Haverford's photographic past

Haverford College has the enviable distinction of having produced a tradition of active professional photographers among its alumni dating back to the 1870s.

That rich vein of accomplishment is in full view during this class-reunion season and beyond in the exhibit "A Century of Haverford Alumni Photographs."

It's the first overview of its subject. It also sets forth an unexplored chapter of Philadelphia photography, focusing on four individuals and one family.

Leading off are pictorial landscapes and natural-looking portraits (like that of a boy whittling) by John G. Bullock, Class of 1874, a local and international figure in his day and a member of the Photo-Secession movement led by Alfred Stieglitz.

It continues with the venturesome Vaux family of Bryn Mawr: George Vaux, Class of '84, William '93, their sister Mary, and George '30, naturalists and photographers of the Canadian Rockies whose groundwork aided science and art.

Edwin Rosskam '24 set the compass for the kinds of documentary photos of the urban and rural poor for the Farm Security Administration in the Depression and World War II. Peter Moore '55 documented performance art in New York with extraordinary vigor. And Andrew Borowiec '78 actively documents the Midwest and Gulf Coast and along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

A compelling and fascinating show organized by William E.Williams.

Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford. To Sept.21. Mon-Fri 10-4. Free. 610-896-1297.

Wallingford.

Been postponing a visit to Wallingford to see the Arts Center's new wing? Wait no longer.

Filling that grand space now is a wonderfully expansive, if nostalgic, display called "Sixty by Sixty" celebrating the center's diamond anniversary.

Featured are artists who exhibited or taught there, starting with a founder, Cyril Gardner,and early teacher Katharine Hayes,both traditional painters. It also includes prominent photographer Arnold Newman and gifted textile artist Lotte Kent,a Wallingford volunteer.

Keith Ragone's big pleasing abstract oil

Evening RAGA

is an up-to-date knockout. Steve Cope comes on strong with his oil

Large Orange Ball

. Encaustic paintings by Michelle Marcuse, Tremain Smith and Jeff Schaller recall a notable group show they shared, exploring that waxy medium. And Leo Sewell and Janet S.Turner tell it for found-object sculpture.

Not to be missed is Isa Barnett's vintage

Buffalo Hunt

. Noteworthy too are paintings by Randall Exon, Neysa Grassi, Tim Hawkesworth, Liz Osborne, Susan Pasquarelli, Rea Redifer and Bruce Samuelson and sculptures by Bill Freeland, Elfie Harris andJudy Ingram.

Community Arts Center, 414 Plush Mill Rd, Wallingford. To June 20. Mon-Thu 9-9, Fri 9-3, Sat 9-noon. Free.610-566-1713.

New Hope.

For the sixth straight year since its founding, New Hope Arts Inc. is hosting an indoor and outdoor juried regional sculpture show, now a Bucks County fixture.

Featured is work by 27 sculptors from six states in many styles, forming a lively miscellany. Its outdoor tally has reached 16 sculptors' works from seven states (a current high) at 15 locations along W. Bridge, Main and W. Mechanic Streets, and Union Square.

Wendy Kemperer of Brooklyn has two steel elk sculptures outdoors: a grazing noble

River Elk

on W. Mechanic, the other on W. Bridge. Mark Pettegrow of Point Pleasant and Gary Gresko of North Carolina are the only sculptors showing indoors and out.

Happily the art center has begun a $1.1 million capital campaign to upgrade its home, a former canal building, into a regional performing and visual arts center, with an endowment. Ambitious plans, worthy goal!

New Hope Arts Center, 2 Stockton Ave at W. Bridge St, New Hope. Indoors to June 14. Thu-Sun noon-5, Sat to 8. Free. Outdoors to April 30, 09. 215-862-9606.