Emily Foster
Contributor
The student art gallery in Malone has been converted into temporary office space for displaced faculty due to the flooding that occurred before classes started, but will return to regularly scheduled displays in September.
Sam Hankins, a junior theater major from Birmingham, was working in the office of Malone at the time of the flood.
“Every office and art space was flooded and needs to be fixed,” Hankins said. “(The water) was ankle deep.”
The student art gallery is currently being used as an interim office space while the damaged offices and classrooms are being cleaned, repainted, retiled and recarpeted.
The faculty will be moved back into their offices after they have been thoroughly cleaned. Once that happens, the art instillations that were originally scheduled for this time will be put on display.
Greg Skaggs, associate professor of art, denied the rumors that the space might be permanently converted into office space.
“I don’t think there are any scheduled renovations for Malone at all,” Skaggs said. “And I know the gallery will stay strictly a gallery.”
Skaggs also confirmed that there is a full schedule of art to be displayed this semester. Russel Everett, a lecturer of art, will be have a drawing show in the gallery beginning in September and staying through the middle of October.
Beginning Nov. 1, there will be a student art sale in the gallery where students’ pieces will be available for purchase until Thanksgiving. An exhibition for the collaborative studio class will go up at the end of November through the end of the fall semester.
Along with these main features, there will be a display of artwork by students who participated in the study abroad trip to India this summer.
Kayle Weeks, a junior graphic design major from Troy, expressed her appreciation for the gallery.
“I have met artists in this gallery that have helped broaden my view of art and how to perceive art,” Weeks said. “I have also seen several senior thesis exhibits come through the gallery, many of which were—and still are—my close friends, which inspired me to keep advancing in my career as an artist.”
The space provides a learning experience for how to display art, as well as a place for three-dimensional art pieces to be viewed.
As for further renovations for Malone, Carlie Nelson, a junior graphic design major from Montgomery, said that Malone desperately needs money to fix its classrooms.
“A lot of (classrooms) are falling apart already,” Nelson said. “Malone is one of the furthest behind departments because we don’t get any money.”