Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a building called Arts West. A rumor surfaced that it was a 5.2 mile walk from campus. And it was uphill. Both ways. Any student who had a class (God forbid you have two!) out there was doomed to be tardy, unprepared and sweaty.
Correction: Arts West is wonderful. It’s beautiful. Colorful. Explosively awesome. It’s a place where students can go to get away from calculators, beakers, textbooks and podiums. Arts West doesn’t have huge computer monitors like the Koury Business Center. It doesn’t have labs upon labs upon labs like McMichael. Instead, it has studios. It has galleries, a ceramic room, a glazing room, printing areas and much more.
It seems many students avoid taking art classes in the land of Arts West because it is too far. The strenuous not-even-a-half-mile walk from the center of campus is too much to handle. It will forever be too hot or too cold or too rainy or too whatever.
Truth be told, the courses students can take at Arts West have the potential to interest everybody. Don’t like painting? There’s photography. Hate cameras? There’s art history classes. Not a history person? What about guitar? Drawing? Ceramics? Saxophone? Digital art? The choices are endless. There’s something for everybody, if we just learn to enjoy the sunshine. Don’t see the walk down Haggard Ave. as intimidating. Don’t make it a reason not to explore your creative side. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in your brain and all students should have the opportunity to know what that “stuff” actually is.
And rock on to those of you who enjoy the sun for an extra 15 minutes each day to walk and let your mind play around a little.