Endowment Guide

Luther celebrates dedication of Center for the Arts

Date 4/10/2003 12:00 AM | Topic: News

Sunday, April 6 marked the beginning of a weeklong celebration of the dedication of Luther's Center for the Arts, which opened to students and staff at the beginning of the 2002-03 academic year. Events during the week will showcase the $13 million structure to students, staff, faculty, alumni and the donors whose financial support made the building possible.

Though the building opened in September of 2002 and construction was completed soon after, the dedication of the Center for the Arts was scheduled for April of 2003 to allow time to plan a week's worth of events and to separate the dedication of the Center for the Arts and the dedication of the newly renovated Jenson-Noble Hall of Music.

"The [Noble] Recital Hall and updated music facilities were slated to be completed first," said Kate Martinson, professor of art and head of the department.

The weeklong celebration demonstrates the focus on the art and theatre/dance departments, something that, according to Professor of Theatre/Dance Bob Larson, "doesn't happen a lot around here." Martinson added, "Rather than just have an afternoon for the donors, we decided we wanted to have a weeklong celebration of the arts."

Highlights of the week include the theatre/dance department's production of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, lectures and demonstrations by Luther alumni and visiting artists sponsored by the Lily Endowment and art galleries including "Dalapalooza," a collection of wooden horse carvings compiled by Harley Refsal, associate professor of Scandinavian folk art.

According to Larson, the benefit of having "safe, accessible and aesthetically pleasing teaching-learning facilities available" is key to the success of the Center for the Arts.

"We want the campus to be able to enjoy the arts here at Luther," said Jeff Dintaman, associate professor of theatre/dance and head of the department. "It's very rich; it's just been hidden."

The interaction with people outside of their respective departments is another advantage that Larson and Dintaman feel the Center for the Arts delivers.

"I didn't know what it would be like after being housed in what seemed to be an off-campus space [Storre Theatre]. It's like it wasn't really connected to the campus. It's still surprising to me to walk into the hallway and see other students, not just theatre students. It's even more surprising to walk out of the building and see the entire student body - that couldn't happen in Storre. You would walk out the door and see the river on one side and a parking lot on the other. No students," said Dintaman.

"There are so many people we would never have seen in the recesses of Storre Theatre or the attic space of Loyalty Hall" (former home of the art department), said Larson. "The interaction with people is a real delight. It brings a smile to my face every time I walk in the building."

Musical theatre major Derek Blechinger ('04) spoke of the nature of the building: "The interesting thing about the Center for the Arts is that its meaning is to integrate music, dance, theatre and art - all these artistic mediums that we tend to disassociate and divorce from one another. It's a platform to work from, not just from the perspective of one of those disciplines. The building is a physical embodiment of all of them."

As far as the student experience goes from the perspective of the faculty, Professor Martinson said, "Students love to come here. We get better homework and more enthusiastic responses. People smile in a different way as they come in."

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Chris Burton
Chips Reporter

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