In May, when we were considering our cover options for this issue, several appealing ideas came to mind. An early front-runner was The Dream Garden, the stunning 1916 mural based on a Maxfield Parrish painting. After a bitter legal battle, the mural remains in its original home, the lobby of the Curtis Building in Center City Philadelphia. The Dream Garden is composed of approximately 100,000 pieces of favrile glass to produce the effect of an oil painting and measures an imposing 15 feet high and 49 feet wide. What our graphic designer, John Maki, had in mind was to wrap the image around the magazine, using both front and back covers to present the mural.

Was The Dream Garden the best image available for this magazine? Maxfield Parrish, arguably the most famous artist ever to attend Haverford, never received a diploma. Certainly, that was not reason enough to keep The Dream Garden from gracing the magazine’s cover.

Or was it? When Maki pored over the dozens of images we collected for the magazine, one in particular caught his eye. The Interpretation of Color, Vincent Desiderio ’77’s 1997 oil painting, is moody and provocative—an apt representation of the issue’s
contents.

The arts play a quirky role at Haverford, leaving plenty of room for growth, both in program and in general stature within the community and region. As Ed Beem discovered when he spoke to alumni, administrators, faculty, and students for his story (page 15), there are wide-ranging opinions on the role of the arts at Haverford. It might take a long time for these views to coalesce into a full realization of the arts. When it happens, people like Bruce Colburn ’86, who found his artistic self at Haverford (page 7), will be grateful.

As for The Dream Garden, that’s another image, and another story, for another day.