Art Chowder March | April 2018, Issue 14 | Page 24

Washington
State University’s
New Art Museum
BY KAREN MOBLEY
T
he Jordon Schnitzer Museum of Art
at Washington State University will open
to the public on April 6 at noon. The
building is in the center of the Pullman,
Washington campus across from Martin
Stadium. You will not miss it. It is
RED. It was once the campus public
safety building. Museums have often
been referred to as envelopes—beautiful
enclosures to envelop art and ideas. This
new museum is a glorious red cube. A
jewel. A crimson lady.
The building is covered with
unique seven-layered glass cladding
manufactured in Denmark. If you
are a “Coug” you will recognize the
distinctive color as WSU red. You have
to experience it to fully comprehend
the color, the glow and shimmer, and
the reflective, light-absorbing quality of
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
the material. In certain light, it almost
disappears and you can see the sky, trees
and surrounding buildings. At other
times of day, it looks like it is radiating a
special scarlet light. When you enter the
building, it feels like you are arriving in
a new world. Architects for the project
are Jim Olson of Olson Kundig, Steven
Rainville of Design West, and Hoffman
Construction Design Build Team.
This is an exciting project with the full
support of WSU President Kirk Schulz
and the community. For nearly 30 years,
since past President Sam Smith and then
Museum Director Patricia Watkinson
separated the art museum from the art
department and began the quest to create
a significant regional art museum, a new
building has been on the horizon. The
museum serves the entire university,
the community of Pullman and all the
communities in the Inland Northwest.
This project has been hard-won with
significant programming enhancements
and fundraising. Past Museum of
Art Director Chris Bruce carried the
water for this project from 2003 to
2016 and deserves recognition for his
fundraising prowess and dedication. The
museum has expanded and deepened
its programming, and along with it
the audience, in preparation for the
new building. The museum has a staff
of five remarkably hardworking and
indefatigable individuals led by Anna-
Maria Shannon, interim director. After
a search, the University will hire a new
director to begin by summer of 2018.