As construction of the new BYU Arts Building continues, members of the three arts departments that will be housed in the building shared the new spaces and features that will be offered to students.
“Really, the goal with the new spaces is expanding the opportunities, giving our students more experiential learning opportunities,” Michael Kraczek, an associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, said.
Kraczek said film and media classes did not exist when the Harris Fine Arts Center was first built, thus the classes were placed in whatever rooms were available.
“We literally had some of our editing spaces in closets,” he said.
Kraczek said the new building will provide a cinema theater, production studio, a new editing suite and a finishing room — spaces the HFAC didn't have.
One issue with the HFAC was sound bleeding through the walls of theaters and classrooms.
“We could hear music students practicing the tuba, the trumpet, the piano when we were trying to teach design classes,” Brent Barson, chair of the design department, said.
Kraczek said the theaters in the Arts Building will be separated, allowing multiple theaters to be used at once.
Barson said the Arts Building will have photo studios, an interdisciplinary library and a design gallery.
“We're also going to have an interdisciplinary student hub where students from all the majors can come and work together and collaborate on projects,” Barson said.
Art Department Chair Collin Bradford said the Arts Building will also have a computer lab, more arts galleries, a critique space, a clean room with 3D printers and spaces for fabrication equipment. He said these spaces will be better arranged and more accessible to students.
Barson said the Arts Building will offer arts students and faculty more space than was available in the HFAC.
“The spaces that we have had are being brought into the, you know, the 21st century,” Kraczek said.
The Dean’s Office for the College of Fine Arts and Communications projected the building will be completed in 2026.