By Emma WestRasmus

Students arrived back on campus this week and were met with a change in the Macalester skyline. Construction has begun on Phase One of the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Complex, which will last three semesters, and is scheduled to be complete before the fall of 2012. Phase One has sent the Music Department scattering across the campus and surrounding neighborhood. The department will be headquartered at 45 North Snelling, one block away from campus on the corner of Portland Ave. and Snelling Ave., which will house music faculty offices, music teaching studios, music lockers, and practice rooms.

Music professor Chuen-Fung Wong’s Chinese Music class is being held in the basement of GDD, and his World Music class is housed in an Olin Rice classroom. Both classes are typically held in the Music Building. Wong says the relocation of classes is has posed some minor issues for his classes. He has to use a keyboard instead of a piano in his World Music class, and some rooms in GDD are unusable because of noise that music classes would generate for GDD residents.

However many faculty and students affected by the renovations say that although there are some minor inconveniences caused by the project, the changes in space required by the construction have been minimal so far.

“There are many small problems,” Wong said. “But we’re getting the small things fixed, and the change of spaces will be manageable for the entire period of reconstruction.”

Though Phase One deals mainly with renovations to the Music Department, some of the other arts resources on campus have already been affected. The Art Gallery, which used to be located in the center of the Janet Wallace complex, has been moved into a college-owned house at 1665 Princeton St., where it will stay until August 2012 for the duration of Phase One.

“If this house was be all end all, it would be a problem,” gallery curator Gregory Fitz said. “But we’re happy to have a place near campus.”

Before construction began, art handler specialists were hired to inventory and move over 500 pieces of art in the college’s permanent collection stored beneath the former gallery space.

Fitz cited a lack of distinction between public and private space, new lighting needs and temporary walls as some of the limitations of the Princeton St. gallery space, and said that the scale of shows will be smaller than what the gallery usually features.

Like Wong, Fitz notes that there are some limitations posed by the change in gallery space, but Fitz looks forward to the challenge.

“A construction project of this scale can’t help but being disruptive, but the finished product will be beautiful,” Fitz said. “It’s a good challenge. It’s going to be fun.”

The Art Senior Seminar will also be held in the temporary gallery space, which studio art major Keith Couture ’11 says the students in the seminar have already dubbed “The Duplex.” Couture says that the space is smaller than the former gallery, and is also a non-traditional space for a gallery because it’s broken up in ways that make it challenging to display art.

However, Couture echoes Fitz’s willingness to rise to the challenges the new gallery space poses for art shows.

“I think most of us feel that limitations such as this often force or breed more creative solutions to visual problems,” Couture said.

“For me at least, making art is often about problem solving, and part of the joy of making art is the joy of problem solving. If we, as artists, are to be able to exhibit within the restrictions of any gallery, it is only to our benefit to be able to create great art in a space as limited as a duplex.”

According to Fitz the student and senior art shows will begin to be installed at the end of March, and the gallery will hold some outside programming as well. A full exhibition cycle will resume next year.duration of Phase One.

“If this house was be all end all, it would be a problem,” gallery curator Gregory Fitz said. “But we’re happy to have a place near campus.”

Before construction began, art handler specialists were hired to inventory and move over 500 pieces of art in the college’s permanent collection stored beneath the former gallery space.

Fitz cited a lack of distinction between public and private space, new lighting needs and temporary walls as some of the limitations of the Princeton St. gallery space, and said that the scale of shows will be smaller than what the gallery usually features.

Like Wong, Fitz notes that there are some limitations posed by the change in gallery space, but Fitz looks forward to the challenge.

“A construction project of this scale can’t help but being disruptive, but the finished product will be beautiful,” Fitz said. “It’s a good challenge. It’s going to be fun.”

The Art Senior Seminar will also be held in the temporary gallery space, which studio art major Keith Couture ’11 says the students in the seminar have already dubbed “The Duplex.” Couture says that the space is smaller than the former gallery, and is also a non-traditional space for a gallery because it’s broken up in ways that make it challenging to display art.

However, Couture echoes Fitz’s willingness to rise to the challenges the new gallery space poses for art shows.

“I think most of us feel that limitations such as this often force or breed more creative solutions to visual problems,” Couture said.

“For me at least, making art is often about problem solving, and part of the joy of making art is the joy of problem solving. If we, as artists, are to be able to exhibit within the restrictions of any gallery, it is only to our benefit to be able to create great art in a space as limited as a duplex.”

According to Fitz, the student and senior art shows will begin to be installed at the end of March, and the gallery will hold some outside programming as well. A full exhibition cycle will resume next year.