Brownsville art building to request budget approval from regents

The final design touches for the School of Art and Design’s new building in Brownsville will give way to the “perfect place” to study the arts at UTRGV, a university official says.

The Brownsville Visual Arts Center, previously known as Longoria Elementary, is expected to be completed by the end of Fall 2025, according to a Jan. 17 email sent to The Rider by Patrick Gonzales, UTRGV vice president for Marketing and Communications.

Construction in the previous Longoria building has not begun,  according to an email sent to The Rider by Jeffrey Ward, UTRGV dean for the College of Fine Arts.

“We have enough to be able to build a construction budget and the construction budget will go to [University of Texas System] Board of Regents in February for their approval,” Ward said. “And once we have their approval, then we can start moving forward on the renovation.”

The UT System Board of Regents will meet Feb. 19 and 20. As of press time Friday, an agenda had not been posted on the UT System website.

Ward said the plan includes at least two phases: the first, finalizing the building by December to start classes in Spring 2026.

“Phase two will be an expansion of our current curricular offerings,” Ward said. “So, we will be able to add [programs] that we currently can’t do in a robust way in Brownsville.”

 He said the need for a new art building in Brownsville has been around since 2022.

“Currently and for a number of years, the university has leased Rusteberg Hall on the [Texas Southmost College] campus,” Ward said. 

He said with the continuous growth in Brownsville art enrollment, the idea to look for a new location was necessary.

“[Rusteberg Hall] wasn’t built for art, and it’s a building that needed a lot of maintenance and repair that wasn’t getting done,” Ward said.

Art education junior Nicole Logan said when she switched her major to art, she felt as though the art students and professors did not receive much support from the university.

“If you go [into Rusteberg Hall], there’s, in some cases, rats,” Logan said. “I know the restrooms inside the building [are] not up to date and they could be fixed.”

She said the idea of the building should have been done a long time ago.

“I feel like they’re doing it all last minute and a lot of these students in the department were really looking forward to it,” Logan said. “But many of us are not going to experience it. But, I mean, we’re taking one step at a time, so there’s a positive and there’s a negative.

Ward said the new location will have state-of-the-art equipment and will provide a location for students and professors to work and study.

“It’s going to be a first-rate facility that our students in Brownsville have sorely needed for a long time,” the dean said. “So, it’s going to feel like Disneyland for them.”

Ward said he holds monthly town halls for students, staff and the community to keep people updated with the building’s renovations and other topics.