Speaking in front of stakeholders at the preview event for Cal State Fullerton’s $65 million Visual Arts Modernization Project, College of the Arts Dean Arnold Holland talked about how technology has transformed the way art is created.
Illustrations once created using pen and paper, 3D models once crafted from clay, and photographs once produced with film and a darkroom are now being imagined and produced on computer screens with cutting-edge software in modern facilities, Holland said.
“The visual arts modernization project will position our visual arts program as a leader in visual arts education and practice of the arts,” Holland said during the Jan.28 event, held in the atrium of the Clayes Performing Arts Center, across the walkway from the heavy equipment working at the site of the future visual arts complex. “For decades to come, this incredible complex will provide our students with the tools, technologies and innovations they need to inspire their academic and creative ambitions, transforming how we teach, share, engage in and experience art.”
The original buildings making up the College of the Arts were designed to accommodate up to 1,200 students when they were constructed 60 years ago.
Today, there are nearly twice that many art students, said Jade Jewett, former chair of the Visual Arts Department, who has served as a consultant for the modernization project for five years, working mainly with the architect and builders.
“We’ve kind of been packed in like sardines, so it is exciting that we are going to have the scale of buildings and facilities to meet our needs,” Jewett said.
Construction got underway in August 2022 and is expected to be completed in fall 2024, Jewett said.
Planning for the project began about six years ago. It includes the construction of two new buildings, G and H, adding more than 122,000 square feet to the complex, along with major renovations to two existing buildings.
Building G will be a…
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