Kelli Plasket

College President R. Barbara Gitenstein, School of Arts and Communication Interim Dean Taras Pavlovsky and other members of the College community donned construction hats and shovels outside Loser Hall last Friday evening to ceremonially break ground on the new Art and Interactive Multimedia (IMM) Building.

“These spaces will provide our students and faculty with the infrastructure to continue creating the outstanding work that we have the great fortune to benefit from already,” Gitenstein said to attendees at the groundbreaking ceremony.

“Our community is enriched by the talents of the students and faculty, and I am pleased that the structure will further support their work,” she said.

Attendees included faculty and staff from the School of Arts and Communication, alumni, donors and student recipients of the President’s Scholarship and their parents.

The President’s Scholarship Reception was held shortly before the groundbreaking.

The three-story building, which is scheduled for completion in 2009 after 18 months of construction, will encompass approximately 70,000 square feet and feature various art studios, classrooms, faculty offices, computer labs, student art exhibit space, a darkroom and a multitrack recording studio, according to Pavlovsky.

The building contains amenities for the IMM program and for all the art programs at the College, which includes majors in fine art, digital art, art history, art education and graphic design, as well a minor in photography.

“As different as those names sound, the facilities are that different, too,” Pavlovsky said. “This building, once completed, will be the next step in establishing the (College) as the center for arts education in the state and beyond.”

The building will house four computer labs and a computing lab, an area with a moving wall that will provide students the space and amenities to collaborate and work with various mobile technologies, like robotics. It will also have a printmaking and a paper-making studio.

As part of the student art exhibit space, the hallways of the new building will include track lighting and accommodations for the display of various forms of student art.

The brick building, designed by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering, will also have an outdoor courtyard and a roof, which can be used for receptions, fundraising and other events, Pavlovsky said.

“It’s a gorgeous building. It’s really striking,” Chris Ault, assistant professor of interactive multimedia, said. “We’ve been working closely with the architects to come up with a building that fits in with the other architecture on campus, but also makes its own statement, and I think we’ve done that.”

Pavlovsky said the building meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification requirements to meet the College’s commitment to sustainability, making it a “green building.”

Earlier this month, the College opened bidding for a contractor for the new building, which brought in eight bidders, five of which were under the projected budget, according to Pavlovsky.

Ten days after the paperwork clears on the lowest qualified bidder, construction can begin, though the College will make sure construction does not interfere with May’s commencement ceremonies, Pavlovsky said. The building is scheduled to open in time for the Spring 2010 semester.

As noted in the April 2008 press release, the building will be located across from the Music Building and adjacent to Loser Hall and Lot 2A.

“The new Art and IMM Building is something that’s been in the works for years. It’s the product of a lot of careful planning, so we’re really excited to finally see it take shape,” Ault said.

Ruane Miller, professor of digital and fine art, has been advocating for the new building for many years. “Facility is a very important part of making art because we are so involved in the process,” she said, adding that the new building will be inspirational.

“Once they are in it, no one’s going to want to leave,” Ault said.

The School of the Arts & Communication, which changed its name last semester to accommodate the addition of the communication studies program, will continue to celebrate change this Friday with the “Festival of the Arts.”

The festival, which was organized by Pavlovksy and students in the communication studies event-planning course, will bring together the annual Thesis Exhibit for fine and digital arts majors and the annual Graphic Design Portfolio Review for the first time, Pavlovsky said.

The festival will also include an interactive exhibit and a film and video showcase of IMM and communication studies student work. It will culminate with an outdoor “Jazz Under the Stars” reception for its guests, which will include students and faculty, alumni, professionals from the art community and prospective students on May 2.

More information can be found at festivalofthearts.blogspot.com.