School of decay – LSU art students protesting today over crumbling facilities

Imagine you’re an art student at LSU. You head to the Studio Arts building on a spring afternoon. It’s little more than a shack. When you first visited campus, it seemed quaint and cool in that old-fashioned way.

But now, you have projects due, and you’re distracted. Not distracted in the way most college kids are—with relationships, extracurricular activities and lack of funds.

No, you can’t physically work in your environment the school has provided for you.

The Studio Arts building has no ventilation. When the overhead fans do kick in, bits of lead paint that have chipped off the building fly through the air. When you aren’t ingesting that, you overhear problems about asbestos and black mold. You hear how last semester, during Thanksgiving break, a 300-pound concrete ceiling tile fell from the roof. Rats and raccoons falling from the ceiling are also considered normal.

Melissa Precise, a second year graduate student in sculpture at the LSU School of Arts, doesn’t have to imagine.

This fall, Precise is transferring to Ohio State University because of those aforementioned conditions. She moved to Baton Rouge from Birmingham, Ala., where she completed her undergrad studies. When visiting LSU, she remembers thinking the arts building was “ugly in a beautiful way.” Her attitude changed by her second year.

“We have had weeks on end where we haven’t been able to go into our space,” she says, mentioning flea and asbestos problems. “It is becoming a disruption. Then, when I heard about the ceiling tile at the end of last semester, that was the final straw. This university should care more about the safety and health of their students.”

Kelli Scott Kelley, associate professor of painting and drawing at LSU School of Arts, is just as frustrated as her students. Since she arrived in 2000, millions of dollars have been spent on plans for renovation, but to no avail. Renovations are now estimated to cost $15.3 million and are still not included in the capital outlay bill.

“We’ve put up with the conditions because we’ve always been told renovation is coming,” Kelley says. “It feels like we’ve been forgotten. It’s beyond bad. Students are fed up and demoralized. Despite all of this, we have amazing students doing wonderful work. A beautiful building would bring a great light to the university and to our students. If we can advertise amazing facilities, the caliber and number of students would go up. We would be able to bring talent here.”

Unlike other students, these artists practically live in their workspace, Kelley says, creating and working for the majority of the week, which is a requirement in the program.

Today at lunchtime, LSU School of Art students, faculty and community members in a silent protest, wearing all black and dust masks, at the Sculpture Park near the Studio Arts building. Next Tuesday at 9 a.m., participants will take their protest to the Capitol Park Museum lawn downtown in an effort to bring awareness of the situation to the state legislative body.

The protest started last semester as a grassroots movement among painting students who couldn’t work inside the building because there was no heat. Kelley and other faculty and art students saw the students sitting outside with posters in protest. From there, momentum grew.

Precise has also written a letter to LSU Chancellor F. King Alexander summarizing what she has witnessed and her reasons for departure.

“Not long ago, I heard [Alexander] on ‘The Jim Engster Show’ blowing off a question about the building,” she says. “[Alexander] said, ‘I guess, maybe, we’ll have to do some fundraising.’ I was blown away by that comment and by the fact that he’s not proactively doing something about it already. Any proper leader would see that this is inexcusable.”

For Kelley, a renovated building would mean a better ability to make an impact in the community.

“We’re the flagship university of the state,” Kelley says. “We have alum working in high positions around the country. Our students go on to play big roles in promoting and contributing to art in the community.”
Kelley, who completed her undergraduate studies at LSU, has a 16-year-old son currently enrolled in the talented art program at Baton Rouge High.

“I’ve made it clear that he can’t go to LSU,” she says. “I wouldn’t want my child to work in these conditions.”

Precise already has her bags packed. It would take a clear investment from the university to the arts department to show they care for her to stay in Baton Rouge, she says.

“The administration could show us that they value what we do,” she says. “If they could show us that we’re not just a cog in the system of bringing in tuition dollars, then I would feel more inclined to stay.”

Every day, Precise sees the talent in the school—the students who participate in conferences and exhibits across the country. She sees the prize-winning painters and sculptors, the grant-winners and the jewelers who are making names for themselves. In her opinion, an effective arts facility doesn’t just bring this talent, but also creates a better community.

“If students take an art class or two, they’re not learning only how to paint, but also critical thinking skills or developing their own opinion,” she says. “Arts education is about more than just regurgitating facts. It’s about making beautiful thinkers.”