“Your best may look different every day, and that’s okay. It’s enough.” ~ Unknown
Remember I said this past Wednesday, May 10, that it had been an extremely eventful, coincidental day? This is not the picture I intended to post about that, but it will convey the day’s sentiment. Let me start at the beginning.
I attended the KY Climate Consortium (KYCC) symposium on Wednesday, and the last two hours of the symposium were spent touring the Reynolds Building. I first posted about the Reynolds building in 2014 and again that same year when they held the last open studio in the building. In 2019, I posted this photo of the door into the darkroom of the Reynolds Building. There were so, so, so many memories made around and through this door, not just for me, but for every photo student that went through the program over the decades.
Last year, UK began the renovation of the building. Thankfully, they did not tear it down after the art studios were moved to another renovated building in 2015 but instead connected with an architecture firm and the College of Design to turn it into the new College of Design headquarters that will house the architecture, interior design, historic preservation, landscape architecture and two other programs that fall within the school. I can’t tell you how funny it is to me that I will finish my academic career in the same building where I started my academic career because they will have the building done for my last year in the HP program. When I entered the Historic Preservation program, I had no idea they planned to turn the Reynolds Building into the College of Design headquarters. And I think even they weren’t entirely sure it would happen. It took years of fundraising to make it happen. Ironically, I learned on Wednesday that the College of Architecture had started in the Reynolds Building before it was turned over to the College of Fine Arts. Like me, it seems to be coming full circle. But these weren’t the biggest coincidences of the day.
You met my old friend Keith Ingram also way back in 2014. Even though we’re both on campus, we almost never run into one another, and our social circles don’t cross very often. Keith is in UK’s Capital Projects as a project manager. Who should be our tour guide of the Reynolds Building? None other than Keith! While we were in the construction trailer, he gave the KYCC group a great talk about the efforts to keep the building in an energy-efficient, sustainable manner. In fact, we were in the trailer because they were just outside drilling the geothermal wells to heat and cool the building. Anyway, he also told the story of when he came with me to the Reynolds Building to help get some of my large sculpture pieces and how decrepit the place was. Neither of us realized that day was the 26th anniversary of my graduation when he told the story. After the brief lecture, we were given a tour of the building, and what door should we enter through? The darkroom door. I walked in, and Keith asked, “Do you recognize it?” Yes and no. It’s the same door, but all the walls are gone. The blue-painted wood floor was stripped and sanded back to natural wood. I didn’t smell fixer. And still, I knew exactly where I was, and as we moved throughout the now completely gutted warehouse, I knew where studios were, where the bathrooms were, where everything used to be. The workers had been making quite a few jokes about all the graffiti they’d uncovered throughout the process. I imagine it was…. interesting.
I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of UK for not tearing down this huge piece of history. It’s not just my history, but thousands of people who spent countless time and tears in that building, learning and honing their crafts. Artists: we don’t make much money, and we’re not the alumni universities court. We’re not the people buildings are named after. Those are alumni from other colleges like business and engineering. But we are the little engines that could. We express our societies in all their fits and starts in ways that most can’t or won’t, calling attention to the world’s wrongs more often than most. The entire time I was in the College of Fine Arts, rumours swirled about its demise, that the University saw no value in a college that produced low-payed alumni. I was heartened to see that wasn’t true when they moved the studio arts to a new building in 2015, and I am heartened again to see the University step up and give the College of Design a central location in a building designed for collaborative learning as all the disciplines under the design umbrella need. Most of all, I am beyond grateful that my old friend Keith could walk me through that darkroom door one more time and into the new life of the Reynolds Building. What a blessing that was.
Oh, you’re probably wondering why I’m not showing photos of the Reynolds Building from Wednesday. I was very kindly asked by the construction overseer to let him see the photos before using them. I was happy to oblige. He still hasn’t gotten back to me, but when he does, you’ll know.
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