Expanding Williams Arts Campus Gives Students Tools for Innovation

A fundamental shift in how Lafayette does art is happening at the foot of College Hill.

Professor Andy Smith teaches a class in the new building at 248 North Third Street.

Home to the film and media studies program and theater department, the building at 248 North Third Street within the Williams Arts Campus opened for classes this semester. It features a TV/shooting studio, advanced editing suites, media labs, a studio theater, and more.

“We now have the best in equipment, software, and facilities to help students learn how to become thoughtful, effective, ethical makers of media,” says Andy Smith, associate professor of English and chair of film and media studies. “We are developing a community of media practitioners where collaboration is central…We want to collaborate across disciplines to produce valuable contributions.”

For the last several years, students have relied on location shooting. Soon they will be learning the fundamentals of lighting, camera, and sound in “the Sandbox,” the new TV studio. This semester, students are developing original concepts for a web TV series and will shoot their episodes at the studio.

The main hallway in the new building at 248 North Third Street

Phase 2 of the arts campus project began this summer with construction on 219 North Third Street and is scheduled for completion in December of 2015. The building will house a black box theater, box office, a state-of-the art cinema, and classroom spaces. There also will be outdoor spaces for seating, sculpture, and performances.

The new space will host courses that better prepare students for careers and graduate school in theater and film and media, while at the same time enhancing and expanding electives for all students. It also will provide more opportunities for campus arts groups and will be the best place to see films on campus and in the city.  The theater department will be able to schedule longer runs for shows, more workshops, and more student-directed performances.

The buildings will enhance the theater experience for students, says Michael O’Neill, head of theater. For example, the audience seating area in the black box can be reconfigured for each show, allowing students to gain experience in performing in and designing for a variety of spaces. Having everything related to theater in one location will support collaboration, he adds.

Site work has begun on 219 North Third Street, which will house the new black box theater.

The Williams Arts Campus also includes the Williams Visual Arts Building and the Ahart Family Arts Plaza. It is made possible by a $10 million lead gift from the Morris R. Williams ’22 family. During their lifetimes, the late Morris Williams and his wife, Josephine Chidsey Williams, provided the funding for Lafayette’s Williams Center for the Arts, which opened in 1983. Their children, Charles K. Williams II and Joan Williams Rhame, provided major support for the Williams Visual Arts Building. The plaza was dedicated in honor of Ed Ahart ’69, chair of the Board of Trustees, and his wife, Catherine Ahart P’97 ’03.