Twenty-five years to the day after the Berlin Wall came down in world-changing fashion, the University wrapped up its nearly year-long celebration of one of the most iconic events of the 20th Century with a special ceremony held in front of the panels of the Wall that have become a temporary and meaningful part of the landscape on Grounds. Oklahoma City-based art collectors Robert and MeiLi Hefner, the founders of the Robert & MeiLi Hefner Foundation and The Hefner Collection, who loaned the four 4x12 feet graffiti-adorned panels to the University, joined U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan, Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa, and other dignitaries for a ceremony attended by students, faculty, University officials and community members. “The Berlin Wall was torn down by people who were acting on the principles of freedom and human rights,” President Sullivan said. “Therefore it is very appropriate that a portion of the Berlin Wall has stood at the University of Thomas Jefferson, who defined a new republic based on those very same principles more than 200 years ago.” The event wrapped up the Berlin Wall Symposium, which included a series of lectures, events, and presentations built around the political and cultural impacts of the events surrounding and following the toppling of this symbol of oppression, including the unique role of the arts in interpreting and communicating that impact. Highlights included W\E: a Theatrical Piece of the Wall, an original production written, produced and directed by interim Drama Department Chair, Colleen Kelly and playwright and professor, Doug Grissom and Rock and the Wall: American Music as Rebellion in East Germany, a lecture by Grace Hale, U.Va. Professor of History & Director of the American Studies Program.