ASU awarded grant for arts spot

A $25 million challenge grant described as the largest gift ever to Arkansas State University will go toward building an “anchor” for a new arts and innovation district, Chancellor Kelly Damphousse said Friday.

The Little Rock- based Windgate Foundation pledged the amount to ASU, with $20 million directed toward construction of what will be known as the Windgate Hall of Art and Innovation. The pledge also includes $5 million to establish an endowment for building maintenance.

“What Windgate Hall will do is bring us together: art and engineering, art and computer science, art and business,” Damphousse said. “Art and anyone else who wants to join the party. There’s going to be a lot of that happening now, and now we have a place to do it.”

He announced the grant to applause on the Jonesboro campus, then presented concept drawings of the building as well as a wider campus plan with features such as an outdoor performance amphitheater as well as various new outdoor art display areas.

Windgate Hall will “anchor the new Art and Innovation District on our campus,” Damphousse said, speaking later of “the challenge of the fundraising task in front of us.”

He said fundraising will be not only to support the new Windgate Hall, but also be done to “transform the area of campus” into a full district.

The challenge grant follows many millions in grants from the Windgate Foundation to support the building of new arts facilities at several colleges in the state, including in recent years two separate grants totaling $70 million in support of art buildings at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

The Windgate Foundation had previously given about $15 million in support to ASU over the past several years, including principal funding for the $7.9 million Windgate Center for Three-Dimensional Arts that opened this fall.

Damphousse described the new plans as coming out of talks following that project, with the university interested in “doing something beyond just art, to do something inclusive of art and other things, because we truly believe that art is part of everything.”

Robyn Horn, chair of the Windgate Foundation board of directors, in a statement released by ASU said: “We are pleased to partner with A-State in this unique opportunity to advance visual art collaborations across academic fields.”

Damphousse said the Art and Innovation District will be not just for the university, but also the Jonesboro community and beyond.