The Visual Arts Center marks the eastern entrance to Dartmouth’s campus, where the college engages the town of Hanover, New Hampshire. The project transforms a set of significant buildings into a re-envisioned Arts Precinct for the College. A hardscaped Arts Plaza, the centerpiece of this new precinct, and provides a formal entrance from Lebanon Street to the Hood Museum. 

For the first time in Dartmouth’s history, the building consolidates the Studio Art, and Film and Media departments under one roof. The facility houses sculpture, printmaking, photography, architecture, painting, and drawing studios, as well as state-of-the-art film production, animation, and editing spaces.  

At the heart of the Visual Arts Center lies the Arts Forum, a three-story central atrium that brings light and air into the core of the urban block. Surrounding the space, teaching spaces and studios are organized into discrete program neighborhoods that open to the Arts Forum on all three levels, and, in doing so, promoting cross-disciplinary interaction and the collegial sharing of ideas. 

“We are looking forward to taking advantage of this technologically advanced facility, and its strategic location in Dartmouth’s Arts District, to connect the visual arts with the other humanities and the science departments in shaping and preparing our students to assume their future roles as artists and cultural leaders.”

— Colleen Randalls, Chair of the Studio Art Department