HARRIS BARRON

BARRON, Harris Artist and Teacher Harris Barron, 90, passed away on October 22 at his Brookline Village, Massachusetts home surrounded by his loving family. Harris was a noted artist and teacher. Born in Boston, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor at the end of World War II. Harris graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1954 where he majored in ceramics. It was at Mass Art that he met his wife, Ros. Following college, Harris's artistic career spanned many genres including pottery, sculpture and performance works. His sculpture and performance works have been presented at many venues in this country and abroad, including: The Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Institute of Contemporary Art; The Children's Museum; Boston Film & Video Foundation; The Artist's Foundation, Boston; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Portland, ME [Purchase Award], as well as at universities, including lectures—Harvard, MIT, Brandeis, University of Colorado, University of Utah, Ohio State University—the Bertha Schaefer Gallery and Automation House, New York City; Ward-Nasser and Kangas Galleries, Boston; Kenneth Taylor Gallery, Nantucket [First Prize]; and in Brussels; Rotterdam; and USIA and UNESCO exhibitions, as well as the Art in US Embassies Abroad program—US Department of State. Architects such as Walter Gropius, H. Morse Payne, Norman Fletcher, Hugh Stubbins, Percival Goodman and others, including The Columbus Indiana School Foundation, have collected and commissioned many of Barron's large-scale sculptures for major public buildings at sites including San Francisco; Columbus, Ohio; Wilmington Community Center, Delaware; Choate School, Wallingford, & West Hartford Community Center, Connecticut; Manchester, New Hampshire; Parkside School, Columbus, Indiana; Pittsfield and Fitchburg Savings Banks; YMCA Roxbury, Boston, and Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts; and Paris, France with national awards from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development; American Institute of Architects; and others. Barron's work has been included in Modern American Sculpture, by Dore Ashton, H. Abrams, NY, pub.; Le Baton dans Lard Contemporizing, Editions du Griffon-Neuchâtel, Suisse, pub.; and periodicals [NY Times; Boston Globe; Art News; Architectural Record; National Geographic. His work has been supported by The Rockefeller Foundation; The Goethe Institute; The Guggenheim Foundation; The New York State Council for the Arts; The American Federation of Information Processing Societies; Irwin Miller-Cummins Engine Foundation; WGBH-Ch. 2, Boston; Blanche Coleman Foundation; Aileen Vanderbilt Webb and other private grantors. In 1968, Barron, along with his wife Ros and Alan Finneran, launched ZONE, a ground-breaking performance art innovation that staged shows at Brandeis University, MIT [Computer Theatre], and a multi-campus tour of the State University of NY [SUNY] system, and The Guggenheim Museum among other venues. In 1970, at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, Harris founded and directed The Studio for Interrelated Media [SIM], a celebrated, pioneering department employing late 20th century technology [sound, light, image, motion] stressing space-time arts of ideas. He was appointed initial chairman of the new Department of Media and Performance Art, which evolved from the SIM development. In 1988, Harris retired from Mass Art as professor emeritus after a 23-year teaching career. A prolific writer, under the pen name, Eagle Air, Harris has written Spaces in the Air; numerous short stories and poems, as well as a memoir, The Birth of Eagle Air. Since his early childhood, Harris had a passion for flying and all things related to aviation. Since 1935 he loved designing, building and flying complex "miniature" aircraft including radio controlled planes and for many years flew gliders and instructed as a member of the MIT Soaring Association. One of the highlights of his life was a week flying cross country from Massachusetts to California [with pilot Frank Scarabino]—in a 1936, open-cockpit Stearman biplane. Harris is survived by his wife of 64 years, Ros, daughter, Becky Barron, son in-law, Brian Pesetsky, granddaughter, Edan Rain Pesetsky and grandson, Zachary Harris Pesetsky, all of Brookline Village; son, Matt L. Barron and his partner, Anne Wiktor, of Chesterfield, MA; and nieces, Lisa Barron of Singapore, Cristie Barron of Lenexa, KS, Laurie Barron of Orlando, FL, Kerry Barron of Fort Lauderdale, FL, Bobbie Friedman of Phoenix, AZ, and Roni Friedman of Chicago, IL. Remembrances may be made to Harris Barron Scholarship of Massachusetts College of Art and Design Foundation, Inc. Please contact Hillary Babick, Assistant Director of Annual Giving at hbabick@massart.edu or 617-879-7771. A memorial service for Harris will be held in January.

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