Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Special Collections and Digital Complex Dedication Held in Bracken Library

The Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Special Collections and Digital Complex on the first floor of the Alexander M. Bracken Library was dedicated at 11:00 a.m. on August 17, 2009. The 30-minute ceremony included remarks from Ball State President Jo Ann Gora, Vice President for Information Technology Phil Repp, Dean of University Libraries Arthur Hafner, and Mr. Martin Schwartz.
The event was attended by Schwartz family members and friends and members of the Libraries and University administrations. Following the dedication ceremony, which included a short tribute video recognizing the Schwartz family for their long history of support of Ball State University and especially the University Libraries, guests toured the facility to see demonstrations of the technology and resources available in the areas of the Digital Complex.
The Schwartz Digital Complex is an innovative, collaborative, and interactive learning and teaching environment dedicated to serving the educational advancement of Ball State University students. This technology-rich facility in Bracken Library was made possible by a generous gift from Martin Schwartz in honor of his late wife, Helen.
In her remarks, President Gora said, “None of this would have been possible without the vision and philanthropic support of Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz.” According to Vice President Phil Repp, the Schwartz Digital Complex will be “Ball State’s connection to the world, as well as the world’s connection to our unique collections, the kind of collections that Helen and Martin worked so hard to recognize and preserve.”
The Schwartz Digital Complex will provide a space that digitally connects students and faculty to the numerous digital media assets and special collections available through the University Libraries. It will be a place for students and faculty to reach across the globe to better understand the stories and customs of world cultures through digital media.
While making available the University Libraries’ rich array of digital media assets and special collections, the Complex also will provide access to media from around the world — a digital “newsstand” that provides access to international media, broadcasts, podcasts, and multimedia. It will be a global gallery that provides students and faculty with a media-rich gateway to connect visually and aurally to the artifacts that form the world’s cultures and societies. The Complex will also serve as an innovative and flexible space for fostering an undergraduate research culture.
The official opening of the Schwartz Digital Complex will be on September 17 as part of the first in a five-part series of Tech4U events sponsored by Information Technology and hosted in Bracken Library. The September 17 event will run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and is open to the public.
Copies of the DVD of the dedication ceremony and tribute video are available for viewing in Archives and Special Collections, and will soon be available on the University Libraries’ Web site, www.bsu.edu/library.
For more information, contact John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Varga Sculpture Donated to Ball State Libraries

Students, faculty, alumni, and visitors to the Alexander M. Bracken Library are now able to see and study a work of art depicting an important part of the history of the Jewish people and the Holocaust.

Martin D. Schwartz, local businessman and philanthropist, donated a bronze sculpture by Hungarian artist Imre Varga, perhaps Hungary’s best-known contemporary sculptor, entitled Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest. The work is one of nine smaller versions created by Varga from the original work found in Budapest that was erected on a small patch of grass beside a roadway on the Buda side of the Danube River.

Raoul Wallenberg (August, 1912 – July 17, 1947) was a Swedish humanitarian sent to Budpest under diplomatic cover to rescue Jews from being sent to death camps in the later stages of World War II. He issued them protective passports from the Swedish embassy that identified the bearers as Swedish nationals awaiting repatriation.

Wallenberg was arrested on January 17, 1945, by order of Soviet Deputy Commissar for Defense Nikolai Bulganin. In 1957, the Soviets responded to diplomatic pressure and announced that Wallenberg had died of a heart attack in 1947 in Lubyanka prison in Moscow, but that has been disputed.

Sculptor Imre Varga was born in Hungary, November 1, 1923. He served as an air officer in World War II and returned to Hungary from captivity in 1945. He has won many awards for his work over the years and his work has appeared in numerous European museums.

Varga said of the Wallenberg sculpture that it served dual purposes. First it is a tribute to Raoul Wallenberg who Varga said “showed the way of honesty, the way of real heroes.” The other reason was more personal. Varga’s former professor, and later friend, Pál Pátzay, made the first Wallenberg monument and Varga made the second.

The sculpture was given by Mr. Schwartz in honor of his late wife Helen. They acquired the work of art when they were in Budapest around 1987 when the original monument was erected. It resided in their home until he recently gave it to the University Libraries.

The bronze sculpture is 25.5 inches in height by 16.5 inches in width and 12.75 inches in depth. It is currently on display outside of the Archives and Special Collections on the second floor of Bracken Library. When the Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Special Collections and Global Digital Complex is completed on Bracken Library’s first floor sometime during Spring Semester 2009, the sculpture will be located in that space.