New address, new era for arts at UMass

The new state-of-the-art Studio Arts Building at UMass is one of the greenest buildings on campus.">

By OWEN BOSS

Staff Writer

AMHERST - The University of Massachusetts' new $26.5 million Studio Arts Building creates a permanent home for programs scattered across the Amherst campus.

The 47,000 square-foot building, which sits on the east side of North Pleasant Street near the Fine Arts Center, is designed to meet the needs of painting, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics with fully equipped instructional studios, individual and group studios, and space for the presentation and review of student projects.

Chancellor Robert C. Holub says the new building - dedicated on the 50th anniversary of the UMass art department - will stand as a testament to the university's dedication to fostering student development.

"The Studio Art Building's handsome design makes for an outstanding landmark at the entrance to our campus," Holub told those gathered for the dedication last week. "It provides a setting that cultivates the creative spirit, talent and pursuit of excellence that is so evident among our faculty and students."

Also speaking at the event Friday was Joel W. Martin, dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. He said he expects the larger facility will attract art students from across the country and will produce the artists and art of the future.

"It is a new day for UMass Amherst and the region. The campus has gained a state-of-the-art facility to support the creation of new art, to nurture new artists, and perhaps to foster new forms of art entirely," said Martin. "This gateway building will serve as a great talent magnet, bringing in the best faculty and students to Massachusetts for periods of intense work and development and sending them out to enhance the Commonwealth's creative economy."

Going green

The new three-story building is more than just a new attractive landmark; it is now among the greenest buildings on campus. Gund Partnership Inc., the company that designed the facility, used a number of sustainable building materials in the process including operable windows for natural ventilation and a variety of measures to conserve energy and water.

One member of the art department who had played an intricate role in the development of the new facility is Department Chair William Oedel, who said the building will help advance a program that had spent more than 20 years searching for a permanent location.

"The studio department here at UMass had formerly occupied 16 different buildings on campus, and we had to kind of beg for spaces over the last seven or eight years or so," said Oedel.

"If we did not have this new building, the studio arts department would wither. I don't know about expire, but without a building we would have lost our long-time position on campus and in the region," he said.

Adam Kelly, a senior majoring in painting at the college, said the new building provides aspiring artists with a much more stimulating work environment than the department's former location in "the art barn."

"Our old location down by the textbook annex was pretty dilapidated," said Kelly. "The whole department was pretty scattered before they built this and this is better than any building we have had in the past."

Although he is excited to use the new facility, Kelly said as a painter who has spent the last four years creating art in a barn, working in the new building will take some getting used to.

"The painters especially enjoyed the freedom of the old building because we wouldn't have to worry about messes and things like that and here there is still a kind of sterility to it," said Kelly. "It kind of looks like a hospital in here, we need the students to get to work so we can get some more work up on the walls and it will be fine."

Across disciplines

Aside for additional space, Professor John Simpson, who teaches drawing and painting at the college, said he expects the new facility will force students to develop their respective abilities by working in close proximity with other mediums.

"It is going to be great to bring students from all of their different spaces where people have been caught up in their own disciplines because in here they can see across disciplines and take inspiration from each other," said Simpson.

In addition to providing students with a new building, the project has also been credited with making the east side of campus safer for students.

To accommodate the building and address some traffic and pedestrian conflicts, the western end of Clark Hill Road had to be realigned and an extension of the pedestrian path system for the south and east sides of the Fine Arts Center has been implemented.

The celebration of the building continued throughout last weekend, with an open house and alumni barbecue held in the courtyard Saturday culminating in an anniversary toast to department founder Paul F. Norton and a studio art reception at the Herter Art Gallery.