Finding the Animal in Paradox and Parable was supposed to get a month's showing -- not the two days it will now be displayed.
Micaela Amato, professor of visual arts and women's studies, co-curated the exhibit and said she has been developing it over the past two years. She said the larger, more international exhibition she originally planned was significantly scaled back because of budget cutbacks in the university.
"I had been working on it for two years, getting permission from galleries across the country and getting really well-known artists from across the country," she said. "We had to scale it way back, but it will still be fantastic."
Amato said she has noticed "frustrating" budget cuts happening frequently throughout the School of Visual Arts during the past few years because of the failing economy.
"Each of the areas within the school has a budget for basic expenses," she said. "We never have anything left over. When our basic expenses are cut into, we are at a huge disadvantage. Everyone is suffering across the globe. I'm not complaining too much, just stating facts."
Joan Landes, professor of early modern history and women's studies, said she was very pleased with the way Finding Animals: Toward a Comparative History & Theory of Animals, the symposium organized in conjunction with the exhibit, turned out, and added she was grateful it was able to happen.
"I don't even know if we would be able to do this in the fall," said Landes, the group director for Visualizing Animals, the group that organized the event. "Our budget was affected, too. We're trying to work close to the bone in ways we didn't expect, but of course that's happening globally."
Charles Garoian, director of the School of Visual Arts, said budget cuts have occurred at the same percentage level across departments at the university.
He said the Finding Animals: Toward a Comparative History & Theory of Animals symposium received funds from the John M. Anderson endowment for the School of Visual Arts.
"Because of the economic downturn, we have less money to work with," he said. "We might not be able to allocate as much as we would like."
