Published: April 14, 2022
A Place for Creative Spirits To Shine
The new Ferman Center for the Arts is a stunning, 90,000-square-foot space on campus for music, theater, art, design, film and more. Enjoy this visual tour of some of the four-story building’s most impressive aspects.
By Josh Napier ’13 and Emily Young
Photography by Marc Vaughn
The 200-seat Charlene A. Gordon Theater is acoustically optimized with custom cedar panels to both reflect and diffuse sound.
The Charlene and Mardy Gordon Performance Gallery is in the lobby. A circular staircase leads to the second-floor study area and gallery.
Saunders Foundation Art Gallery Photograph: Bob Thompson
Located on the first floor, the Saunders Foundation Art Gallery is a visually inspiring introduction to the Ferman Center for the Arts. The 3,700-square-foot gallery is a spectacular space for showcasing artwork by students, faculty and visiting artists.
The painting studio is furnished with movable taborets to provide flexibility for students to create art of all sizes. The studio has natural lighting, enhanced ventilation, large-format printers and more.
Photographs: Grand Opening, Jessica Leigh
At the grand opening of the Ferman Center for the Arts on April 1, President Ronald Vaughn and others gave remarks to a large crowd. Later, attendees were treated to performances and presentations by students studying the arts.
Photographs: Ferman Family, Bob Thompson
The Ferman Center for the Arts is named in honor of the Ferman family, longtime supporters of UT (seen above with the building’s time capsule). Lead building donors Jim and Celia Ferman and other members of the Ferman family, including the Straskes and Farriors, are inextricably linked to Tampa and the University. With a 70-year legacy of supporting the University, the Ferman family has championed this world-class home for all of UT’s arts, music, dance and theater programs. The building’s architectural features and overall quality aligns with their vision of enriching the Tampa Bay arts community.
UT’s dance students enjoy the many benefits of the Liz and Jim MacLeod Dance Studios. At nearly 5,700 combined square feet, the studios’ professional-quality, sprung sub-flooring makes it easier for dancers to perform difficult movements and helps prevent injury. One studio is also fitted with hardwood for classes such as tap, ballroom and hip-hop. Equipped with a dedicated 2.1 sound system, both studios have the technology for formal dance presentations and video viewings of professional dance productions.
The sculpture studio and woodshop have been expanded to accommodate both course offerings and students’ creative capacities in traditional media and emerging technologies.
The well-equipped woodshop is large enough to accommodate an entire studio course. The room is outfitted with the latest technology, including a professional-grade ventilation system to ensure a clean, safe working environment for students.
Woodshop students are provided with the knowledge, tools and technology to bring their ideas to life. Distinguished faculty have professional experience as artists, custom furniture builders and carpenters.
The grand rehearsal and chamber rehearsal rooms can be used separately or combined to seat a 36-member ensemble or an 82-member orchestra, respectively. Both rooms have optimized diffusion and adjustable reverberation decay time and are acoustically isolated via a floating floor to provide optimal sound quality for group rehearsals. They can also be video linked with the recording studio control room during large ensemble recording sessions.
UT’s state-of-the-art recording studio provides students with the latest digital technology, as well as traditional analog control and mixing to develop the essential knowledge and technical proficiency for careers in the music industry.
The four-room recording studio is comprised of an acoustically isolated live room, an industry-grade control room and two isolation rooms with clear sight lines from the recording console to anywhere in the studio.
An immersive audio 8.4.1 speaker array with Genelec Studio Monitors facilitates recording and mixing in a variety of formats including Dolby Atmos, Ambisonic 8.1, 7.1, 5.1, Quadrophonic and more.
Students also use the studio to record the creative works of their classmates and faculty, fostering important cross-disciplinary connections and collaborations.
Piano Lab Photograph: Bob Thompson
In addition to the recording studio, the fourth floor of the Ferman Center houses a music technology lab, piano lab, 14 individual acoustically enhanced practice rooms, two sound-insulated music classrooms, music teaching studios and classrooms.