Artistic Hub of South Texas

Among the legacies President Robert R. Furgason leaves at A&M-Corpus Christi is a rapidly materializing goal of becoming the artistic hub of South Texas.

A major step occurred last December when The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents unanimously approved the creation of a new School of Visual and Performing Arts within the College of Arts and Humanities. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board later gave its approval in the spring.

The new School will combine the departments of Art, Communications/Theatre, and Music with the soon to be opened Performing Arts Center. The South Texas Institute for the Arts will also be closely associated with the School.

A catalyst for creation of the School is the Performing Arts Center (PAC), which is scheduled to open in March. The 1,500-seat concert hall will be the principal venue for the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra and will host a variety of musical events.

“With the completion of the PAC and the linking to the art museum we need the creation of a School to bring more focus on the arts and the integration of the arts into the community,” said Dr. Paul Hain, former dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.

Dr. Lari Young has been named as the new director for the Performing Arts Center. Young holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Texas Tech University.

“The Performing Arts Center is going to be the premier facility in South Texas,” she said, “with outstanding acoustics and versatility to accommodate everything from a solo performance to a full symphony.”

Future plans include a 500-seat theater to be built adjacent to the Center. The theater will enhance the University’s theatre program, which has been buoyed by the recent arrival of two new professors. Kelly Russell, who will work to develop a regular children’s theatre, and Dr. Terry Lewis, formerly chair of the Department of Theatre at Southern Utah University. Lewis will be director of the new theater.

The new PAC will also be critically significant for the Music Department by providing a first-rate performance venue and encouraging further participation in musical ensembles on campus, said department chair Dr. Jim Rennier. The department is now in its fourth year of offering a four-year curriculum on campus and has spawned a variety of ensembles recently.

The visual arts area is also contributing to the goal of making the University the cultural hub of South Texas.

The South Texas Institute for the Arts, which consists of the Art Museum of South Texas and the Antonio E. Garcia Arts and Education Center, works closely with the University’s Master of Fine Arts and Master of Art in Studio Art degree programs.

The art museum itself will soon undergo major changes with an expansion designed by modernist architect Ricardo Legorreta of Mexico City that will nearly double the museum’s size. Construction on the $6.5 million William B. and Maureen Miller building, named for the lead donors, has begun and will be completed in spring 2006.

The addition will include classrooms, galleries, offices, a café, courtyard, fountain and gift shop, a performing arts studio, auditorium, digital studio classroom and two children’s galleries that will teach children about art and give University students the chance to become museum professionals.

The University also opened the Islander Art Gallery in April in the Hamlin Shopping Center, at the corner of Weber Road and Staples Street. The gallery is both an art gallery and a teaching tool used in conjunction with classes to teach students how galleries operate and how students can show their art in the marketplace.