Wayne State College is renovating the Fine Arts building this year to provide music students with greater resources to achieve academic success. The band and the choir have outgrown their spaces, and according to the National Association for Schools of Music, there is a certain square footage required per singer and per instrument and the facilities in the Fine Arts building currently do not meet those requirements.

Yasuko Taoka, the Dean of Arts and Humanities, said it was dangerous for students in these smaller rooms because the volume being produced by certain instruments is too high. Now, they will have a bigger space for them to sing and play music.

The renovation will build a new wing on the east side of the building, and it will contain a big band rehearsal room in addition to a big choir rehearsal room. They are keeping in mind that the program may grow even more in the following years, so there is more space being added to accommodate that possibility.

“We’re also redoing Ramsey, it will be really cool to see what the renovation will look like. There’s new practice rooms downstairs and I think it will give the building a nice face lift. It’ll give the ensembles a good place to perform so they’re not in the basement anymore and when students come, they can be proud of the space they are in,” Taoka said. In the old practice rooms, students could hear one another practicing which would conflict their practicing time. That will no longer be an issue with the new practice rooms that are being added to the renovation.

This will directly benefit the music students and will allow practicing to go more smoothly and allow them to truly focus on themselves and their music. Academically this will affect many student musicians by giving them more space to perform. It will help them achieve success at Wayne State and give them a variety of opportunities after graduation when pursuing their career.

The music students and faculty are currently located in the Brandenburg Education building while Fine Arts is being renovated. For many of the ensembles there is currently not a room big enough for them during the renovation, so they are renting the Praise Assembly of God church in Wayne. The project will be completed in November 2022. WSC is hoping to have all students and faculty using the facility by the spring semester 2023.