The Mug Story

Aika Mukhambetova, Fall 2016 Gallery House, and Asa Maria Camnert, Fall 2016 Gallery House, finally receive their mugs

As DGT manages transition and transformation, from bright past to bright future, from pledging to the Gallery House Internship Program, the Mug Story merits sharing. A new generation wants and appreciates that mug. It appears some things change and somethings remain as shared joys and experiences across the generations, inclusive of members who received theirs in the 1950s and those who now receive them in the second decade of the 21st Century. As 'Bolero' played for a brief 10 minutes in the afternoon of January 27, to a seated and anxious audience of three, in a 'waiting' area on the ground floor, just before the Induction Ceremony, DGT alumni placed three mugs with newly printed membership certificates on a wooden ledge in the Chapter Room. Getting to the details of that moment was a pesky problem and the subject of much discussion between 2015 and 2018.  One could say that long discussions are still a feature today.

The long and short of it, is that the sources of the old mugs, as well as available sizes and design defied any intention of continuing the use of the mug traditionally selected by DGT, going back to the 1950s. The issue of designing the graphics for a new one that made some respectful homage to the past -- one that would look right next to the older ones -- made for interesting discussion to say the least. Our 'connection' with one another survived that three-year-long tug of war. Best of all, just before the Induction Ceremony, it was discovered that a box full of the new mugs had unexpectedly arrived just in time to hand them out to Gallery House graduates from the past three years as well as those about to be celebrated as new undergraduates, voluntarily opting to be members of DGT committed to support the continuation of the Gallery House Internship Program.