More than 11 years since the project was first initiated, the building is finally finished. The Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts Building held its first classes with the opening of the 2001 fall semester in August, and the facility had its grand opening ceremonies Sept. 21 and 22 with a panoply of events celebrating the arts.

“The first day of the fall semester, the day students began walking the halls and going to classes – with construction still going on – that was the day the building really came to life for me,” says Lynn Franken, dean of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

The 110,000 square-foot building is the largest on campus. The facility features many unique new spaces which will impact the way the humanities are taught at the university.

“It’s commonplace nowadays to minimize the role of bricks and mortar as secondary to the purpose and ‘spirit’ of a building, but I think that is a major mistake, especially when it comes to this building,” says Franken. “The physical space in this building is functional to an unusual degree, because we are dealing with the fine arts.”

Franken believes that the success of an academic college depends on the right synthesis of three components: building, people and programs. “We have great people in our faculty, students and staff, and the new building will give them a stimulating space to teach, learn and create. As a result, our entire humanities program, which is already very good, will evolve and advance beyond our highest expectations.”

Opening festivities: More than 600 people gathered to celebrate the opening of the new Humanities building

Robin W. Edwards cuts the ribbon, assisted by Rev. Bobby Wilkes, President Ingle and Hugh Martin.

The new building features:
The Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery – This 55 ft. by 26 ft. space, with hardwood floors and state-of-the-art lighting, will offer public exhibits of works by visiting artists as well as by students and faculty.

The Edwards Theater – Designed expressly for student training, workshops and productions, this “black box” can be transformed into all types of theater staging including proscenium and theater in the round. The entire ceiling is a catwalk with the latest in theatrical lighting.

The Recital Hall – The 147-seat hall is perfect for recitals, concerts and master classes featuring solo instrument or small ensemble. Its stage is the home of one of Coastal’s 11 new Steinway pianos.

The Courtyard – The building encloses a large, classical courtyard, one of the most impressive spaces on campus. With its Drake Elm trees and central fountain, the Courtyard is a natural spot for in-between-class study sessions or formal receptions.

Art Courtyard– A large semi-enclosed outdoor area serves as an alternate workspace for students in Coastal’s Department of Art. The Art Courtyard is adjacent to the large indoor studios where students study drawing, painting, ceramics, printmaking and 3-D design. Student sculptures will be exhibited in the alcoves located in the semicircular structure at the rear of the area.

Lynn Franken, dean of the new Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, shared her feelings about the meaning and the purpose of the new building at the dedication ceremony on Sept. 21. The following excerpts are from her dedication address.

“…To me, the habitation of this building – first the workers, then the faculty and staff, and finally, most gloriously, the students – has had the feeling of a reunion.

Now as we dedicate this space, visitors have arrived – old friends and new, a whole community of well-wishers – here because you love the land this building stands on and the ideals it stands for.
 

Like every reunion, and the melding of past and future it accomplishes and symbolizes, our building aims at a harmony of differences, layering and interfusing literature with art, theater with music, ancient philosophy with high tech medicine and high stakes commerce, the fall of Rome with the rise of the computer, the languages and cultures of the wide world with all it most truly means to be an American.

Do the humanities matter: How about the arts, in this helter-skelter time? Does this building matter? Enough to celebrate its advent in a time so sorrowful and so perplexed?

Teaching and learning in the humanities and fine arts have sometimes been shuffled to the periphery of higher education, labeled impractical, unresponsive to the real needs of the so-called real world, a mere frill, thought vaguely helpful to the turning out of well-rounded corporate executives.

Yet the world we actually inhabit, the really real world, is vastly more perplexing than any of us can riddle through alone. It is the deeply practical role of the humanities to teach us to live with complication and without fear, the role of the arts to lead us to truths through beauty, and of both to reaffirm our common humanity…”