Students and faculty are working together to transform two first-floor wings of Francis Hall to represent the Art Department of Visual and Performing Arts at St. Bonaventure.
The idea came from a proposal to begin work in Francis titled “The Quick Center for the Arts: The Future of the Arts in the Life of St. Bonaventure University.”
The Ricochet Group, a marketing and management consulting firm, prepared the report in collaboration with Dr. Wolfgang Natter, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, said Dr. Scott Craver, assistant professor of art history.
Craver said the second of 14 recommendations of the report outlines the creation of a Studio Art Center at Francis Hall, comprising formal spaces to include studio classrooms, student studios for seniors majoring in studio art and connecting hallway space that links and identifies the area as the Studio Art Center.
“The report subsequently offered further details about the steps to be executed, including efforts to adapt and beautify the hallways outside the studio classrooms for informally hanging artwork, posters and other work, both to identify the area and to showcase evolving student work,” Craver said.
A variety of colors were chosen to lend a more contemporary feel to the space, Craver said. The maintenance department assisted in installing further illumination and more display cases to display student work.
Br. David Haack, O.F.M., associate professor of visual arts, also challenged students in his fall 2011 2-D design course to develop a coherent and pleasing design scheme that would both unify the spaces and accommodate the display of art in an aesthetically pleasing way, while working within the physical constraints of the current architecture and layout, said Craver.
Sophomore Meghan Ferruchi participated in the remodel. She said a class from a previous year gave her Visual Arts 161 class the idea of putting the word “art” in different languages on the wall.
“Together we agreed on the design, the colors and the size of the words,” she said. “We also painted the words together.”
Ferruchi is thankful she had the opportunity to participate in the project.
“I'm glad to have a part in this, no matter how small my part was, because it's something that will stay at this school for years to come,” Ferruchi said. “It was a way to leave my mark at Bonaventure.”
Junior Hannah Walker also helped redecorate by selecting the layout, color pattern and font for the words.
“I think it’s cool that the art department gets an area of its own that it can decorate and show off the incredible talent of the artists on campus,” Walker said. “I hope people who are not involved in the arts see it and say, ‘That looks fun. I think I might take an art class.’”
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