The FAB
This fall, Wesleyan reaffirms and expands its commitment to the arts with the opening of the Fries Arts Building. “The FAB,” as we call it, is the single largest expansion of our arts facilities since the opening of the Center for the Arts in 1973. It also represents Wesleyan’s distinctive, experimental approach to the arts. Designed to bring the artforms together, the FAB contains workspace for dancers, actors, performers, designers, and visual artists. With its Arts Commons, it is also the very first facility on our campus that provides a common space specifically designed for chance encounters between artists in different media.
Wesleyan is in a strong position to move in this direction precisely because of our incredible students. Bucking every national trend, our students are increasingly flocking to the arts. Over the past 10 years the number of students in our arts majors has grown by more than 50%, even while students elsewhere have become more cautious.
Introductory drawing classes in the FAB’s light-filled Drawing Studio bring first-year students and others at the beginning of their arts journey into an integrated arts environment—one that’s conducive to interdisciplinary curiosity, creativity, and cross-pollination.
Wesleyan students bring with them a boldness to try new forms and a commitment to the rigor it takes to refine those forms in practice. We began to notice this growth in the arts already in 2021, and it was then that we started making plans for more performance and artmaking spaces on our campus. Our process for planning the FAB reflects the best of Wesleyan’s community values. Over four years, we met countless times with faculty, students, staff, and community to find the best design that would work for the most people. The result is a space that resembles Wesleyan in its eclectic patterns and textures, its blend of old and new materials, and its wide open, inviting volumes.
The FAB will help us to provide every Wesleyan student the opportunity to create an artwork. Among its components are the Design Lab and Design Studio, which greatly supplement our growing program at the intersections of studio art, design, and engineering; the Movement Studio, which among other things will give our numerous student dance clubs a place to rehearse; the Black Box Theater, a performance classroom that is the very first space on campus purpose-built as a black box theater venue; and finally, the Drawing Studio, which functions as the gateway to all of the arts and, specifically, the art studio major.
A blank slate for innovative productions, the Black Box Theater allows for configurations that were formerly impossible at Wesleyan. One entire wall of the theater is a garage-style door, enabling creators to stage indoor-outdoor productions.
The Fries Arts Building honors Mike Fries ’85, former Wesleyan trustee, media entrepreneur, and a leader in the world of arts philanthropy. Mike and his family have been incredibly generous in giving us their full confidence and trust through the joyful process of planning and constructing this building. As the FAB, the name also nods to fabrication and making, alluding to the physical craft that is the foundation of the visual and performing arts. But FAB also calls up fabulation and the fabulous (which comes from fables): storytelling and dreaming. This is what I hope that the FAB will be for all of us. It’s a place to craft your dream.
—Roger Mathew Grant, Dean of the Arts and Humanities, Deputy Provost, and Professor of Music
Scenes from The FAB
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The FAB’s Movement Studio is a lab for student learning and experimentation in lighting design and choreography. With large windows offering natural light, programmable LED overhead and side lights, and moveable mirrors, it’s a versatile practice and performance space. “When I walk into the FAB, I feel like creating,” says dance major Ry De Guzman ’28.
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Product design students can take group instruction around a large main table, while work tables to the side enable them to develop their individual projects. “There are so many different spaces to work in the Design Studio,” says Eleanor Freeman ’27. “It's exciting to be one of the first people to use this space.”
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In the Black Box Theater, a tension wire grid above the performance area creates a walkable gallery for the setup and management of stage lights and audio rigging. This industry-standard equipment provides a professional environment in which technical theater students can practice their craft.
