The Center for the Visual Arts

The new Center for the Visual Arts is located north of and adjacent to the Micron Business and Economics building. It has a significant presence along Capitol Boulevard and serves as a companion building to Micron Business Education Building.

Plans and Funding

The facility houses the university’s acclaimed Department of Art as well as public gallery space and, soon, a high-tech, high-touch World Museum. The museum will bring arts and treasures from around the globe to Boise through cutting-edge virtual reality and immersive technology. The new building allows for increased student and faculty interaction as well as anticipated program growth. The building is five stories high and approximately 90,000 gross square feet.

This high-tech World Museum space is being envisioned as an invaluable experience for younger school children, but it also will provide unique opportunities for collaborations with other local arts institutions and for research and creative activity for Boise State students and faculty.

The $48 million project has brought all of the Department of Art’s visual art programs — history of art and visual culture, art metals, art education, ceramics, drawing and painting, graphic design, illustration, photography, printmaking, and sculpture — under one roof. Nearly 4,000 students take courses through the Department of Art, which previously was spread among several facilities throughout campus with aging studio technologies and safety equipment.

The project was funded through a combination of bonds issued and supported by the university’s strategic facilities fee, the State of Idaho permanent building fund, private donations and the university’s central funds.