By: Matt Williams | Staff Writer

Last fall, Arkansas State University opened their new and improved facilities for the Department of Art and Design. Plans are in place to continue moving forward with improvements.

The Windgate Center for Three-Dimensional Arts, a new building not far from the Fine Arts and Humanities buildings, now houses the department’s ceramics and sculpting classes. 

According to a press release from Arkansas State University, the new building is 16,818 square feet, and has an additional 5,000 square feet of outdoor working spaces. It features ceramics workspaces, kilns, a foundry for castings, a woodworking lab, work and studio spaces for students and indoor and outdoor spaces where students, faculty and visitors can display their art. 

The total amount of available workspace at the Windgate Center is more than three times that of the Fine Arts Annex, a Depression-era building that formerly housed the three-dimensional arts program.

The new center is named after the Windgate Foundation, a private grant-making organization based in Little Rock whose $6.7 million endowment funded the construction of the new facilities. The foundation has donated to visual arts programs at many colleges and universities throughout the United States. 

According to their website, their primary goal is to “advance contemporary craft and strengthen visual arts education in the United States.”

The donation was the largest single gift to the arts at that point in school history. However, the record was broken again when plans were announced last December for a $25 million challenge gift from the foundation to assist in the construction of the new Windgate Hall of Art and Innovation. 

“The goal of the Windgate Hall of Art and Innovation is to create new curriculum that fuses together art, science, design and innovation,” said former chancellor Dr. Kelly Damphousse. “Whether it is a bridge, a building, or a business plan – when it is excellent and elegant, we call it ‘a work of art.’”

The new building will act as a place for collaboration between art, engineering, business and other disciplines. It is planned to be part of a new Arts and Innovation District on A-State campus. 

The district will feature art walks and display areas, as well as a new outdoor amphitheater that is planned to serve as a classroom space, concert venue and as a space for collaborative projects. While a timeline for the project has not yet been determined, these plans are part of the University’s five-year strategic plan “Discover 2025” that was approved in late 2020.

Categories: News