BENTONVILLE -- Northwest Arkansas Community College administrators have a plan to build a facility for arts education that would cost up to $3 million.
At least one member of the board, however, opposes the plan. Joe Spivey acknowledged the arts have value, but questioned the cost and whether the proposal fits the college's mission.
What’s next
The Northwest Arkansas Community College board has to approve the administration’s plan for an arts facility. The nine-member board isn’t scheduled to meet again until January, though there has been discussion about holding a special meeting this month to talk about the facility.
Source: Staff report
Spivey said he must serve as a voice of the taxpayers who contribute to the college, and "in this case, I believe it's the wrong thing to support this project."
In response, Evelyn Jorgenson, college president, said arts education is good for development of the mind.
"It's not just learning how to make a pot," said Jorgenson, whose bachelor's degree is in fine arts. "It's learning how to be creative, think about things, visualize things. Those are skills you carry with you into every field."
Spivey is chairman of the college's Land Use and Facilities Committee, which heard details of the proposed facility during its meeting Wednesday. The committee voted 8-1 in favor of the project; the plan now goes to the board for approval.
Spivey didn't vote. As committee chairman, he would vote only to break a tie, he said.
The lone dissenting vote came from Herbert Morales, who also serves on the college foundation's board. Most of the committee's other members are college employees.
Jorgenson and Debi Buckley, vice president of finance and administration, said they envision a metal building of 12,000 square feet built just west of the Becky Paneitz Student Center. They foresee it opening as soon as the fall of 2018.
Buckley called it a "very simple" building that will contain several studios, labs and offices, along with indoor and outdoor kiln space.
"In terms of a building, $3 million to you and I, that's a lot of money," Jorgenson said. "But that's about as inexpensive a building as you can put up."
Once the new building opens, it will free up space in Burns Hall for other purposes, such as a black box theater, an additional graphic arts lab or general classroom space. The college is running out of space on campus, Jorgenson said.
Money for the building would come from the college's capital millage account and would be paid out over two years.
One-third of the millage collected each year for the college goes into that account, which will contain about $4.5 million at the end of this year. The college has added nearly $900,000 to that account each of the past few years after meeting its debt load, Buckley said.
Buckley said the account has a "very healthy" balance.
The college has only two classrooms for all of its arts courses, including sculpture, drawing, print making and painting. The lack of proper ventilation in those rooms prevents the college from offering certain classes, such as oil painting, Jorgenson said.
More than 450 students are enrolled in the college's visual art classes. The college also is one of only two schools in the state offering an associate of fine arts degree program, which the college launched this year. Seventeen people already are seeking that degree, according to Jorgenson.
"We do have a good number of students, but right now we don't have the facilities we need to accommodate the students," Buckley said.
Locally there is growing interest in the arts, particularly with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in town; the new building would tap into that interest, Jorgenson said.
Spivey said he's never opposed a project in his 10 years on the Land Use and Facilities Committee. He questioned this one in part because he feels the college should focus more on programs that lead directly to jobs.
"What we're talking about is kilns, sculptures, pottery. I don't see that helping the bottom line of the state's economy. I don't see it helping enough students," Spivey said.
Jorgenson said the college has not lost its focus on workforce development programs. The college's foundation is working to raise the money needed to build its Washington County Center in Springdale, which will house many of those programs, she said.
The foundation has reported raising $3.6 million toward its goal of $15 million for the Washington County Center. The foundation board anticipates starting construction of the 50,000-square-foot center by late 2017, according to a recent college news release.
In the meantime, the main campus is home to numerous programs related directly to workforce development, such as those in nursing and construction, Jorgenson said.
"But we have an obligation as well to develop well rounded, educated people," she said.
Jorgenson said she's been concerned about the college's space for the arts since she arrived three years ago. Many area high schools have better arts facilities than the college does, she said.
Heidi Migliori, a committee member and an administrative assistant at the college, said she's never taken an art class, but noted there are jobs directly related to the arts.
"There are art galleries all over Eureka Springs," Migliori said. "I think it does provide job opportunities. You can't fill your plate with just the main dish. You have to diversify and make sure you're covering all of the bases of the workforce."
With the new building, the college likely would be able to obtain grants from arts-oriented organizations to buy the additional equipment needed to fill the building, Jorgenson said.
Morales didn't say he opposed the project, but he asked how it measured against the rest of the college's priorities. He also said he'd like to see more information related to the project.
The college's main campus has eight buildings, including a parking garage. The last building to open on campus was the Center for Health Professions in 2013.
NW News on 12/01/2016