Matt Liddle looks forward to those quiet moments when he’s in front of a piece of artwork. There’s an opportunity for the artist to reach out from a colorful canvas and speak to the viewer in a kind of magical conversation.

As chairman of the art department at Western Carolina University, Liddle hopes to see many more people share in the wonders of art and get into discussions about what art can be.

“I think that’s an important and profound experience,” he said during remarks at the Oct. 23 grand opening of the new Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University. The museum, which is part of the new $30 million Fine and Performing Arts Center, is the newest jewel of Western Carolina’s campus projects paid for by the 2000 state higher education bond.

Liddle joined WCU Chancellor John Bardo, Fine Arts Museum Director Martin Dewitt, WCU Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Robert Kehrberg and hundreds of guests at the grand opening of six gallery exhibits at the Fine Arts Center.

These exhibits included “Worldviews” (an eclectic display of WCU’s permanent collection), “New Works 1996-2000” (a glass vessel exhibit by world-renowned glass artist Joel Philip Myers), “The Pilgrimage Ribbon” (a mixed media, Aztec-inspired installation from Atlanta artist Luzene Hill), a print portfolio from 10 distinguished Native American artists, “Strange Beauty: New Perspectives” (featuring the work of WCU art graduates Connie Bostic, Mary Charles Griffin, and Tim Jacobs) and “At the End of the Day,” (day-in-the-life series of color photographs from Chris Swain).

The grand opening celebration featured a diverse mix of area artists, administrators, politicians, professors,

students, retirees, families, and guests eager to see the work of more than 50 artists.

With the completion of the new 122,000-square-foot Fine and Performing Arts Center — the largest academic building on campus — Western Carolina University administrators celebrated the culmination of a 10-year dream to have a spacious, 10,000-square-foot gallery and atrium to display rotating exhibits, contemporary art work from WCU students and alumni, and a permanent university art collection.

In addition to having a great deal more space than the university’s former home for art exhibits — the Belk Gallery — this new Fine Arts Museum can house a wider range of exhibits thanks to temperature-controlled rooms, advanced security, better lighting and state-of-the-art technology. The Fine Arts Museum will also be able to display more of the university’s private collection, which includes hundreds of pieces donated to or acquired by WCU.

Martin Dewitt, who was hired in the fall of 2003 to become the founding director of WCU’s Fine Arts Center, made sure he toured area art galleries and met with his counterparts in regional university galleries and museums before consulting with WCU art faculty and choosing the exhibits that would open Western Carolina’s Fine Arts Museum. Since Cullowhee Valley has such a storied past with the Cherokee people, Dewitt felt certain there needed to be an immediate connection with local contemporary Cherokee artists. Thus, the opening exhibits include a print portfolio from Native American artists from throughout the United States and the work of Luzene Hill, who relates her Cherokee heritage to the lost and remaining Aztec codices of the 16th Century.

There are many visible signs within the Fine Arts Museum that pay tribute to Cherokee culture. As visitors walk through the front door and into the atrium, they will notice a giant, seven-point star laid out in the tile work at the center of the floor. These seven points symbolize the seven clans of the Cherokee. There are also giant signs along the upper walls of the atrium that read in Cherokee letters, “Our Story Continues,” “Good Health,” and “Well Being.” Giant tree-trunk columns rise and branch out beams to represent the trees from nearby Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Outside around the building are traditional Cherokee medicinal plants, and the university is working on a Cherokee heritage trail that will weave through the campus.

Chancellor John Bardo emphasized that the Fines Art Museum is not only a symbol of the university’s commitment to art in all its forms, it’s also a place to appreciate the contributions and traditions of native Southern Appalachian culture.

“When we look at Appalachian traditions, they always involve the arts,” Bardo said.

Dewitt would concur. Touring through the galleries before the grand opening, he explained the careful balance of old and new within the museum.

“We’re celebrating the traditional art forms of our region certainly with a special interest to contemporary art in all its varied forms,” Dewitt said.

Having served 15 years as the director of the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, Dewitt has extensive experience in working at a university setting. Soft-spoken and easygoing with a curious blend of wonder, artistic savvy and attention to detail, Dewitt seems right at home in Cullowhee. He and his team have big plans for the opening year of the gallery museum as big names like Jay Leno have already graced the Performing Arts Center stage down the hall from the museum galleries. In addition to displaying various exhibits, the museum will also welcome guest curators from around the country, offer tours for local public school students, and work with WCU professors and students who want to use the gallery spaces for classroom lessons, research and projects. Thanks to the increased classroom and workshop space, Western Carolina’s Art Department will be able to offer more comprehensive undergraduate and graduate classes ranging from drawing and printmaking to graphic design and digital art.

Dewitt doesn’t just want to cater this building to the art community. There’s an opportunity to make art available to a wider audience, he explains. That’s why the museum is being billed as a “learning lab” and “teaching museum” where the public can learn more about art and its techniques, the function of art in society, and how art can transform people’s ideas.

For more information about the Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University, go to the Web site at www.wcu.edu/fapac or call 828.227.3591.