facilities: fine arts center
The department is housed in the Fine Arts Center, a complex designed by the noted architect Edward Durrell Stone. It contains, in addition to the Art Department, the Fine Arts Gallery and sculpture garden, the Fine Arts Library, the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, and the University Theatre.
Most of the studios, classrooms and faculty offices in the Art Department are in this building, along with the Art Department Office, located in room 116 on the main floor. Facilities include an up to date Macintosh based computer lab; intaglio, lithography and serigraphy facilities in printmaking; wood and plaster shops; darkrooms for black and white, color, alternative processes and digital imaging; painting, drawing and design studios; and a separate ceramics facility with gas and electric kilns.
Building Hours:
The Fine Arts Center is usually open: Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (later if there is an event in the theatre or concert hall) Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (later if there is an event in the theatre or concert hall) Sunday from 1 p.m. to 11p.m.
Your instructors will let you know how you can have access to the studios outside of class hours.
Fine Arts Center
The Fine Arts Center was designed by the noted architect Edward Durell Stone, an Arkansas native. Opened in 1951, it was one of the first educational facilities in the country to combine the Fine Arts under one roof. Initially the Departments of Art, Architecture and Music shared the classroom wing of the building, while the Fine Arts Gallery occupied the space between the University Theatre and Concert Hall on the first floor.
Stone, with his typical enthusiasm in undertaking a project, designated original furniture pieces to be designed for the building as well as a series of eight mobiles by the inventor of the medium, internationally renowned sculptor Alexander Calder. Stone, who was friends with Calder, tried to include the artist’s work in all public and many private commissions as well. The Calder mobiles were intended to hang under a unique "mesh ceiling" in the Concert Hall, above wall sconces at either side of the room. They were designated as "light fixtures" to make sure that they were not excluded as an "alternate deductible" in the project.
Several unique furniture pieces were designed for the project as well. Stone himself designed what has come to be called the "plough-back" chairs and chaise lounges. The chair was built by Fulbright Industries in Fayetteville, owned by the family of Arkansas Senator J.W. Fulbright, after whom the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is named. They were in the business of building farm inplements, and so with a slight re-tooling of the plough machines, they built the structure of the chairs and lounges. The Gibson family, also from the area, caned the pieces in oak slats.