Photos by Alexandra Scoville
The ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts’ School of Art officially established its presence downtown on Friday with the grand opening of Step Gallery, located in the Levine Machine warehouse.
Guests that attended the grand opening were able to visit the new graduate student art gallery location in order to tour the School of Art’s new studio facilities in the Levine Machine and chat with masters of fine arts students in their new studio spaces.
The open house-style event drew quite a crowd to downtown’s warehouse district.
“We have openings all the time, we have events, but this is the most (people) we’ve seen in a long time,” said Adriene Jenik, the director of the School of Art.
Michael Levine, owner of the Levine Machine, expressed a similar view.
“It’s a dream come true for everybody here, they’ve been waiting for something of this magnitude for 20-some years … I’m just watching the smiles on everyone’s faces, it’s very gratifying,” Levine said. “It’s lived up to the hype, and it’s cliche, but it’s just the beginning.”
Only the painting and drawing MFA students have been moved to the new space in the Levine Machine, but the sculpture, fibers and intermedia students will be moving downtown later in the spring as well.
“I think that it’s going to be really wonderful for all of the graduate students because not only are the painting and drawing graduate students here now in this space currently, but then all the other graduate students are going to be coming to this space also,” said Rossi Todorova, a Herberger Institute alumna and the development coordinator for the ASU Art Museum. “So having everyone all in one room is going to create a great sense of energy and change of ideas.”
“They have a lot more space than we did before and I hope people come down and look at the Step Gallery because the exhibit is going to be changing weekly, and I think it’s going to be a really great draw for the public to see what ASU is doing even if they’re not in Tempe.”
Dan Lam, an MFA student with a painting emphasis, agreed the School of Art’s presence downtown would not only provide the students with more opportunities, but also contribute to the area’s burgeoning arts scene.
“I feel like when we were on ASU’s campus, it felt a little bit more separated. First Fridays happen down here, the art scene’s more down here,” Lam said.
The grand opening came soon after last year’s announcement that the Herberger Institute would move five of its ten graduate programs to the Levine Machine.
While the School of Art prepares to expand its influence downtown even further, John Risseeuw, a professor at the School of Art, said it is important to remember the School of Art is still Tempe-based.
“The School of Art is still on the campus in Tempe. That’s where we teach, that’s where our teaching students are,” Risseeuw said. “This is for graduate students to work and there’s a gallery here and there’s an art presence here, but the School of Art is not here.”
Contact the reporter at pkunthar@asu.edu
