The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has started a campaign to raise $3 million in the next five years for scholarships for its arts students, the school announced Tuesday.
The fundraising campaign officially started Tuesday, running in conjunction with the construction of the campus's new Windgate Center of Art + Design, which is to open Jan. 8, 2018, at 28th Street and East Campus Drive. UALR will be home to the new building because of a $20.3 million gift -- the largest donation to a specific academic program at the 11,710-student university -- from the Windgate Charitable Foundation in Siloam Springs.
Coupled with the foundation's gift, UALR pledged to raise $3 million in scholarship money for an endowment to support arts students, said Joe Lampo, director of development for the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences. The university already has received more than $250,000 in gifts in a "small, quiet phase" of the campaign, he said.
"We're, of course, really fortunate to have this great building being built, and we have an excellent faculty, which is important to teaching," Lampo said. "But you have to have students, or there's no point in any of it."
Currently, the university has about 10 scholarships dedicated solely to arts students, he said. Those scholarships go to about 25 students, while another 25 are on some other type of financial aid, said Mia Hall, UALR's interim chairman of the Department of Art and Design. About one-third of students who have declared an art major are on some sort of financial aid, she said.
"There are a lot of expenses in being an art student," Lampo said. "It's not just the tuition and the books. You have to buy materials. You have to be available to go and spend time in the studios, and a lot of our students work. So the financial support is really important to allow them to get the quality of education they can get in this building and not have to worry so much about how they are going to eat this week or whether they can pay their tuition."
UALR junior Andrew Blackwell, 29, of Little Rock receives one of the scholarships specified for arts students. Without it, he said he would have more difficulty studying what he wants to do: furniture design.
"With the scholarship, it's allowing me to go to school and spend more time on what I'm passionate about," he said. "For me, it's buying wood and paint and hardware."
Blackwell had graduated with a history degree from another school and he had been working in information technology when his sister persuaded him to take a few art classes at UALR.
"She knew I liked working with my hands and liked woodworking and said, 'You know, you should check it out,'" he said. "It was a night class, so I could do it after work. And I just took it and really just ran with it, enjoyed it."
After taking a few more classes, he decided to enroll full time last fall.
UALR officials announced the official start of the fundraiser Tuesday during a groundbreaking ceremony for the new building.
The center tops off a decadelong partnership between the university and the Windgate Foundation, which included student scholarships, exhibition sponsorships and startup funds for the applied-design program.
In 2012, the foundation gave $70,000 to UALR for a feasibility study, examining potential renovation of current buildings, possible locations and other funding sources, said Tom Clifton, art professor and interim dean of UALR's College of Arts, Letters and Sciences.
The best option was to build anew.
Now, the university's applied-design program is in University Plaza at the south end of campus, the graphic-design program is in the center of campus at the old Student Union A and the visual-arts program is in the Fine Arts Building on the north end of campus.
Come January 2018, the university will have a nearly 65,000-square-foot center that brings all of its arts programs under one roof.
The 3-D programs -- sculpture, ceramics, metal-smithing, jewelry and furniture design -- will be in a one-story, 21,000-square-foot industrial structure with a 12,000-square-foot shared courtyard, Clifton said. The 2-D programs -- photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, graphic design, illustration, art history and art education -- will be housed in a 43,000-square-foot area oriented east to west "to take advantage of natural light," he said.
The center also will have two galleries for local and national exhibits, along with an 80-seat lecture hall and reception venue.
UALR Chancellor Andrew Rogerson said the center would be invaluable for the comprehensive university.
"Greater access to arts education will help all of our students not just those in arts majors," he said. "The Windgate Charitable Foundation understands the importance of art and design education in the life of a campus and, indeed, the city. This center is a timely and much appreciated force to move the university forward in its commitment to being an anchor of the city and a driver of economic development.
Metro on 10/12/2016