Starting in the fall 2025 semester, App State’s art department began the process of moving into a renovated Wey Hall. Here, art professors have more space and new tools that allow them to modernize their work in a safe environment.
“It’s so much more fun here than it used to be,” said Mark Nystrom, a graphic design professor. “We can do stuff here we couldn’t ever think of doing before.”
Renovating Wey Hall to provide new technology and improved safety standards has been a dream of art professors for years. When the time came to rebuild Wey Hall, faculty were put in the driver’s seat to decide how to design the building to suit their needs best.
“When they did the programming for the design of the building, they really did think about pedagogy,” Nystrom said. “A lot of the design of this building was led by professors by just asking them what they needed.”
Some of the technologies the renovation provided are a new graphic design lab, 3D printers, an improved foundry, outdoor kilns, plasma lasers for the woodshop and a new ventilation system for the building.
“I think the big relief has been that we finally have what we’ve been talking about for the last 10 years,” said Adam Adcock, the art department’s research and lab operations manager. “We have a place to be to do what serves our needs.”
The concerns of art professors and students came to a head in the spring of 2023, when the art department had to relocate out of Wey Hall as a result of structural failures in the building. Graphic design, fine art and photography classes moved into East Hall, while woodworking and ceramic classes moved into the Edwin Duncan Octagon at Katherine Harper Hall.
East Hall, built as a dorm in 1952 and now home to the Office of Sustainable Development, offered smaller class sizes but lacked critical infrastructure to facilitate the art department’s needs. Classroom spaces were small, and painters had to use trays of water on carts in the hallways because of the lack of sinks in the building.
“They came up with some creative solutions,” Adcock said. “But imagine trying to give a demo to four students at a time or cram all 15 into one little dorm room.”
In spite of the initial discomfort, Bailey Arend, a lecturer and digital fabrication lab manager, found that East Hall’s smaller class sizes suited some of his subjects well.
“It was nice because we had a bunch of small rooms,” Arend said. “You could specialize and say this room is for this process and this room is for this process. There were definitely risks and benefits of East.”
A major new feature of Wey Hall is the department store on the third floor, which allows students to restock on art supplies without leaving the building. The addition of the department store comes as Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff, a longstanding art supply institution in Western North Carolina, closed its doors earlier this year.
“Obviously, it’s hard to replace Cheap Joe’s,” said Amy Johnson, the chair of the art department. “We can at least fill the gap on things that are common. But everyone in the community will miss its convenience and its range.”
Johnson, who joined the App State faculty in fall 2024, never experienced the old Wey Hall, having her first office in East Hall last year. Today, she has an office on the first floor of Wey Hall with high ceilings and a large window overlooking campus. Johnson believes the sense of community the new Wey Hall has brought is the most worthwhile part of the remodel.
“I’m just so excited for the ability for the students to be together,” Johnson said. “To finally be able to run into people is great.”
As the final stages of construction on Wey Hall are in sight, the art department is holding a gallery show Friday featuring alumni artwork. This will be the first show held in the department’s new gallery, celebrating the new era of the art department with a collection of work from its past.
