The old downtown Bay building would make a perfect home for the University of Alberta’s vast art and artifact collection, but the U of A can’t find an outside partner to share the space.

Instead of looking to an outside group, the should jump on this opportunity and take the building for themselves.

The U of A should not just move their art collection: they should move their whole Art and Design department downtown along with it.

The benefits of this idea are tremendous. The people of Edmonton and, importantly, Art and Design students specifically, would finally have access to the University’s impressive but little-seen art and artifact collection.

The students would suffer little in the move to an off-campus site (the department already centralizes the classes for BFA and MFA students, and the LRT provides a quick connection across the river, in any case).

In the trade, students would be closer to Edmonton’s museums, galleries, and artist-run centres; all of which happen to be downtown.

Art and Design students would bring business to Edmonton’s struggling cultural institutions and struggling downtown merchants alike. Anyone in doubt of the economic spinoff that results from a proximity to art students need only look to Whyte Ave.

The features of the Bay building that are considered by developers to be its greatest flaws (huge open spaces, historical designation) are what make it perfect as an art school.

A downtown art school would bring colour and life to our city’s core in ways that are indescribable (indescribably in a letter to the editor, at any rate). It’s a win for citizens, the university, the students, and downtown: an all around win for Edmonton.

Ryan McCourt, MFA, Edmonton