ASMSA Celebrating 25 years
The 2018-19 academic year will be a special one for the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts — one 25 years in the making.
The school welcomed its charter class of students on Aug. 22, 1993, bringing 150 students from 55 counties across Arkansas to Hot Springs to attend a new school offering the promise of advanced courses in science and mathematics. At that time, the school was known as the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences, or ASMS as it was affectionately called by its students at the time.
Art classes were offered, but they were not emphasized in the curriculum. Even as the arts was officially added to the mission and the name of the school in 2004 by the state, the arts program did not flourish. Various faculty members taught visual arts courses in addition to their other classes. Graphic design, photography, documentary film and an interdisciplinary course of physics, music and woodworking were added, but the primary focus of the school remained on math and science courses.
In 2014, ASMSA hired its first full-time visual arts instructor, Brad Wreyford. A former library computer lab was converted into an art studio where classes could be taught and students could use as a workspace. Wreyford’s art primarily focuses on abstract painting and woodworking, which allowed the school to offer courses such as Modern Design and 3D Design in addition to the usual painting and drawing courses.
That will change this year as a second full-time arts instructor will join the faculty. Sara Henry — an artist with a Master’s in Fine Arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz who uses experimental casting and burnout techniques to create three-dimensional ceramic paintings and sculptures — will join the ASMSA faculty as an arts instructor this fall.
“These sculptures symbolize our evolution, our complexity, our history, and investigate our hidden emotions and thoughts within,” Henry says on her website, sarahenrystudio.com.
Just as in 2014, ASMSA will experience another new first in its arts program — a full-time music instructor. While the school has a choir and a band, they were both led by adjunct faculty, meeting once a week. Thomas Dempster, who has a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Texas at Austin, will become the school’s first full-time music instructor this fall.
ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice said the additional faculty members are an important step in fulfilling the school’s arts mission.
“Fully realizing the legislated arts mission of ASMSA has been a priority for our campus,” Alderdice said. “Students deserve a robust set of experiences across visual, digital and other forms of art. Developing creativity and promoting inter-
disciplinary learning have always been a part of the ASMSA experience. We see the growth of the arts not just for students who are passionate about the subject, but also in how the arts play a role across all disciplines.”
Dempster will take over duties as band director in addition to teaching various music courses. Besides the popular Folk Music and Acoustics class — which combines physics and music in an interdisciplinary course — students have not had the opportunity to take music courses that focused on music history, theory and composition.
Dempster will soon have access to something else the previous band director did not have — a dedicated rehearsal space designed specifically for the band and choir. The Creativity and Innovation Complex which is currently under construction will have a dedicated rehearsal space for both groups. The space will be on the second floor along with a community space large enough to hold performances.
The Creativity and Innovation Complex is progressing on target. Construction is expected to be completed by November, allowing the building to be ready for use in the spring 2019 semester. The $4.7-million facility will include classroom and workspaces for computer science and digital arts courses in addition to the rehearsal and assembly spaces.
It is the first new academic building constructed on campus since the school opened. The CIC is being completed without any debt through using existing funds and more than $700,000 in gifts, which includes a $300,000 grant from the Oaklawn Foundation — the single-largest gift in school history.
“The Creativity and Innovation Complex marks the next step in the physical evolution of the ASMSA campus,” Alderdice said. “We’re excited to have a facility of our own that accommodates all of our students and staff while also creating opportunities to engage with the Hot Springs community.”
The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees will hold a meeting in the building in March 2019. A 25-year anniversary gala celebrating the opening of the school in 1993 will be held on March 27, 2019.