Open House will Honor Groutages

The Utah State University Alumni Association will host an open house honoring and celebrating the life and work of Harrison T. and Iva Lou Groutage. The open house is Sunday, April 26, from 4-6 p.m. in the David B. Haight Alumni Center at USU. The public is invited.

Harrison Groutage will be honored with an Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award for his outstanding service and contributions to his profession and to the artistic community. His work and Iva Lou’s quilts will be on display along with a slide show presentation of his paintings, sculptures and more.

 

This display will be available to the public on Monday and Tuesday, April 27-28, during the Alumni Center’s regular hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The open house is hosted by the Friends of the David B. Haight Alumni Center, a subcommittee of the Alumni Association, chaired by Bernice McCowin.

 

McCowin said the Professional Achievement Award is presented to a person who has demonstrated excellence in his or her professional career, and Harrison Groutage’s accomplishments certainly fit the criteria.

 

“Besides being a professor of art at USU for 32 years and Art Department head for 10 years, he is a very versatile artist whose work is included in more than 500 public and private collections throughout the nation,” she said. “Many of Cache Valley's homes and businesses have a Groutage painting or print on display.”

 

McCowin said it is important to remember that the group also is honoring Iva Lou Groutage, who is well-known for her prize-winning quilts, which will be on display at the open house.

 

The Lightwood Duo will provide the music at Sunday’s event.

 

Harrison T. Groutage was born in 1925 in Richmond, Utah. He received a bachelor’s of science from USU. While attending USU, Everett Thorpe and Calvin Fletcher were major influences for him. He attended Weber State University for a short period and then went to Brigham Young University. He studied under Glen Turner and in 1953 obtained a bachelor’s of arts at BYU. In 1954 he obtained a master’s of fine arts at the University of Utah where he studied under George Dibble. In 1955 he returned to USU to serve as a professor and department head of art for 32 years.

 

Harrison is widely recognized and honored in galleries throughout the nation for his artistic work in painting, printmaking, drawing and murals. His work is included in more than 500 private and public collections, and he has received more than 55 awards and honors. He has received awards from the National Watercolor Society, Snowbird Institute and the Springville Museum of Art.

 

Some of his awards include the Utah Heritage Foundation Award for significant and unique contribution to art and the Altro T. Hibbard Memorial Award for his painting “Mormon Country,” displayed in the National Academy of Design in New York.  In 1999 he received the Governor’s Award as Utah Artist of the Year.

 

In the 1960s Harrison and Alvin Gittins, of the University of Utah, took students from USU and the University of Utah to study and paint in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Since that trip, Harrison has had a fascination with Mexico, but it is the Utah landscape that he loves the most. He has worked from studios in Hurricane and Logan for more than 50 years.

 

Harrison is married to the former Iva Lou Pilkington, and they have three children.