No shovels lifted dirt into the air on a recent rainy spring afternoon but when the Fine Arts Preview event in the History Room at Tift Hall was over, the mission was accomplished.  Construction on the new Fine Arts Building at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is underway.

ABAC President David Bridges and Dr. Susan Roe, Department Head for Fine Arts, both elaborated on how the new 24,000-square foot building will complete the traditional “Sweetheart Circle” on the front of the campus.

“This college has always emphasized the arts,” Bridges said, pointing to a picture of the Frank Park Literary Society at the Second District Agricultural and Mechanical School in 1911.

Bridges then cited other examples such as the organization of the South Georgia A&M College Glee Club in 1925, C.J. Dismukes directing the Georgia State College for Men band in 1932, and George P. Donaldson directing the Baldwin Players in their first performance on Dec. 15, 1933.

“ABAC has always held a special place in its heart for the arts,” Bridges said.  “But there has never been a home for the arts that they could call their own.  That’s why we wanted this building on the front of campus.  When I was a student here in 1978, we could hear the band and the chorus practicing on the third floor of Conger Hall.”

The projected plan for the first floor of the building includes the band rehearsal room, instrument storage, the band and choral music library, the choral rehearsal room, band and choral storage, music faculty offices, and a keyboard laboratory.

The second floor will feature individual music practice rooms, a recording control room, art faculty offices, painting/general art labs, visual arts material storage, student work storage, a display area, and a computer design lab. Music students will have easy access to nearby Howard Auditorium, the concert venue for the choral program, the jazz band, and the concert band.

Roe, who also directs the ABAC choral program and originated the popular First Tuesday Concerts on the campus, introduced all the existing faculty and former faculty members in attendance at the event.  She also showed interior shots of the building on a screen over her right shoulder.

“The building will have practice space for our orchestra and another space for our choir so they can practice at the same time without drowning each other out,” Roe said. “There will also be individual practice rooms which are acoustically controlled.

“You just don’t know how much I am looking forward to being in this building.  It’s like a dream come true for everyone in the music program here at ABAC.”

Construction on the building is scheduled to be completed in the spring semester of 2020.