Arts Center to Exclude Students' Art Projects

Undergraduate artists can forget about plans to do individual work in the new Visual Arts Center. Peter B. Shultz, executive secretary of the Center, said yesterday that no unsupervised undergraduates will be allowed to use the Center's facilities for painting or other creative work.

Shultz said that the Center "isn't going to be turned into a "hobby lobby," which he defined as "a place anyone can come and work on his leathercraft, or pottery, or Indian beadwork."

Although workrooms on the second and third floors might be used for student painting and sculpture, "it is the overwhelming opinion of the Committee on the Visual Arts Center that only Classes or supervised extracurricular groups should be allowed to use the building."

Supervised student groups working in the creative arts might be permitted to use the Center, Shultz added. The committee will undertake a study this spring to determine what groups may use the building.

Th Center's facilities are still largely unusable because construction work has not yet been completed. But the second and third-floor studios are already in use as workshops in Architectural Sciences courses.

The second floor houses power tools and durable tables, is being used as a workshop for classes in three-dimensional design, and might, according to Shultz, serve as a studio for sculpture or woodcarving.

A smaller workshop on the third floor houses classes in two-dimensional design. Also on the floor is a large exhibition hall. Concrete pedestrian ramps lead up to the floor from the front and back of the building.

Aside from two small seminar rooms, space on the fourth floor has not yet been assigned to any specific projects. But Shultz said that he expected new courses to take up the extra space soon.

Mirko Basaldella, lecturer in design, has taken over the fifth floor, designed as a studio for one artist.

The basement, still cluttered with building equipment, contains darkrooms, and areas for cutting, editing, and storing motion picture film. A large classroom is provided with movable furniture and sufficient electrical outlets to serve as a television studio for projected classes in TV communication.