Ball State University is leasing a space in downtown Muncie for student media and design programs, providing room for facilities not available on campus.
David Ferguson, executive director for media design, said the one-year lease of space in the Lofts at Mitchell Place, 301 S. Walnut, is made possible by a grant from the Lily Endowment Inc.
Students using this space are from the institutes for Digital Entertainment and Education, Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation and Digital Fabrication and Rapid Prototyping.
"The mission for IDEE is cinema, or film, and making movies," Ferguson said. "They will use that space for sound studio."
During the summer, faculty members looked at the needs for the institute, Ferguson said.
"The space and functions became clear. The students needed seven days a week to work full-time on those activities," Ferguson said. "It was a formless space with a big ceiling that we needed. We didn't have that on campus."
The owners of Mitchell Place called Ball State about leasing the space, Ferguson said. Mitchell Place was open to the public Sunday to showcase the remodeled building. A showcase will be held at a later date to showcase students' works, Ferguson said.
Rodger Smith, associate director at the Center for Media Design and director of the Institute for Digital Entertainment and Art, said the student open house is still a month or two away. He is helping to create plasma screens for the open house, he said.
"The plasma screens will be brought into the studio to display student works," he said. "It will be set up like a gallery."
Smith said 14 students already use the studio downtown. The students completed the first of three intensive workshops on Saturday, during which they presented 42 different pitches for scripts they would like to produce, Smith said.
"It's not traditional education," he said. "This is immersive. It's eight hours a day on a Saturday. The idea is that while you learn, you have products you're working on."
Mitchell Place has 10-14 condos, Smith said, and the university is leasing one small part of the building.
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