New Faculty and Graduate Student Studios
Celebrating its new university-supported art and design faculty/graduate student studios, the UM School of Art & Design held a grand opening party on Friday 28 October. Search lights marked the location at 1919 Green Road for 250 party goers including Lee Doyle, Director, Communications Policy and Administration Director, University of Michigan Film Office Chief Freedom of Information Officer; Lisa Rudgers, Vice President for Global Communications and Strategic Initiatives; the School of Art & Design Deans Advisory Council (DAC) members including DAC chair Penny Stamps; and the School of Art & Design community of faculty, graduate students, staff and alumni.
Speakers commemorating the event included Martha Pollock, Vice Provost for Academic and Budgetary Affairs, Professor of Information, and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; Chris Mackey, lead architect for the project from SHW Group, School of Art & Design Dean Bryan Rogers, and School of Art & Design Associate Dean Brad Smith. Later in the evening, Provost Martha Pollock and Bryan Rogers formally opened the studios with a ribbon cutting ceremony, with a Sawzall taking the place of the more traditional scissors. A DJ played throughout the evening to bring people to the dance floor. And creative work by Art & Design faculty and graduate students – from large scale drawings to posters, paintings and installations – enlivened the space.
A&D’s faculty and graduate student studios cover 33,000 square feet of industrial space, providing individual studios for both full time faculty and graduate students with 35 studios on the first floor, and 31 on the second floor, ringing a 5,000 square foot two-story central open area. The facility also includes a large common area for collaborative and/or large-scale projects; multiple tool-specific shared work spaces; exhibition areas suitable for showcasing finished or in-process work; and a dramatic pedestrian bridge connecting the two second-floor studio wings.
Once the location for UM Printing Services, the facility was completely renovated for its new art and design function with new HVAC, new plumbing, new electrical, and added windows and skylights.
It’s rare for faculty and graduate students to have their studios in the same facility. Bryan Rogers comments, “When I first came to UM 12 years ago, I thought it was critical that faculty and graduate students have dedicated space at the University for developing their creative work, a space that facilitates formal and informal engagement among and between graduate students and faculty members. Researchers have labs. Studios are the laboratories for artists and designers. We’re so pleased to have the support from the administration that confirms art and design’s integral role as a part of this great research university.”
Read UM Vice President for Global Communications and Strategic Initiatives Lisa Rudgers’ account of the opening celebration at: Montage: An Art Happening.