The Timashev Family Music Building is apart of the new emerging Arts District on Ohio State’s campus, and the building will be the new home of the music department. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Ongoing construction for Ohio State’s new Arts District has members of the university’s arts communities eagerly awaiting new opportunities and collaboration across artistic mediums.
Faculty members last week expressed hopes for the project to bring in more of the public to experience artistic creations at the university and foster interdisciplinary learning among music, theater and media production students and faculty.
The future Arts District will be composed of two brand-new facilities around the Wexner Center for the Arts. The Timashev Family Music Building — named in recognition of Ratmir Timashev, a class of 1996 Ohio State alumnus who made a $17 million donation to the college — will host the School of Music.
The Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts is getting a new, more convenient location in the Arts District, which will be located mid-campus between the Oval and High Street. The department is currently housed in the Drake Performance and Event Center — a 20-minute walk from the Wexner Center on West Campus.
The college has also invested $40 million in renovations to Hopkins Hall, Hughes Hall and Sullivant Hall, with ongoing renovation projects on the corner of 15th Avenue and High Street.
Sergio Soave, associate executive dean for space and infrastructure in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been working on the project for six years. At a webinar between the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences on the future of the Arts District, Soave said the District is to become the new front door of the campus, anchored on concepts of openness, visibility, permeability and connectivity.
A map overview of the future for the Ohio State Arts District. Credit: Courtesy of DLR Group
“Those buildings will connect visually and physically with the other buildings around them,” Soave said. “There’s a density that creative people kind of get fueled by. Bringing people closer together is one of the reasons that great arts cities survive and thrive.”
The Drake Performance and Event Center’s remoteness is a recurring theme for the panelists’ enthusiasm. Nadine George-Graves, chair and professor in the Department of Dance and professor in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts, said she looks forward to the centralized campus for the arts.
“I joke that I’ve been getting my steps in since being here,” George-Graves said. “Metaphorically speaking, when theater sort of joins us over in the Arts District, that kind of work that doesn’t fall in neat categories gets to flourish.”
Rachel Skaggs, assistant professor of arts management, said recent studies have shown that enhancing multidisciplinary practice and collaboration between different kinds of artists is an indicator of a successful career in the arts.
Jacob Athyal, a graduate teaching associate in theatre, said there is a growing demand from arts students to have a multidisciplinary approach in the university because it is crucial to prepare them for the job market of tomorrow.
“It’s a changing climate where theaters are becoming more digital. They’re using more media in their work. Films are looking for more theatrical actors,” Athyal said.
The enthusiasm extends beyond just the arts community. Brennan Harlow, a second-year in music education and a resident adviser assistant, said the cafe in the music building is going to attract a lot of people.
“I think about when I go to the cafes in the engineering buildings and think of that same thing with the music building,” Harlow said. “Someone comes and studies and they hear the symphony orchestra playing.”
Athyal said the new buildings and locations will allow for more opportunities for students outside of the arts communities to interact with arts on campus and hopefully facilitate multidisciplinary work.
“Business majors can come in and grow off of us and we can grow off of marketing students and students from the med school, because we’re also looking for new stories to tell and new people to collaborate with,” Athyal said.
Project updates and a live video feed of the progress of the site are available on Time and Change: Building the Future website.
