The shiny new faces on campus don’t belong only to freshmen & there are new teachers on campus, too.

Several new faculty members have been hired at the School of Art. Larry Gregory, assistant chair of the School of Art, is looking forward to working with the highly qualified professors.

“All of these people are results of a search, ” he said.

Gregory explained how badly the art department needed more teachers on staff.

“The main reason is we’ve had retirement over the years and difficulty finding people to hire and budgetary restraints in hiring new people, ” he said.

One new assistant professor is Billie Giese-Vella, who has extensive experience in drawing, Gregory said. Rebecca Houze, also a new assistant professor who is an art historian, who will teach classes on the history of art design. Houze will start in January.

Mary Stewart will be an associate director and also will work as coordinator of the foundation program. The program is a set of courses every art student takes their first year and includes classes such as drawing, design and art history survey classes. She is also an author and artist. Two of her works, “Learning to Swim” and “Labyrinth,” are currently on display in the Jack Olson Gallery in the Visual Arts building.

Ann Van Dijk will be an assistant professor in the art history division, where one focus will be on gothic art. Van Dijk already has goals set for the future of NIU’s art program.

“To help make it better, I’d certainly like to inspire my students in art history in general,” said Van Dijk.

To celebrate the new teachers and the Jack Olson Gallery Art Collection, a reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Jack Olson Gallery. Students and the public are welcome to attend to meet the new professors and artists who contributed works to the collection.

“I expect that most, if not all of the artists, will be here,” said Pete Olson, who arranged the works within the gallery.

For those unable to make it to the reception, or are anxious to see the art collection, the Jack Olson Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment.