Fine Arts Flourish

Less than two years ago, a parking lot stretched across the parcel of land at North College and Cleveland avenues. Today, the site is home to a two-story building that is providing students with the means to transform wood, clay, paper and metal into works of art.

Suzanne Austin Alchon, acting chairperson of the Department of Art, says the new art studio building surpasses its outdated predecessor in both space and design. Compared with the old, cramped buildings, which have been demolished, the new structure comfortably accommodates the ceramics, sculpture and printmaking areas, she says.

"This building is state-of-the-art," Austin Alchon says. "It has a sophisticated ventilation system, which is critical in these disciplines that work with a variety of chemicals."

In addition to more workspace, critique rooms on each floor display students' paintings and sculptures for grading by professors or for display in art exhibitions.

Pieces of equipment in the old building were "practically on top of each other," says Bridget Fairchild, AS 2003, an art history and painting major.

Working in the woodshop at the back corner of the building, Fairchild says that, with an average class size of 15, the new facilities provide room for all students to work on projects simultaneously. "It's great to be able to work while other people are working at the same time," she says, as she shapes a wooden toaster for a class assignment.

The building, however, is just icing on the cake, she says, noting that the education she is receiving goes beyond the mechanics of fine art. "The hands-on experience it takes to create three-dimensional objects helps you learn to figure things out on your own," she says. "New techniques and problem-solving skills are useful things to know."

David Meyer, assistant professor of sculpture, says the sculpture program is growing quickly, with about eight student majors this year. The program, he says, also performs a service to the community by offering beginning-level classes to non-majors during Winter and Summer sessions.

"Most people don't understand how important art is and what it does for society," Meyer says. "The classes allow people from the community to get an appreciation for the value of art."

Meyer's own contemporary style of sculpture is displayed nationwide. One granite and marble piece, which mourns the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, stands across the street from the site, and another piece is planned for Main Street in the city of Newark. However, Meyer says, one of the most rewarding aspects of working in the University's sculpture program is the creative prospect of viewing other sculptors' styles.

"I work with students from the beginning level to the graduate level, and it's nice to see them develop their own ideas and their own styles, not like my own," he says. "Some amazingly creative and hardworking students have made their way through the program, and it is so rewarding to watch my garden grow."

Diagonally positioned across the long hallway from Meyer's workspace, graduate student Melissa Parrott says she similarly looks forward to watching her beginning-level ceramics students develop their artistic identities.

Though ceramics is one of the larger fine arts programs, Parrott says, the old building had a limited number of aging potter's wheels, and its glaze and kiln rooms were filled to capacity. The new building, she says, has new potter's wheels, slab rollers and room for everyone to breathe: "It's great to teach a class and have people come in [to work on projects] without interrupting."

One floor above Parrott's ceramic wing, graduate student Kevin Shook instructs a busy "Introduction to Printmaking" class, where students learn such processes as lithography, papermaking, wood etching and screen printing. Shook says the eight undergraduate printmaking majors have chosen the perfect time to be a part of the program.

"This is one of the best facilities for printmaking in the United States," he says. "I've been all over the country, and most other printmaking schools only have one studio to teach and work in. Delaware has a different room for each different process."

The separate printmaking rooms span one side of the entire second floor, allowing room on the corners for exhibition space. Austin Alchon says the new space--for ceramics and sculpture as well as printmaking--will allow the faculty to continue to create innovative courses and the students to expand their abilities.

--Stephanie K. Whalen, AS 2003