If you’re seeking a reprieve from your life as a student, look no further than the Kimball Visual Arts Center. Attached to the modern, minimalist Kimball Arts building is a dark-grey cement appendage, which is the largest dark room in the Northern basin area. In addition to the dark room, the fine arts building offers unique experiences for students.
The building’s white walls are covered with student art work. Giant, knitted blankets are a colorful adornment draped across one corner of the building. Another hallway is lined with pedastals that feature abstract sculptures.
Serving as a museum exhibiting student work, the Kimball Visual Arts Center also houses classrooms for students to develop their skills. The building provides some students with a refuge from the hectic day-to-day life of a student.
Emily Crooks, a senior in the criminal justice department at WSU, explained that she intended to work in a lab studying DNA upon graduating. However, a crime scene investigation class sparked an interest for her in photography, and with encouragement from a professor, Crooks signed up for a photography class.
Semester after semester, Crooks continued to sign up for photography classes and discovered she had passion and talent in the field.
Crooks said, “There’s something about the Kimball Art building that the other buildings don’t have. There is a sense of community there that I haven’t experienced anywhere else. My relationships with art students and professors are some of my most cherished relationships.
On top of that, I study gruesome things. I sit through PowerPoint slides of violent murder scenes and see humanity at its worst. When I can take an art class in between my other classes, that art class is a reminder of the beauty of humanity. The lessons and the people of Kimball bring me positivity in my day.”
