. He can be reached at 417-836-1253, spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by mail at 651 Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65806