This is Ozarks at Large for Friday, April 10, 2026. I'm Kyle Kellams. I'm Sophia Nourani. We are beginning today's show just outside the University of Arkansas Fine Arts Center. On today's show, we're celebrating the present and past of this building. The university will be hosting a reopening of the Fine Arts Center after a $38 million restoration. That reopening is next week, but on today's Ozarks at Large, we find out about the center's first years and how a novel approach to bridging arts together in Fayetteville made national news. In our second half hour, we'll offer up a preview of next week's reopening. Claudia Bersin will perform at that reopening, and later on our show, she'll play our Mary Baker Ramsey Steinway piano in the Firm and Garner Performance Studio at KUAF. And Sophie, you talked with Catherine Wallack from Special Collections at the U of A about materials collected for a special exhibition for the building. And I believe you also took a tour of the restored building.
Yes, I did.
"Well, I guess we can start here and then we can go to the lobby space. You'll notice right away..."
That's Rachel Debuque, director of the School of Art, walking Kyle and me through the newly renovated Fine Arts Center. We started in the hallway of the main floor, where she says a lot of the building's original aesthetic was maintained.
"So you'll notice right away that the space is really keeping with that kind of mid-century modern feel. The building was first opened in 1951. It was an Edward Durell Stone piece which brought together music, theater, dance and architecture under one roof. That was a novel idea. He was the first one to do it, and he brought it to Arkansas, and he really brought modernism to Arkansas through that gesture. And so when the renovation was occurring, they were really trying to keep that spirit, that mid-century spirit in. You can see the terrazzo floors and the storefront kind of wood-accented windows. And we also have all of our original windows."
She says everything down to the original color of the windows — a vibrant teal — were considered in the renovation process.
"We actually did a color matching, finding the original color under layers of paint and matched that. So that was pretty exciting. It's really become our signature defining color for the school of art since we've revealed that. It makes everything pop."
Debuque says most of the staff from the School of Art have transitioned their offices to the new space.
"We still have staff in the Studio and Design Building, but the bulk of our staff are here. We have an administrative assistant, our scholarships person, and our advisor is in the Studio and Design Building, but we regularly have to go back and forth. And I'm told that if I knew what the original building was like before this renovation, I would be blown away by how clean and how spider this is. I get to watch everybody walking by. I get to see all the action. And I think this is really exciting for the School of Art to be back, to have a place back in the heart of campus. It means a lot to us and it's pulling together so many of the things that we're thinking about with our strategic framework, which we're working on right now. We're talking about the School of Art as a place where access meets excellence and is grounded by community. And so having the art history and the art education programs on campus makes a lot of sense. Art education has so much community engagement, as does the art history program. And so being able to tie into the heart of campus is really important for us."
She says there is intention behind the School of Art's division into multiple buildings on and off campus.
"The Studio and Design Building, which opened in — I believe that was 2021, 2022 — that hosts our studio art program as well as graphic design. And then there's a sculpture building behind that, that is also an extension of our studio art offerings. Next door with the new Windgate building, it'll be our galleries and exhibitions building. We'll also have experimental media in the basement, and our foundations will be on top. So foundations is the first year, and foundations serves art education, graphic design and studio art. So it's like the landing place for a lot of the first-year students. They have been scattered. So to bring everyone together in that space is going to be really special. And so this building is specifically designed for art history and art education programs. And so they were also scattered about. So this year really represents a highlight for us since 2023 to be back in this space altogether."
We then transitioned to the teaching gallery, where there will be a physical exhibition celebrating the reopening available to view starting on April 16.
"We're having our grand reopening event on April 16, which also coincides with the 75th anniversary of our building. What's going to be in this exhibition is really going to highlight the feel around that 1951 groundbreaking. And so really rooting this opening in the history of the place. We'll have ephemera from that time. We'll also showcase faculty work from the past. We'll have an Edward Durell Stone chaise lounge and the original ticket box office. It sounds like a lot to fit in this space, but I think it's going to be really activated and enrich the space and really call attention to the history that we're trying to highlight. But then also there's this correlation between the growth moment. This 1951 moment where modernism was coming to Arkansas with this incredible architect. And now in 2026, where we have all of this amazing momentum with our new buildings, with the endowment, with the generous gifts by the Windgate Foundation. So there's a mirroring of that excitement that feels really beautiful. And for it to all happen at the 75th anniversary, it's all feeling serendipitous and right."
