Campaign for Fine Arts

Fine Arts Center: Sculpting a Masterpiece at UIW

The University of the Incarnate Word will expand its Fine Arts facilities to ensure a quality arts education for the students, up-to-date resources for faculty, and new, accessible performance venues for our growing student body.

Benefits to Students & Faculty:

• More space and updated technology with which to practice and master their art.
  
• New facilities will attract top-flight faculty, visiting lecturers and performing artists.
  
• Provide support for faculty in national and international research and professional peer review of faculty art works.
  
• Expanded gallery space to display more student artwork and projects from other programs such as interior design, fashion design, and graphic arts
• that demonstrates the effectiveness and vitality of the Fine Arts curriculum.

Benefits to the Community and Stakeholders:

• A new, 150-seat recital hall for student and faculty presentations, as well as community arts groups.
• A renovated 925-seat auditorium for large arts events.
• Highly visible, commemorative naming opportunities will be available in the various performance, practice and teaching spaces.
  

In turn, as more students graduate with degrees in the Arts, the creative industry will boom in San Antonio, leading to great economic benefits for the city and region.

The arts touch all our lives in some way: through prints and paintings in our museums and homes…designs that shape our living and working spaces…music heard on the radio, TV or an iPod…drama or comedy enjoyed at the theatre, on the big screen, or on the myriad of smaller screens. It would be nearly impossible to live a life that's truly worth living without the arts affecting our thoughts and souls.

UIW Alumni in the Arts can be found making contributions throughout the city, state and nation. From as close as the San Antonio Symphony, San Antonio Opera, and the San Pedro Playhouse, to as far away as Hollywood and its hit movies and TV shows such as "Desperate Housewives." UIW Arts Alumni include Emmy Award-winning scriptwriters, award-winning sculptors, major authors and performers, TV news anchors, filmmakers, composers, and teachers. These graduates are making a difference in our country's culture and quality of life.

San Antonio is increasing its capacity to host large performances and other productions by building the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. This facility showcases a wide-scale recognition of the economic value of the arts to a community, as San Antonio voted to designate $100 million in venue taxes to renovate and transform the historic Municipal Auditorium into a multi-use performing arts facility. Just as production and performance spaces expand here, so should educational opportunities and resources in the fine and performing arts.

The University of the Incarnate Word is the only university in San Antonio that has an accredited Theatre Arts program. UIW now will enhance its accreditation in Arts and Music from the National Association of Schools of Art & Design and the National Association of Schools of Music. To do this, UIW must provide expanded space in each degree program for teaching, performance and exhibition, practice rooms and studios, administration, and storage.

With these enhanced accreditations, UIW can attract, from throughout the state and nation, faculty and students with the most potential and expertise. They will help to create in San Antonio a new "destination school" in the arts. In turn, UIW's growing reputation will help to enhance San Antonio's and Texas' creative potential, economic health, and quality of life.

To that end, UIW is preparing to expand its Fine Arts facilities so that its students and faculty have the essential resources with which to learn and master their art. Through the Arts degree programs, UIW graduates will influence the culture of our city, state and nation and affect the education of children in elementary, middle and high schools. The new Fine Arts Center at UIW will contain over 55,000 square feet of space devoted to arts education, including:

• Studio, Classroom and Office Space – Classrooms, offices, gallery and studio space for degree programs such as Music (including Band, Choir, Piano, Electronic Studio, and Music Industry Studies), Photography, Printmaking, Drawing and Painting, Sculpture and Ceramics;
• Gallery and Performance Spaces – A new University art gallery to display student works and a permanent art collection; a new 150-seat recital hall for concerts, lectures and dance performances; and, a fully renovated, 925-seat concert hall for large-scale arts events; and,
• Equipment and Technology – New and updated technology including studios and a photography lab, piano lab, electronic music lab, and smart classrooms.

The new facilities are vital in carrying out the long-term goals of the Arts degree programs. In the words of Dr. Robert Ball, Theatre Arts Professor and Chair of the Department:

"Our goal of exposing UIW Fine and Performing Arts students to the arts on an international level has never been within closer reach. It is the fulfillment of this goal and others that we look towards as we assess our facilities, equipment, faculty, and activities. Our students can imagine, create, and achieve greatness but they need support and encouragement to do so."

Individuals with mobility impairment who have a verifiable necessity to access specific programs and activities offered in the Genevieve Tarlton Dougherty Fine Arts Center should submit a request for accommodation at http://www.uiw.edu/ada/. Current UIW students may contact Student Disability Services for assistance at (210) 829-3997. All other individuals may contact Sam McDaniels, Sec. 504 & ADA Coordinator for the General Public, at (210) 829-6035.