It’s all in a day’s work for studio-art major Christy Galloway ’17: She’s sculpting a piece of fruit in clay and preparing to make a plaster cast, an assignment for Sculpture I. But the space where she is working is hardly run-of-the-mill. On the wall, a sign announces, “We now have gluten-free desserts.”

Galloway is taking ARTS 207 in what used to be Beebe’s kitchen and dining room, because the art studios in Pendleton West have disappeared. In late summer and early fall, the building was gutted to prepare the way for a new center for the creative arts.

Midway through Galloway’s senior year, she and other art students will move into gleaming studios, loft-like spaces that will capitalize on the light from north-facing windows. State-of-the-art facilities will be available for traditional and new media—from production studios for audio and visual work to safe environments for casting and woodworking.

The Jewett-Pendleton connector came down this fall, and jackhammers pounded inside Pendleton. Heavy equipment moved in to excavate the foundation for a new 10,000-square-foot music pavilion, which will provide sorely needed rehearsal, performance, and recording space.

“Ensembles and students are often vying for rehearsal space,” says music major Fiona Boyd ’16. “Jewett Auditorium is the only viable performance space in the arts complex, and it was designed in a way that really does not suit the needs of the current music department.… I’m really excited to see how Wellesley will provide a performance space worthy of students’ talent.”