Centenary: A 36 Year Waltz
Submitted by Bruce Allen ’75
It was 1970, the end of my Junior year at Airline High School in Bossier City, and I was in a dilemma! I had just settled down to take my ACT test and there was the first question: "Where do we send your scores?" Up to that moment, it hadn't even crossed my mind to decide on a college. I only knew I needed to take the ACT to get in to one. Luckily, the proctor had written the names and codes for all the colleges and universities in the area on the (black) board (in chalk), so I had a choice.
This was my first visit to Centenary College. I had traveled about 100 yards on campus from Woodlawn Avenue to the basement of the library (probably the dreariest place on campus) to take my ACT test. Being an Air Force brat and growing up all over the world, I decided I didn't want to go someplace else AGAIN. So, I filled out the dots to make the code for Centenary College of Louisiana, and my fate was sealed!
Little did I know what that offhand act would lead to: a Frost Scholarship with full tuition and a BA in Art (’75); the first Scholarship Internship at the brand new Meadows Museum of Art and a BS in Math (’77); Rotary Fellowship (’80) to study Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Germany; a full ride Graduate Assistantship at the University of Wyoming Museum of Fine Arts and an MFA in Sculpture and Printmaking ('81); and finally to a 36 year waltz through Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, London, Xian, Lhasa, Beijing, Bangkok, Angkor Watt, Luang Prabang, Hanoi, Tokyo, San Francisco, Jack London Ranch, Cheyenne and back to my alma mater with students, faculty and staff who have been beloved and valued partners in that dance. I came back for the job I was dreaming about instead of doing my Differential Equations homework!
Photo Caption: (The image is from " 36 Year Waltz," Bruce Allen’s retrospective exhibition at the Meadows Museum in 2019. A recreation of his office in the Turner Arts Center with memorabilia from that glorious dance!)
