New Facility Adds New Dimension for SU Art Department

SALISBURY, MD---From heavy machinery just feet apart to creative limitations necessitated by the size of the doors, the Art Department and its students at Salisbury University have had remarkable success despite limitations in its physical location in Fulton Hall.

SU art alumni have become known around the world for their work, like “Fearless Girl” by Kristen Visbal ’95, which stands in front of the New York Stock Exchange. SU is home to the only collegiate hot glass studio in Maryland. Working for years out of a building that was never intended to be used in such a way, faculty and students of the Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts are now getting a chance to let their creativity run wild in a newly acquired space on the east side of campus.

The building for 3-D creations, currently titled M1 (the SU building code) while a formal name is determined, is in the former Tri-State Engineering Building, purchased by SU in 2017.

“This art center on the East Campus provides space for the visual arts to grow and flourish,” said Dr. Maarten Pereboom, dean of the Fulton School. “We have seen incredible works come from Art Department students and faculty, and these facilities will allow creativity to flow in safe, up-to-date spaces that can benefit not just art majors, but every student on campus. It also creates new opportunities for wider community engagement.”

Included in the building from the previous owners was equipment that complements the activities currently taking place inside.

“We now have lifting capacity. We have ventilation. We have proper electric connections. We have the ability to drive a forklift around,” said Bill Wolff, chair of the department. “Ceramics will have those benefits and will have the room for kilns – things that we simply did not have before.” 

The first students began using the facility on a limited basis during the 2020-21 academic year during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted by the first iron pour in December. Fall 2021 marked the start of full use for sculpting. The conversion of the property will continue with the addition of foundation art programs, such as beginning drawing and 2-D design, in the coming semesters.

Not just for students majoring in art, the building already has been a benefit to students from across campus, with Wolff providing space for two physics students to safely build plywood cases for a project on which they are working. The complex will also be used to fabricate a chimney swift tower in coordination with Dr. Jeremy Corfield (Biological Sciences) and “Bird Friendly SU.”

Wolff said safety likely is the biggest benefit of the space.

“It’s a huge step forward,” he said. “First, in terms of long-team occupational exposure, the ventilation makes an enormous difference. We simply weren’t capable of operating a safe studio space in terms of silica and organic vapors.

“Material handling is a huge thing. There were many occasions when we were very precariously carrying a two or three hundred-pound item through a narrow doorway. Now we don’t think anything of picking it up, putting it on a pallet and driving it to the other end of the building.” 

Another structure on the same expanse of campus off Milford Street is M2, the former American HomePatient building, which SU now owns and is in the planning stages for renovation, which will house the ceramics and hot glass programs, bringing all of SU’s 3-D art makers to that area of campus. In total, the two spaces will add approximately 22,000 square feet of space, the majority of which will directly benefit the Art Department.

“All of this will allow the department to create an arts campus of its own,” Wolff said. “There is a different demeanor, specifically with the advanced students. The pandemic has changed everything, of course, and Sculpture is the only area here at this time, so it’s difficult to see a lot of synergy, but there is a sense of ownership. Students are able to put on loud music if they’re one of a couple people here and have more space to move around without having to worry about bumping into others.”

Such freedom should help foster creativity, allowing students to make whatever they can conceive of, in a safe, welcoming environment for years to come, he added.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.