Melissa Burgess/Assistant News Director
The University’s art facilities are a contrast to the artwork produced inside them.
In 2015, Rise Miami News reported that art students were forced to learn in dirty and potentially unsafe education spaces, reporting that the art facilities had mold in classrooms, dirty bathrooms, broken and rusting equipment and water damage.
Brian Schriner, the dean of the College of Communication, Architecture and The Arts at FIU, responded to Rise Miami News saying the department would be investigating the college’s infrastructure, facilities, equipment and technology.
However, Schriner says that last year there was a problem that extended beyond facilities needing a fresh coat of paint.
“There were [rodents], in the ceramics lab, because the University had put a dumpster near the lab after football games. One of the professors had complained that it had attracted rodents and then they stopped putting the dumpsters [there], but that was over a year ago,” Schriner said to Student Media. “There hasn’t been anything brought to my attention of any infestations of rodents. ”
Pip Brant, an associate professor in the Painting Department, says that she fixed the rat problems she saw in W9, art facility located on the west end of the University, near soccer and baseball fields.
“I helped patch some holes into the wall and I have cats outside to help keep the rats away,” Brant said to Student Media.
As of last year, Schriner said, there have not been any rat problems and that he didn’t have any records of recent issues with the facilities other than the dirty bathrooms. He referred Student Media to Jacek Kolasinski, the chairperson of the Art and Art History Department, for more information.
Kolasinski said that it’s normal for art classes to be dirty or messy because maintenance for classrooms and art studios are different.
“Our maintenance is different because in regular classrooms, students sit for an hour and leave, while art students spend excessive hours [in the rooms] and move equipment all the time and scratch the floor,” Kolasinski said to Student Media. “It’s everyone’s substantial effort to keep their environment clean. Students throughout the semester paint on the walls for their pieces and when the semester is over we put a fresh coat of paint.”
Crystal Rodriguez, a senior majoring in graphic design and minoring in art history, said though the classes can be messy, it shouldn’t mean the facilities shouldn’t be cleaned regularly by janitors.
Brant said that she wishes that the department would have a building specifically for the painting students.
“They’ve worked really hard on the sculpture building which was probably the most impacted by neglect and it’s pretty decent. I think student pressure helped that …,” said Brant. “[Art] students pay the same tuition as everyone else and we haven’t gotten a benefactor to build us a building.”
There were also complaints about the distance of the art studios from the rest of the campus.
Rodriguez said that she feels it’s unfair that she has to travel to the far-west side of campus to get to her studio classes.
“I have classes on the main part of campus and then I have a class in the portables and it’s annoying because I have a small interval of time between classes to get there,” said Rodriguez.
Brant said that because the portables are far away from the main campus, she feels students are isolated from the FIU community.
“The hardest thing is that the buildings are so distal from each other,” she said. “The painters and the sculptors don’t know anyone else, so we’re just like islands and there’s hardly any dialogue between art students and the outside community.”
However, Kolasinski said that because art students are constantly working with different art materials, it’s necessary to have some facilities away from the main part of campus.
“We have a lot of different art facilities throughout the University, but some are located on the parameters of campus because there’s a lot of dirty projects and materials that art students use,” he said. “There’s sculptures, painting, melting, burning and the use of other materials that are essential to be kept away from the main campus. Our students do require a lot of time to travel between classes but we try to accommodate them the best we can.”
Kolasinski also said that although he agrees that some of the art facilities are older buildings, the department is trying to renovate the buildings overtime.
“We’ve done a lot of renovations … and we see how we can utilize space the best we can, just like the sculpture building,” he said. “These renovations are all based on growth; if there are significant problems, we try to address them as quick as we can. Sometimes they require funding or working with the dean and administration, but we try our best to fix what is in our power.”
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