Husk-E-News, June 2008

When you walk into the Alumni Center today, you may be able to view several framed works by artist Ethel Garbus-Dewey '39. Mrs. Garbus-Dewey is an accomplished artist who describes her work as "a response to the world."

Ethel Garbus graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1939 with an A. B. in English and later married Arthur Dewey, Class of 1941, a friend and fellow graduate of Ethel's brother, Julius Garbus.

Mrs. Garbus-Dewey later earned her Master's degree in Art Education from the University of Hartford and taught in the Connecticut School System. She has worked in oil, watercolor, print media and sculpture, and has said about her art:

My work is a response to the world. If it seems beautiful to me, I want to record it. Figuring out how to do it, what colors to use, and how to compose it is part of the intellectual challenge. The doing of it gives me infinite pleasure. Each time I start a concept, I am compelled to bring it to an ultimate conclusion.

Mrs. Garbus-Dewey is a member of the Connecticut Watercolor Society, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, and Connecticut Women Painters. her work has been shown in exhibitions at the Unionville Museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the John Slade Eli House, the George Walter Smith Museum, the Slater Memorial Museum, the Washington Art Association, The New Britain Museum of American Art, the Pittsfield Museum, The Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, the E.T.C. Gallery, and now the University of Connecticut Alumni Association. She has worked in oil, watercolor, print media and sculpture.

On the sixty-ninth anniversiry of the Class of 1939, we congratulate Mrs. Garbus-Dewey on her artistic achievement. We extend our gratitude for her support of the University and for her carrying on the tradition of the arts as a teacher in the Connecticut School System.