Students in the art history department are starting the semester in a new location that will give them a more comfortable study environment and additional space to work on projects.

The department moved to 44 N. Cleveland Ave. from its former home for the past decade, 2057 Portland Ave. Department chair Victoria Young said the working conditions in the previous house were not ideal.

“(The students were working) in a basement of an old 1920s St. Paul house,” Young said. “That’s where their computers were, their work stations. They would get out and do other things but that’s the only place where we could put our equipment they needed to be using when they were working on projects.”

Junior Justine Lloyd knows that all too well the difficulties the old location caused.

“The art history professors just give me a bunch of books that I scan them and document them, fill out all this data about them and edit them.” she said. “I was doing it in this dark basement that was unfinished before in the old house and now I’m on the second floor and it’s open.”

Josh Gallus, project manager for the university’s facilities management department, said plans for the move started in January.

“The space planning-committee and administration decides who moves where.” Gallus said. “But my understanding was that Art History requested or had a need for more space because the faculty were quite tight in 57 Portland … 44 Cleveland is a larger building and that’s why they made the choice to move them.”

Graduate student Samantha Wisneski, who started working with the department as an undergraduate, is glad the department decided to move to a new location. Wisneski worked in the department’s former home for three years.

“I think it was a good decision because although this department is small, it allows for more space, more collaborations between students,” she said. “It makes things easier.”

Lloyd is also happy with the department’s decision to move. She said it has benefited both undergraduate and graduate students.

Although Young is glad to have a new location for the department, she thinks it is important that there is a good home for the arts within the St. Thomas community. She hopes to someday have a building for the entire arts community, including music.

“There are a lot of things in motion right now that are going to change the landscape of this university,” she said. “I don’t know when that happens but that’s a goal and something that the Art History Department and the Music Department are working for. But in the meantime, where we are has allowed us to have facilitates we’re proud of.”

Simone Cazares can be reached at caza8656@stthomas.edu.