Ranee Henderson’s life has changed dramatically since the opening of Art Center’s new 870 Building. Since she doesn’t own a car, the 7th-term Illustration major and Fine Arts minor typically lugged a heavy backpack plus a carry-on bag stuffed with supplies, all while juggling a large canvas, every day on the bus ride from her home in Eagle Rock to Pasadena–where she then boarded the campus shuttle to reach her Hillside destination.
Carrying around all that extra weight is now a thing of the past. Today, Henderson–along with her art supplies–happily occupies one of 47 individual studio spaces in the newest addition to the College’s expanding South campus.
Last week, the campus community celebrated the opening of the light-drenched, architecturally distinctive building at a party for students, faculty and staff with slider and taco food trucks and Art Center alumnus, DJ Humberto Flores, spinning tunes.
“It’s really the ideal situation,” Henderson said at the event. Thanks to the new studio space, she’s exercising more and no longer works in the same room where she sleeps at home. She won’t miss those chilly winter nights when she was forced to leave the windows open in order to help ventilate her live/work space.
Henderson appreciates being able to separate her work and home lives. “Home is where I relax. The studio is where I get busy and work. When I graduate, I definitely plan on having a studio away from home to help me focus,” she said.
Brando Mamone, 4th-term Fine Art student, says being around other students and faculty creates a dialogue. “I can already see it influencing the work,” says the artist who explores color, composition and perception in his science fiction-influenced paintings.
“Having a studio totally changed my work because I had a community, it was the best thing that happened,” he said. “This space is opening up so many more amazing opportunities.”
“It’s really thrilling to see the community interacting,” said Tom Knechtel, Fine Art faculty member (and former interim department Chair). “You can see how the creativity catches fire because there’s a communal aspect that we didn’t have before.”
The building’s design, exhibition spaces, computer labs and flexible classrooms are a result of an impressive community effort to create a new space to meet a variety of academic needs for the Fine Art and Illustration Departments.
“We wanted to create a situation for the students that would help them make the transition from being students with teachers to being artists with artists,” he said. “They’re in spaces that encourage them to build networks that will hopefully last throughout their professional careers.”
Shane Rivera, 8th-term Fine Art student, makes it a point to keep his studio door open. He had a studio on Hillside, but he says 870 is a more productive and social space.
“There’s this sort of feedback loop that happens here. It’s cyclical. Through conversation, through osmosis even, just being around each other allows for a sort of melding of minds.”
Henderson says she feels much more productive, especially after collaborating with three peers on “Renovation,” the first gallery exhibition to go up in the building’s main entrance lobby. The faculty asked the team to respond to the new space. The group had 10 days to deliver. One artist focused on lighting, another created a sound installation featuring a robot’s voice obtaining building permits, and Henderson, who was inspired by the history of the building, painted four portraits depicting mail carriers throughout time–an homage to the building’s former life as a U.S. postal facility.
