Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

In Becoming an Arts Beacon, UA Refurbishes a Landmark

5 min read

Shortly after Jeannie Hulen was named chair of the Department of Art at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 2009, she made a prophetic statement.

Hulen was addressing colleagues at the 60th anniversary celebration of the Fine Arts Building, the 116,000-SF facility designed by world-renowned architect Edward Durell Stone, a Fayetteville native.

The building was constructed in 1950 to house multiple disciplines such as architecture, music, theater and art, but its glamour had waned over the years.

“At that time I had said I want us to become the beacon of what is valuable in the arts,” Hulen said.

“Little did I know we would be where we are today. I was optimistic that people would understand the value of what we had to offer and also the value of this facility.”

Hulen’s ambition to promote the learning of art at the university received an enormous boost this summer when the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation gave the school a $120 million gift, a quarter of which will be used to renovate Stone’s midcentury work.

The endowment was the result of years of work and painstaking planning by Hulen and other university officials; the university’s Department of Art had become the School of Art the previous year, but that wasn’t officially announced until the Walton gift could also be revealed.

When the UA announced the donation, it said the Walton money would be used in many ways with three specific goals. The money would be used for scholarships and grants for students, for outreach programs and partnerships and expanding graduate and undergraduate degree programs.

Hulen is now the associate dean of Fine Arts and the interim director of the School of Art and said the $120 million provides “substantial security” to the budding college. She said financial stability is a critical need for arts programs because of the nationwide trend of funding cutbacks.

“The biggest part is the stabilization of our funding sources in times where state legislatures are reducing that support across the country,” Hulen said. “When that happens, arts tend to be the ones that lose the most. The other major, major, major, major point is we have a tremendous amount of money to support students. It calls to the importance of supporting students first.”

Building Bricks
Jay Huneycutt, the director of Campus Planning & Design with the university’s Facilities Management, said approximately $30 million will be spent to renovate and restore the Fine Arts Building, the architectural gem on Garland Avenue. It houses the School of Art’s administration, two theaters, a gallery and classrooms.

Huneycutt said the center is in great condition structurally and that most work done would be on the interior.

“We’re looking at a fairly full complete renovation and restoration of the building itself,” Huneycutt said. “The building has good bones. I don’t know if you would notice that much difference from the outside. We’re looking at classroom restoration as well as offices.”

Huneycutt said the university expects to begin the design phase in the spring of 2018 with construction expected to get underway a year later. Huneycutt said he would expect the construction phase to last 20 to 22 months.

When she became chair, Hulen said, the arts department was housed in two buildings on campus. The School of Art is in six buildings now, with a seventh on the way, and having a centerpiece — especially one designed by a star architect — is good for the brand.

Hulen said visiting architects routinely asked her when the university was going to renovate the building because of its importance to Stone’s legacy.

“The Fine Arts Building is an Edward Durell Stone building, and he as an architect and this facility itself is so valuable to the history of the state of Arkansas,” Hulen said. “It is so valuable to the architectural history of this country. It was written up all over the world. It needs to be renovated. We have had no substantial renovation that actually would put it back in its pristine place and value it for an architectural landmark.”

Meeting Place
The Fine Arts Building is not just a visual brand but an actual vibrant part of the education program. The facility has the Fine Arts Library, a gallery, a theater and the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.

Hulen said her wish is to see the building’s lobby, which currently houses the gallery, renovated to become a social gathering destination. She wants the Fine Arts Building to be a place of learning and a meeting place.

“It needs to be a space that everybody wants to come to,” Hulen said. “We are required to do public performances and exhibitions. We can’t educate our students or do our jobs if we’re not getting into the community or the community isn’t coming to us. We want this to be an academic building that the community is a part of. That’s not what you need in math.”

Hulen joked — perhaps half-joked — that the concern now was the College of Art’s growth might even outpace its current financial security. Eight years ago, there were 200 undergraduate and graduate students; now there are 400, and the number of freshmen grew from 67 to 94 in just one year.

“I think 80 million people know about this gift; our recruitment and interest has gone up,” Hulen said.

Hulen said the increased interest was another result of the department graduating to new status as a School of Art. She said the distinction was important for the future growth of the college, which will compete against art schools such as the Kansas City Art Institute and the Chicago Art Institute, as well as universities that have schools of art.

“It is showing the scale. People think, ‘Oh, it’s a little department,’ ” Hulen said. “When I became chair some people didn’t even know we had an art department. It’s valuing the fact.”

Send this to a friend