Katie Reing
Walking through the Widener Center has become a new experience for students this year. It is no longer a dark building with a bunch of offices, but a place where students gather to enhance their artistic abilities.
Widener is now a bright building that welcomes students. Instead of the Fine art classes being held in the basement of the library, they are now held on the upper level of the Widener Center.
Although the downstairs portion of the building is widely used by both the students and faculty, the upstairs was virtually deserted. Except for the residence life office.
Now students who do not participate in the fine arts classes can see the working environment and the actual work that the students make. When the classes were held in the basement of the library most students did not have the opportunity to see what their peers were working on.
The old art classrooms in the basement of the library still hold some evidence of their prior use, but they will not be used for art classes in the future. All of them will now be held in the Widener Center.
There is a mural at the bottom of the stairway in the library that has been in the making for the last few years and is still not completed. Professor Lisa Learner is still optimistic that the mural will get done. However, it is now out of her hands as to whether or not the department has the permission to complete the project.
The Fine and Performing Arts Center has only completed the first phase of renovation. There is another phase of which the people involved will be done sooner rather than later. No date has been set for the completion of the final phase.
The Fine Arts professors had the opportunities to work with the designers of their new facility. “They gave us whatever we asked for,” Learner said.
When in the old location in the library, the entire fine arts faculty shared one big office. Now there are several offices that are more accessible to the students. “Now I can have lunch with people. People are always stopping by and asking me to get something to eat. The only problem is that I am not used to so many people, and I do not get my work done,” Dr. Adeline Bethany said.
Both teachers agree that being in their new location is much more exciting than their old one. They are especially grateful to see people in their entirety rather than just their feet when they look out the window.
Bethany said, “We went from being moles in a cave to butterflies with this move.”
