As the University deals with budget cuts, the LSU School of Art joins a list of departments struggling to keep up services.  Though the School of Art has operated the gallery in Foster Hall for a couple decades, last summer’s budget cuts are forcing the school to find other options to keep up with the facility. Rod Parker, School of Art director, said the school no longer has a full-time staff member to run the Foster Hall gallery and is relying on graduate students to run the facility. “We’ve been able to do it with string, ceiling wax, goodwill and careful organization,” he said. But, the budget cuts coincided with the Student Union renovations, leading to a perfect merger between the School of Art and the Union Art Gallery.Parker said the Union Art Gallery is moving its operations from the Union to Foster Hall during the renovations, which will last until the summer. “The merger gives us a year to reorganize and plan how to run the gallery next year,” he said. Judi Stahl, Union Art Gallery director, said the gallery didn’t have any problems with the transition but is seeing fewer visitors than in the Union. “We didn’t anticipate the same volume of visitors, but we’re doing our best to make people aware of the new location,” she said. Stahl said the Union Art Gallery will use the facility to host Union Gallery shows, in addition to financing class-required shows from the School of Art. The School of Art graduate students use the Foster Hall Gallery to display student’s final shows. Stahl said the Union Gallery is planning its schedule around graduate exhibitions, allowing the students to host shows. The next School of Art student exhibit will take place Dec. 8 to 18. Next semester’s student exhibits are April 12 to May 7 and May 11 to 21. The Union Art Gallery opened in Foster Hall on Nov. 6, with an exhibit entitled “Notes from the Artistic Underground.” The exhibition follows with the School of Art’s Invisible Populations Project, and runs until Dec. 4. The University cut approximately 10 percent of the School of Art’s budget — because of tenured positions and other restrictions, the cuts come from the operations budget, Parker said. He said the school is working to distribute the cuts evenly across the program while preparing for a potential second round of cuts next year. The school is trying to offset cuts through other means, like art sales. “It takes discipline, but there’s a certain satisfaction in keeping operations running with the difficulties of budget cuts,” Parker said. “Foster is an essential part of the educational mission … we plan to think strategically and balance resources to continue the gallery.” Shirley Plakidas, LSU Student Union director, said the west side of the Union, which includes the art gallery, is undergoing ceiling work and mechanical touch-ups, as part of required building code updates. Stahl said the Union Art Gallery expects to move back to the Union for the start of the fall 2010 semester.”The Foster Hall Gallery is a beautiful gallery,” she said. “I hope more visitors will come to the gallery and see this beautiful area.” Colin Ash, marketing junior and Union Art Gallery student worker, said the Foster Hall location is calmer than the Union Gallery because of less traffic. “Aesthetically, it’s a great gallery,” he said. “But we’re seeing less visitors. The Union has a lot of traffic, so more people come to see the shows.” Parker said the budget cuts give graduate students valuable experience in running a gallery, but the cuts also come with negative aspects. “It’s important to understand that the cuts are real — they are not abstract,” he said. “We’re working hard to mitigate the effects of cuts in some areas. But it’s still a significant loss of funding.”—-Contact Steven Powell at [email protected]