In an article out today, The Daily Evergreen's Rosemarie Blume highlights the importance of the Art Museum's expansion to the WSU campus.
After years of restriction to just one gallery, where curators have trouble attaining a diverse array of art, WSU’s $15 million Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art building will open in spring 2018.
“I think we feel that we’ve come to the point where we have grown out of the space of our current building,” Curator Ryan Hardesty said.
The new building, which takes the place of the old WSU Police station on the Glenn Terrell Friendship Mall, will have six galleries, allowing the museum to host multiple shows at a time and create a “transformative arts experience across campus,” Interim Director Anna-Maria Shannon said.
“One gallery can’t promote across other academic units,” she said.
In addition to hosting shows, the museum will be able to hold events for departments, like the Feast of the Arts for WSU’s Hospitality Business Management department, said Debby Stinson, marketing and personal relations manager.
The new building is one of the first steps for the WSU Museum of Art organization to become accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, Shannon said.
She said the museum’s six-person staff will be working all summer to fill out the necessary paperwork to become a part of the American Alliance of Museums and get ready for the museum’s opening in the spring semester of 2018.