2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Fine Arts Building’s establishment. Building construction began in the summer of 1973.
The Fine Arts Building is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a mini exhibit featuring archival documents from the department’s past to what is today.
The exhibit is on display in the Visual Resource Commons on the second floor of the Fine Arts Building, showcasing yearbooks from the early 1970s that mention the cost of construction, along with a signed letter from former UTA President Wendell Nedderman approving the construction project.
Historic images showing the first exhibition in the space are displayed as well.
Visual resources curator Lilia Kudelia said the purpose of the exhibit is to give students a sense of curiosity.
“We want students to cultivate in them a sense of curiosity to historic documents and materials that live in archival boxes and tell very interesting stories,” Kudelia said. “Maybe we can travel back five decades before and think how if our parents were young at the time, how they would see the building.”
Originally founded in 1937, UTA’s fine arts program has traveled through various buildings. Classes were held in the former planetarium, what is now the Roundhouse, then moved to another building, which was nicknamed “the Alamo,” before settling into its current resting space, the Fine Arts Building.
New courses and professors expanded the program, making fine arts one of the largest departments within the College of Liberal Arts.
“We’re now at like 800 students,” Kudelia said.
Growth was evident when UTA opened the Studio Arts Center in 2005 to host courses such as painting and ceramics, while the Fine Arts Building focused on foundational courses like visual communication, design and art history.
“[I’m] just feeling so grateful to our predecessors and people who were before me and didn’t let go of these important documents of time but properly preserved them for future generations of students,” Kudelia said.
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