by Virginia Guilfoile

North Carolina took the lead in a national campaign to revitalize the humanities more than three decades ago.

The effort began in 1973, when a planning committee convened by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences recommended the creation of a new, national institution to support advanced study in the humanities, improve teaching of the humanities and increase understanding of the humanities throughout the country.

Today, the National Humanities Center is the nation's only independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The building, made of brick and glass, is a living, working center of effort, a place where powerful forces converge to move forward the great enterprise of scholarship.

The design of the individual studies and the open spaces, the selection of each year's class of gifted scholars, the ability to reach people via public lectures, exhibits, publications and the Internet

each of these qualities enhances and extends the center's reach. The scholarship produced here spreads from this crucial center to shape the humanities, to strengthen them, and to give them a much needed voice in America's life.

The National Humanities Center has also become a forum for artists

from printmakers to photographers to painters and quilt makers -- who have exhibited on its walls over the past few years. Last year the center displayed work by New York photographer David Finn, whose exhibit "Lamentation: 9/11" reflected the grief associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; Hillsborough artist Ippy Patterson's drawings; New York-based and Chapel Hill-raised Michael Houston's multi-media works; and a colorful display of African fabrics on loan from two local collectors.

Most recently, John M. Hall, a New York photographer born in Mebane, brought his show to the center. Hall, a self-taught commercial photographer, pursues a career in architectural, interior and decorative art photography. To satisfy his imagination and curiosity, he has turned to the subject of nature, largely in the sphere of gardens. Many of his photographs on display featured the glorious gardens at Montrose in Hillsborough.

Through Dec. 19, the center will feature the work of another artist from Mebane, Roger Haile. His exhibit is titled "Art for Architecture: New Work." This body of work has evolved from a single image of a building whose windows were shattered as a result of Sept. 11, 2001, to a collection of images of reflection and aerial perspective.

Before moving to North Carolina in 1995, Haile lived in New York City for 22 years, always with a view of the World Trade Center, including a studio in the Tribeca neighborhood just north of the site.

Haile received a degree in art history from Yale, where he studied with Vincent Scully, George Kubler and Robert Thompson. Moving to New York City in the early 1970s, he began a career in photography and fine art. His New York exhibits include OK Harris Gallery, Landon Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney downtown. Haile currently has a studio in the former White Furniture factory in Mebane.

Beginning on Jan. 5, 2004, the center will feature another artist from New York City, Martin Mazzora. Mazzora, raised in West Virginia, received an undergraduate degree from West Virginia University and a master's in fine arts from American University in Washington, D.C. The artist uses images from both his Appalachian upbringing and his father's youth in Cuba to enliven his bold and abstract paintings.

Mazorra's works have been shown at the Ace Gallery in New York City; Smack Mellon Gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y; and Decatur Blue Gallery in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the Barnstormers Mural Project in Cameron.

The National Humanities Center welcomes visitors between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. All exhibits and lectures are free and open to the public and supported by the GlaxoSmithKline Educational and Cultural Outreach Endowment Fund. Anyone interested in a calendar of events or showing work at the National Humanities Center, contact Virginia Guilfoile at (919) 549-0661, ext. 161or email vrguilfo@unity.ncsu.edu for further details. Exhibit space has been committed through May 2004.