So in the lobby itself, there is a staircase that takes you into the library for art history and art education students.
"This staircase here is original to the building. So I think it's just such a beautiful thing that we were able to hold on to. The original staircase is also in the library space. Art history and art education were placed in buildings around campus, either worked into the Studio and Design Center or in various spaces around campus. So that transition was a couple years long. The fact that they all get to be in here in this space now is a really exciting moment. The historic gift that was given in 2017 really propelled all this momentum. And so as the renovation was happening, there was hiring going on, there was program building and revision going on. And so to now all be in the spaces that they were intended to be — it feels like we're finally getting to this point of some stability. There's a lot of forward momentum. And we see ourselves as becoming a national model for schools of art across the country. And this was a really important piece of achieving that goal."
Upstairs, a black and white checkerboard floor offers a stark contrast to the teal accents you see throughout the building.
"This is a nod to our old linoleum checkerboard floor, so it's like a marmoleum. It's a bit of an updated version. It's got a softness. It's got no asbestos. And I really like that they made decisions. So TenBerke from New York City did the renovation and they worked with Miller Boskus Lack from Fayetteville to do the remodel. This is going to be the center for childhood art. It's not complete at the moment, but this will be a walled-off space where we can have workshops and there's more offices there. There's the director office for the Center for Childhood Art. So this will be a center space for both art history and art education."
Debuque says while the renovation is faithful to Edward Durell Stone's original design, it also provides the technology and innovation you could only find in the 21st century.
"Obviously, it's not a complete reproduction of mid-century modern. We want it to be really useful for our students. I think that's the most important, is that we make sure that we're serving our main purpose for education here. I think this design has struck a really good balance in terms of that, where the pieces that are more technical, like having your speakers and your screens, they all feel like they match the overall vibe of the building. So they're not standing out. I think things like the storage are thinking about that too. Like, how do you maintain this mid-century feel while also being really useful to the user group? One thing that we do at the School of Art regularly, because we know the only constant is change, is that we are always looking for maximum flexibility in all of our spaces. If we want to turn this into a dance studio, how might we do that? We held a performance class in one of these classrooms. You could definitely last a dance class in here. And the floor is a little more forgiving than our concrete floors in the Studio and Design Center. It's a lot warmer. So yeah, this has provided a whole new avenue for different types of classes based on the space that it provides."
We ended the tour in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, located in the lobby space across from the theater, where there is an eye-catching art display above where attendees would sit for a performance.
"Oh wow. I remember when this was a pit in the floor and we were all just describing it. I'm like, huh, sure, it's going to be beautiful. And it truly is. It's so beautiful. It's so intimate. There's an acoustic netting that looks like butterflies and it's really beautiful. There's like waves across the ceiling. There's also wood slats that line the entire perimeter of the space and wrap around the room. So there'll be a concert on the night of the grand reopening. I think that's really beautiful. We'll be able to have everybody in our space and then usher them into an amazing music concert."
Debuque says while the School of Art and the Fine Arts Center are tied to the Edward Durell Stone legacy, she is hoping to expand that path of excellence to a future generation of artists.
"We want to encourage experimentation. We are of the mind that access and excellence are not mutually exclusive ideas, but that we can make accessible pathways to an amazing education while also creating a rigorous environment where students can be challenged, but then they're also supported both by our tremendous faculty, but also financially as much as we can. We really want to open doors for students who wouldn't have historically been able to find an arts education. And we're thinking about making very strategic, intentional pipelines to Arkansas, to areas outside of Northwest Arkansas, so that we can really create pathways to what we see as economic prosperity, a better life, more options. And we think creativity and art making is one of the most important things about what makes us human."
That was Rachel Debuque, director of the University of Arkansas School of Art, walking Kyle and me through the newly renovated Fine Arts Center at the beginning of last month. The reopening art exhibition has been coming together since then, with finishing touches being added when we stopped by the space yesterday.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
