The Wellington & Margaret McDonald Center for Humanities & Social Sciences has new changes coming! This building in the heart of campus has served the university well for many years and it will continue to do so after an extensive renovation. On March 4, 2026, there will be a ground-breaking ceremony to kick off the renovation of this building. The ceremony is at 9:30am with the ground-breaking at 10am. There will be light refreshments served. We hope to see you there!
The McDonald building has had changes before. Many will remember it was once called the Liberal Arts Center. However, it underwent a name change in honor of the McDonalds for their generous donations and support of the arts. Students from 2000–2025 knew it as “the McDonald”. The McDonalds were inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame in 2000. The McDonald Building expansion will include Fine Arts programs into the renovated space (approx. 20,000-40,000) sq ft addition. It will create a central hub for arts, supporting student growth. The expansion is a key piece of Utah Tech University’s strategic plan to modernize facilities, centralize programs, and support its growing student population. It is estimated to be completed in about two years, the work carried out by the Zwick Construction company.
For many years, the Utah Tech University Art Department has been housed in the North Plaza Building, a former grocery facility built in the ‘60s that was later converted into an educational building. However, it is long past its shelf life and incredibly isolated from the rest of campus. The University has committed to relocating programs within the space and demolishing the structure. As such, the Art Department’s planned new home is the McDonald Center. It will serve various College of the Arts programs including Ceramics & Sculpture; Illustration, Painting, & Drawing; Photography; and Entertainment Arts & Animation.
This is grand news indeed, as Utah Tech is one of three public universities in Utah to have an Animation program. The top priority is to provide high quality specialized spaces for the existing programs with capacity to grow the size and level of offerings within the College. It is expected that the updated facility will support Art Department program growth of 350 Art Majors and 900 non-majors within five years, 500 Art Majors and 1,200 non-majors within ten years, and the overall institutional enrollment growth goal of 3% to 5% annually through Art program enrollment. Opportunities will abound for student art display as well as campus and community engagement. It will provide improved quality of spaces for proper light and light control, proper ventilation, and the addition of needed functions (sinks, changing rooms, storage, etc.). Teaching and learning art is a creatively messy affair with many necessities for function and safety!
“With the opening of the new General Classroom Building, the McDonald building will now undergo renovations and expansion to house the Art Department. Watch for updates on this project which will double the size of the current building, and transform the space into high quality visual art space,” stated Jeff Jarvis, Dean of the College of the Arts at Utah Tech University. He helped push these as the America First Performing Arts Center renovations in the interest of improving the Arts programs on campus. These much needed transformations will foster the vibrant and unique UTU Art Program in the core of campus. “I am thrilled to see the academic arts in southern Utah be so well supported with innovations!” said Allyson Twitchell, Marketing Coordinator for the College of the Arts. “I remember how excited I was to get the new art building at my undergrad institution. I got out of an old, stuffy ‘70s building with no windows into a beautiful, new building with so many windows! I hope the art students here at Utah Tech appreciate this fantastic opportunity. I know it will be well worth the wait.” Eager for the building’s completion, freshman Art student, Brenna Haglund said, “I’m super excited for the new art building, I can’t wait to see how it’s set up!”
by Allyson Twitchell, Marketing Coordinator for the College of the Arts