Dodd graduation coin

Honestly, we have so many fantastic stories from around Franklin every single day, it's easy to get used to. But this is just cool: graduates of the Lamar Dodd School of Art will receive a commemorative graduation coin at commencement this afternoon, made at the Dodd, by faculty and students at the Dodd, for graduates of the Dodd:

Graduates of the Lamar Dodd School of Art will receive a commemorative medallion at the May 6 commencement ceremony. The medallion, a coin cast in white bronze, designed by jewelry + metals professor Mary Hallam Pearse, and manufactured in the jewelry studios with the help of students, is an heirloom gift to graduates.

“[Dodd director] Chris Garvin approached me and said he wanted a keepsake to present to our graduates at commencement,” Pearse said. “It’s something in alignment with my research interests, because jewelry has traditionally been given as a gift and it marks moments in time and at the same time it is also a signifier of so many different things and humanizing exchanges. So it’s appropriate in that the coin marks this rite of passage.”

Athens-based designer Donald Cope, who assisted in all aspects of the design, initially drew the coin in a 3-D software program. One side of the coins has an aerial view of the Lamar Dodd School of Art main building; the opposite side has a map of Athens, with the Dodd at the lower right. A legend is included in the presentation packaging, designed by Eileen Wallace, lecturer in the school of art.

Great idea, director Garvin, and nice work by Mary Pearse and her jewelry + metals students.