A place to call home

Walk through the front doors and into Austin Community College's Rio Grande Campus and you may not notice anything out of the ordinary. But when some students took a harder look around the entryway, they noticed the sculpted faces hanging in a display case that have long welcomed them in.

"I think it's really cool," said student Michael Benavides, who had never noticed the display before. "It isn't just an amalgamation of shapes."

On the other hand, some students have taken notice. "I think [the display] is a little strange personally," said Lindsay Snow.

Art displays like this one line the halls of ACC's fine arts campus, but are they getting the presentation they deserve? The Art and Photography Department chairpersons, among others, don't think so.

Enter the issue: should ACC fund a gallery for its art and photography students, and showcase their works in a more

noticeable way?

"I think everybody thinks it probably makes sense," said Bill Woodhull, Photography Department head. "It's something that probably needed to be looked at 20 years ago."

Woodhull's department hosts two week-long shows a year, having to convert the photography studio into a gallery. "Nothing fancy and complicated, but we've been doing it that way for 15 years," he said. If ACC had a permanent gallery, shows like these could be exhibited year-round.

According to Woodhull, about 300 new students enroll in photography classes every year, with about 80 continuing on to pursue their degree in the program. "I think [students] have accepted it the way it is," he said.

"What it comes down to," Woodhull said, "is 'what are you going to give up to get it?' I wouldn't give up one of my classrooms for a gallery."

"We probably are in the minority of schools that don't have a gallery," he said.

At least two community colleges - out of 50 in the state, Ranger College west of Fort Worth and North East Texas Community College near the Texas-Arkansas border, lack galleries as well.

But at the schools that do have a gallery, like Alvin Community College, where student Wendy Wisnoski attends, the benefits are clear.

"It gives me a job for one," said Wisnoski, laughing, who also works as an assistant to the gallery's curator. "It gives you an outlet when you're brain-fried from being in class all day. It's the perfect place to come."

Wisnoski said that her college's gallery is a busy place. "We have people in here constantly, whether it's for a class or whether they're just coming up here to get away from everything else."

The gallery issue isn't a new one for Austin Community College Art Department Head Gary Webernick, who has been lobbying administrators to fund a gallery since 1992.

"Every year for the last 16 years, I have put in a proposal for an art gallery," said Webernick. "And we've been turned down."

ACC has looked at property in the past, including looking at a property in Oak Hill that was found to be unsuitable.

Webernick said that the Art Department's nearly 600 majors have to limit their artwork, "all the time, frequently because of space limitations. Our students here would consider a large painting two-by-four, when it could very easily be eight-by-twenty. There's absolutely no way we could do it in that little room," he said, referring to the 450 square-foot room he said administrators promised him in the campuses gymnasium building, currently undergoing renovations that will be completed in 2009.

ACC has been showing the artwork of students and faculty at various facilities around the city of Austin for the last 32 years; this semester showing at the Daugherty Arts Center and George Washington Carver Museum. These art centers offer the space and proper lighting that Webernick said can showcase the artwork in the best way possible. But he believes it's past time to have something permanent. They need about 2,000 square feet, he estimates.

What would be the cost of ACC building an art gallery? "It can vary from $200,000 to $2 million," he said. "San Antonio College built a new art department and I think, at the time, it was something like $2 million."

San Antonio College's exhibition program dates back to the 1970s, but a permanent gallery was not established until 1991, when it was moved into their Visual Arts Center. The school also hosts an Internet gallery of student works, something ACC seems to lack.

Webernick hopes that, by one day opening an ACC gallery, the school could swap spaces with other colleges around the state. "It's a win-win situation for an educational tool," he said. "Until we convince [the administration] of that, nothing is going to happen."

"From my understanding, nothing has been ironed out yet," said Dean Jones, ACC's senior communications coordinator. "We know that the art department has proposed it, but we don't know the results of that proposal."

One solution, according to officials, might be to house a gallery in the proposed retail space of the $15 million RGC parking garage project. But those in charge of designating space aren't making any promises yet, as the space will likely be leased out to a book store.

Another solution, according to Woodhull, could be to create a

permanent gallery at the Highland Business Center, where artwork and photography are already displayed.

Woodhull pointed out that the logistics of a gallery may not be feasible for the college. "It's a neat idea. It's a good idea. Is funding available? That I don't know about."

For now, the often inconspicuously placed artwork lining the halls of RGC may have to do. The students and faculty of the art and photography departments just don't want their works to fade out of the sight of students, and out of the minds of the administrators making the decisions.