by Peter Bodley
Managing Editor
Anoka-Ramsey Community College unveiled its new visual arts center with a grand opening celebration April 20.
Tony Balma, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, demonstrated his work on a potter’s wheel in preparation for creating a ceramic vase.
Visitors were invited to take a self-guided tour of the 28,976 square-foot building, while art faculty and students gave demonstrations in the glassblowing, photography, painting and ceramics studios.
A grand opening ceremony presided over by Dr. Jessica Stumpf, Anoka-Ramsey’s interim president, gave visitors the history of the need for the center and how the project came about and was built.
According to a press release issued by the college announcing the grand opening celebration, “This facility gracefully extends the campus footprint in a way that maximizes daylight, minimizes site disruption and provides stunning river views from many of the studios and dramatic gallery spaces.
“The design, inspired by industrial architecture – with exposed steel structure and mechanical systems, concrete floor and large expanses of glass – provides a minimalist backdrop for the studio and gallery space.”
The visual arts center is home to teaching and learning spaces designed for 2D and 3D art, glassblowing, photography, ceramics, woodworking computer labs and gallery showings.
The $4.5 million project was constructed through the sale of state bonds.
The center opened for most courses at the start of the fall semester, with the glass blowing program moving in at the beginning of the spring semester.
It is located across a college service road from the existing arts building where all the college arts programs, including choral and instrumental music and the programs now in the visual arts center, shared space for many years.
“It was so crammed for space it was crazy,” said Mary Jacobson, college marketing and public relations director.
Future plans call for the renovation of the arts building and construction of a walkway between the two buildings, according to Jacobson.
For Stumpf, who has been interim president of Anoka-Ramsey since July 1, 2010 and will now be interim president of both Anoka-Ramsey and Anoka Technical College under a new alignment of the colleges for a year starting July 1, 2011, it was an exciting evening.
She gave recognition to the many people who were involved in making the visual arts center a reality, including Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart, who was present with his wife, Kathy, and local state legislators, Reps. Jim Abeler, Denise Dittrich and Melissa Hortman as well as former Rep. Jerry Newton, for their efforts in getting the project included in the state bonding bill.
Former Anoka-Ramsey President Dr. Pat Johns and current college vice president Mike Seymour were also instrumental in seeing the project through to fruition, according to Stumpf.
Many other people were also singled out by Stumpf for their involvement on the project.
The college’s associate in fine arts in arts degree program is an attraction for high school students interested in when determining their post-secondary education, Stumpf said.
The new visual arts center will be an added incentive for students to come to Anoka-Ramsey, she said.
One such student is Kathleen Law, who decided to attend Anoka-Ramsey to get her associate degree in arts after graduating from Totino Grace High School.
Law graduates from Anoka-Ramsey in May and will continue her education at the College of Visual Arts.
In her two years at Anoka-Ramsey, she has taken classes in both the original arts building and the new visual arts center, and there is a big difference, Law said.
“This building is beautiful and has so many tools for the arts,” she said.
“The old building was adequate; this is fantastic.”
According to Law, the visual art center provides a more relaxed learning experience with its space. “I really appreciate it,” Law said.
Art instructor Laura Migliorino, who has been at Anoka-Ramsey since 1987, described fellow art instructor Bob Toensing as the “heart and soul” behind the new visual arts center.
Toensing came to Anoka-Ramsey in 1969, 42 years ago, to start the college’s art department and has worked tirelessly to grow the arts programs since then, according to Migliorino.
“He has fought, cajoled and educated, and made some enemies in the process,” Migliorino said.
According to Toensing, when he arrived at Anoka-Ramsey as its first art instructor in sculpture and ceramics in 1969, it was located in two empty rooms in the lower level of the library.
There was no equipment, no tools, no supplies, no kilns and no potter’s wheels, Toensing said.
In the intervening years, Toensing went on to start the glass blowing program, become an internationally known glass blowing artist himself, and the college built an arts building.
As Toensing prepares to retire next year, he said the new visual arts center is very fulfilling and a “beautiful, fantastic building.”
For Dana Irgens, who has been the college’s dean of arts and letters for the past three years, the project has been “near and dear to my heart” and has met the goals set out when the design work began, she said.
The visual arts center “encourages creative thinking and intellectual curiosity,” Irgens said.
Peter Bodley is at peter.bodley@ecm-inc.com
Creativity is really an enigmatic part of human experience. Whether it was the modern art or it is the contemporary art, one aspect is still the same and that is the creativity and depth in the artist’s ideas…Jayson Kim.