CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The School of Art + Design has announced that Billie Jean Theide, program leader in metals and the chair of the crafts program, has been named the first James Avery Endowed Chair in the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the U. of I. The Avery Chair, the first college-wide endowed chair in FAA, was established with a $1.5 million gift from alumnus and entrepreneur James Avery.
Avery’s gift was made in honor of former art and design faculty member James Ross Shipley, also known as “Coach,” who mentored Avery in the industrial design program at Illinois. Shipley retired as director of the department of art, now called the School of Art + Design, in 1977. He died in 1990.
“Billie Jean Theide is ideally suited for this honor,” said Robert Graves, the dean of FAA. “She is respected as an artist, as a valued member of the university community and as a teacher. She takes her role as an instructor very seriously and, like Jim Shipley, Theide is making enduring investments in Illinois students. Her work in metals makes her selection as the inaugural James Avery Chair particularly meaningful since Avery’s gift was made possible through his success in creating fine jewelry.”
Theide, who has served on the school’s faculty since 1985, earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Drake University and a master of fine arts degree from Indiana University. Her numerous honors include a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and five Artists Fellowship Grants from the Illinois Arts Council.
Theide’s creative work has been included in 400 invitational, competitive, group and one-person exhibitions and is part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; the Evansville Museum of Art in Indiana; the Muzeum w Walbrzychu in Walbrzych, Poland; the Muzeum Miejskie we Wroclawiu in Wroclaw, Poland; and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.
Earlier this year, the U. of I. honored Theide with an Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Theide was named National NICHE Art Educator of the Year Award in 2006 by NICHE magazine, a trade publication for retailers of American craft. The award recognizes educators who demonstrate an unwavering dedication to the promotion of the arts through the cultivation and encouragement of emerging American craft artists at U.S. and Canadian art programs and institutions.
Theide was nominated to be the first holder of the Avery Chair by a college committee and endorsed by the School of Art + Design’s executive committee. Her nomination also was supported by a campus-wide committee administered through the Office of the Provost.
Avery, a 1946 graduate of the industrial design program in the School of Art + Design, was born in Milwaukee and raised in the Chicago area. He taught at the universities of Colorado, Iowa and Minnesota before starting a jewelry design and production company, James Avery Craftsman Inc., which grew into a multimillion-dollar corporation.
An investiture ceremony for Theide was held Thursday (Sept. 30) at the Temple Buell Architecture Gallery on campus, followed by a reception in downtown Champaign.
