Wet Painters

But it is the undergrads — who were formerly housed in the Lewis Center — who now benefit from the new studios on Wash. U.'s main campus. Workspaces for the 40 grad students were consolidated in the Lewis Center, a Classic Revival structure that was designed as an art school by the iconic local partnership Eames & Young and built in 1909. The building later served as a public school; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and was purchased by the university in 1998.

"We've attempted to repair it, and each time we were told it was repaired well and should be OK," Pike explains. "Unfortunately, that proved not to be the case."

Says student Taylor Wallace: "Your grad students are the ones who make your reputation in the art world, and I think the school is trying to transition into that mentality. But we're kind of 'out of sight, out of mind,' still. And that's why this issue needs to be brought up, not overlooked."

The roof is supposed to be fixed by the beginning of next semester, at which time seven artists will have to move back into Lewis from their temporary workspace in a university-owned building on nearby Vernon Avenue. Those students say they don't want the hassle of relocating again.

"They have tripled, if not quadrupled, the size of their studios [in moving to Vernon Avenue]," Olynyk notes. "They have been given absolutely stellar spaces where they can put together large-scale work, where they don't have to be under anybody's supervision and where they can run their own show for the next three months."

The art school, the grad-school director adds, can't afford to keep the students in the temporary studios.