A-State staff and community members break ground on Windgate Hall of Art and Innovation
Photo by Shelby Russom | Photo Editor

Arkansas State University broke ground for the new Wingate Hall of Art and Innovation building on Sept. 19

The new building, set to hold its first classes in fall of 2026, will be located just south of the Fine Arts Center and will become the combined home to art students and other disciplines such as engineering and computer science.

Chair of Computer Science, Jake Qualls, Ph.D., said connecting the Department of Art + Design and the College of Engineering and Computer Science opens the door for innovation.

“This collaboration will encourage our students to solve complex problems and create unique solutions that wouldn’t be possible within a single discipline,” Qualls said. “And in turn, they can push the boundaries of what is possible.” 

The Windgate Hall of Art and Innovation is set to be a 38,887-square-foot facility with several new spaces for students to be creative.

 Kathrine Baker, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Art + Design, said new spaces and equipment will allow students to explore their most expansive imaginings. 

“Thinking big in small spaces is nearly impossible,” Baker said. “We have often been hampered by the sizes we occupy. The Windgate Hall of Art and Innovation will allow us room to grow both as a program and what can be made.” 

Lake Summers, a junior studio art major from Cherokee Village, Arkansas, said they are looking forward to the new building because it will provide a bigger space with the proper utilities to safely experiment with new mediums. 

“We can’t use oil paints right now because there’s no ventilation in here, so it’s a safety hazard,” Summers said. “With the new building we are going to have the option of learning (the medium).” 

The addition of the three-floor building to the A-State campus has been made possible through the Windgate Foundation’s gift of $25 million to the university. 

Kipp Ellis, principal and science and technology leader at education and design firm Good Clancy said the building will be beautiful and well-connected to the history of the A-State campus. He said this will allow students and faculty to complete and present their artwork in ways that are not currently possible. 

“The building itself will be open and airy,” Ellis said. “It will extend invitations to connect the outside to the inside, and it will be more open and transparent, yet unpretentious and have an industrial ethos that allows all students and faculty that use the building to feel like they are very much works in progress.”

Abby Armstrong, a senior art history and museums studies major from Bay, Arkansas, said she is excited to see the program growing and gaining facilities. 

“I’ve never been a part of anything like this before,” Armstrong said. “To see my senior year that it is expanding as much as it is, and new students that I’m meeting now are getting to experience all of this once it comes to fruition, is really cool.” 

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