UAFS Officials Hope New Windgate Facility Will Nurture ‘Creative Class’

Come Monday (Aug. 17), the newest building on the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith campus is estimated to welcome up to 400 students and wholly change how the university delivers art, design and printmaking education. Don Lee says the building also has the potential to help the region recruit and retain “the creative class.”

Lee, head of the UAFS art department, said a goal with the building is to provide a space for students to be encouraged to pursue their ideas and interests.

“Any class we put in … all the use of space and equipment, we’re trying to keep it as focused on the creative as possible,” Lee said during a recent facility tour.

BUILDING DETAILS
The new 58,000-square-foot Windgate Art & Design Building is located on the UAFS campus at the intersection of Kincaid Avenue and Waldron Road, and is the first building to be constructed as part of the university’s new master plan. It will bring all art department programs under one roof. The new facility will have several gallery spaces, a 120-seat theater, a letterpress and printmaking operation, graphic design laboratories, spaces for photography, painting, sculpture, art history, and a sound booth. Classes will include basic courses in drawing, 2D design, 3D design, typography and digital imaging.

Funding for the facility was provided by a $15.5 million gift by the Windgate Charitable Foundation. However, the foundation challenged UAFS to raise $2.5 million in private support to help establish an endowment for the facility. The Siloam Springs Windgate Charitable Foundation “supports programs focused on strengthening marriage and healthy relationships, serving children and providing Christian higher education. The Foundation also supports programs focused on arts and crafts, as well as on art history.”

Scheduled for completion by the fall of 2015, the building “will also house gallery spaces, the letterpress and printmaking operation, graphic design laboratories and spaces for photography, painting, sculpture and art history,” noted the UAFS statement. “The freshmen foundations program – which includes basic courses in drawing, 2D design, 3D design, typography and digital imaging – will also be housed there.

‘UNEXPECTED’ SUPPORT
To Lee’s point about the building being connected to the community, the facility’s Sept. 3 open house is also part of the Festival of Murals event planned for downtown Fort Smith. The festival is set for Sept. 3-12 in downtown Fort Smith, with several events to coincide with large murals painted or applied to several downtown buildings.

The first year of the event is being pitched as “The Unexpected Project” by Steve Clark, owner of Propak Logistics, and a CBID member and active supporter of the murals effort. At 7 p.m., on Sept. 3, UAFS will help host the “Unexpected PRINTOLOGY Gallery Show” in the new Windgate building.

THE DRIVE FOR ART VITALITY
The idea for the building began when a consultant helping to craft the UAFS master plan noted the need for a unified arts facility. Lee said he and other UAFS faculty toured recently completed university arts buildings to gather ideas. They also surveyed “all stakeholders” and then worked to develop “a strategic plan with elements that connected us to the community,” Lee said.

Lee said the “vitality of that (arts community) in Fayetteville and in Bentonville” inspired him and others to do something that would help nurture something similar in the Fort Smith area.

“That drives me, you know, with all of this,” Lee said, with his head moving to indicate the space in the new Windgate building.

Later in the tour, Lee said: “If we’re not going to be in the hinterlands forever, we will need concrete evidence that we’re equal to” the challenge of supporting the arts. “This building itself is a terrific piece of work.”

‘SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP’
Other work will be inside the building. Lee said the university will begin to expand its art collection for display in the building, and he is pleasantly surprised by support from alums and others who have donated money and/or art for the building.

Part of the effort to educate people about the building is Lee’s “First Friday” tours idea. The public would be encouraged to see the university’s collection of art from accomplished artists and to see art and other works by students. The tours and more will be needed to “have a symbiotic relationship” with the community that Lee says is needed to allow the university to better serve the region.

Dr. Paul Hankins, the new UAFS dean of the College of Communication, Languages Arts and Social Sciences, said he believes the new building and expanded arts program and community outreach will help the regional business community attract and keep employees.

“I’ve been very impressed with the building and the seeds of how it has come together,” said Hankins, who joined UAFS on July 1. “I’m excited about how this will contribute to the bigger picture … and nurture the talent that will make better citizens.”