"Sometimes it can be challenging to be profitable when you're an artist, and this gives our students the opportunity to be artistic and then create things at the same time that they can sell or use or do whatever with," Calhoun President Jimmy Hodges said Tuesday at the center's inaugural ceremony. "We have a large amount of people over at the Alabama Center for the Arts, and that whole ACA has grown."
Hodges said a number of people visited the Savannah Center for Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, as the Imagination Center was coming into fruition.
"There's a whole group of people in Decatur that wanted to create that environment in Decatur, Alabama," he said. "I think that is what we're doing, little by little, is trying to create that art vibe, that sense of artistic items in the downtown Decatur area. And it's good; it lets people enjoy what they love to do."
There are now four ACA buildings in downtown Decatur with two more undergoing construction. Hodges said there are more in the works that he cannot yet discuss. He said the Alabama Community College System bought the STEAM Imagination Center building at 402 E. Moulton St. in Decatur, and extensive renovations began in March 2024.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said the building cost $800,000 to purchase. He said he was able to obtain $3.7 million from the supplemental appropriation in 2023.
"There was a demolition phase where they cleared it out, gutted it, and then rebuilt it from the inside out," Orr said.
Orr said one of the missions of the Savannah Center for Art and Design is to make sure graduates are able to obtain employment.
"They say they want no starving artists," he said. "I think the same can be said for Calhoun and Athens (State University). They don't want starving artists either. This facility will certainly enhance the possibility of employment, the possibility for those in the arts."
Orr said the hope is that the graduates will stay and work in the community.
"The opportunities are here locally for our students," he said. "And if they have to leave, then let them leave, but then come back."
Some of the courses offered are creative engineering, architectural drafting, innovative welding, animation, web design and 3D modeling.
"Before I became a dean, they were already talking about ways to integrate arts and technologies together," said ACA Director and Calhoun Dean of Fine Arts Kim Parker. "I just continued the conversation. But it's an important one, and one that I'm very glad that we've had. Art and technology really do hold hands, and there's so much that we do that requires both of those things.
"So, this is just a perfect place for us to have that come together."
Parker said the center provides a place where for students can be in classes with students who are not in their major.
"We find that students learn from each other as well as their instructors," she said. "So, being with people who are more technologically minded, for the art students that gives them another direction to go in. Similarly, all these wonderful technical things that these students do, they often need a more aesthetic component to them."
Parker said the center is owned by Calhoun, although it is a part of the ACA.
"Originally, we will have Calhoun classes here," she said. "Athens State will be using the labs as we go, we'll simply have more Calhoun classes than Athens State. We have multiple departments here, so there are going to be significantly more Calhoun classes offered here."
Every place that Calhoun or Athens State offers art classes, Parker said, is considered a part of the ACA.
Summer semester for Calhoun starts May 27. Parker said the classes they will be offering at the STEAM Imagination Center are already full.
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