Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts

“With this investment, we’re giving ISU’s current and future students a world-class education in a world-class facility, and we’re giving students the tools to succeed” -J.B. Pritzker

On Thursday January 30th, 2020, Governor JB Pritzker visited Illinois State University to speak on the fine arts complex project that is finally receiving full funds.

In 2013 The Illinois State College of Fine Arts received $54.3M out of $61.9M that was going into this fine arts project. This was a top demand for the school for around 20 years and we are finally going through with renovations.

Fortunately in the Fall of 2019 Wonsook Kim and her husband donated $12M dollars to the school of fine arts. This resulted in us naming the school Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. Kim is an alum of Illinois State University and acknowledges Illinois State as one of her reasons for success.

With the current status of the music buildings it was time for change. Centennial East and West were built in 1959, the Center for Visual Arts in 1973, and the Center for performing arts in 2002. Centennial East and West are mazes with rooms not designed for music classes. In fact my Musicianship teacher has a chair stuck in the heater because the loud buzzing drones a different note than what we sing on. The same problems occur within the Center for Visual Arts. These buildings have been used for so long and quite frankly are burnt out. This is why the school decided instead of a redesign they are going to completely demolish and build new fine arts building excluding the CPA and Cook Hall.

Chat

Production:

The information on this topic is around many news source. Years ago this was in the newspapers when the topic was first discussed. The information on this had been many new’s websites. The production behind the new fine arts complex will be the blueprints and the building plans behind the project.

Distribution

The information was distributed through news sources. Most students found out about this through emails from Mona Hubbard, the director of the college. All students were invited to the speech Pritzker gave about the new renovation and most of us will be able to see the process of the two phases of the fine arts project.

Socialization

When the information was released it was the talk of the day around the school of music. Many people attended the speech and many others shared information through regular conversation. Personally my musicianship teacher is thrilled to see this project go through. He talks of the project all the time. It’s definitely something to look forward to.

To Conclude

With the final money being granted to us the College of Fine Arts is definitely looking forward to this much needed renovation. This will actually affect all of us because during the construction project the students in the college of fine arts will have to go to other buildings for classes. Whether classes are moved or in weird places, this will be something to consider during the build time. But the project is expected to start in the summer and take around 2 years for both phases to be complete.