BELK ENDOWS
ECU ART FOUNDRY

    Irwin Belk, longtime friend and supporter of East Carolina University, has endowed the School of Art sculpture foundry with a $100,000 gift. As a result of the pledge, the foundry has been named the Irwin Belk Foundry.

    The foundry, in the Jenkins Fine Arts Center, consists of a foundry room, work spaces, a moldmaking room and a kiln yard where artists can cast piece molds, flexible molds, waste molds and sand molds in a range of materials. Carl Billingsley, associate professor in the School of Art and coordinator of sculpture, said the Belk endowment will allow the university to make physical improvements to the foundry that will make it "one of the finest in our region and most significant in our state."

    Michael Dorsey, dean of the school said, "Mr. Belk recognizes the need to support this foundry as a professional artist's studio. With his wonderful assistance, our area is currently being upgraded to allow it to execute large-scale castings. This will mean even more new and exciting opportunities ahead for our program.

    A Charlotte native, Belk has commissioned various monumental sculptures at universities and centers across the country. Last year, he and his wife, Carol, established the Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professorship in Art at ECU.