MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Military College Preparatory School already expanded its fine arts program before the start of the 2016-17 school year with the addition of a musical theater teacher, but the program is about to grow even more with the announcement that plans are underway for a new visual arts space.

The 7,000 square-foot ground floor of the Old Capitol Building (OCB) that housed Georgia’s Old Capital Museum for the past 17 years up until a few weeks ago, is being renovated into instructional space on the north side and the college bookstore on the south side.

The Union-Recorder took a tour of the new space with GMC officials and Paige Barlow, new art director for the middle and high school, Tuesday afternoon.

GMC Prep Principal Col. Pam Grant said the success of the fine arts program under Mark Weaver had her wanting to add another piece to give prep school students a more well-rounded experience.

“I believe that we have the most outstanding fine arts program around,” she said. “I believe it is second to none. We owe that to six years ago bringing Mark Weaver on and then last year we brought Jenny [Morris] on. In the last four years we’ve had three back-to-back state literary championships and we’ve had three one-act play state championships in the last three or four years. We’ve got so many of our kids involved in fine arts I felt like the only thing we were missing in our fabulous program was the visual arts. One thing that we love about our fine arts program is it brings out kids that normally you might not even touch, but now we’re able to touch their lives. We see them get involved, and I saw students that had talents to draw and things that we aren’t able to bring out in them. So I felt like that was the only missing piece we had in our program.”

Grant said she brought the request to GMC President Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV to expand into visual arts, and he “graciously” approved it this year.

“When I would go into these classrooms and watch classes, these kids come to life,” Caldwell said when asked why he gave his approval. “I see a side of them that day-to-day and even around my own kids with them I don’t see where they are transformed into somebody else who is starting to exhibit self-confidence, poise and learning to be more articulate. So when Pam laid out this idea of the visual arts it was a pretty compelling case she made in terms of how it can help in the overall development of our students and giving them an even more well-rounded experience here. We pride ourselves at Georgia Military College in developing men and women of incredible character who are going to be contributing members of society. One of the things we want them to be is a well-rounded individual who has an appreciation not only for academics and sports, but for the fine arts. …I’m absolutely thrilled. I think it’s going to further enhance the quality of the overall education that young boys and girls, men and women, are receiving at the preparatory school.”

One hurdle that stood in the way of the new art program was space. Caldwell and Grant both said there is no room in Usery Hall, which houses the prep school, so other plans had to be made. Georgia’s Old Capital Museum was asked to vacate the ground floor of the OCB and did so after finding a new home on the campus of Central State Hospital.

Plans for the new art space include four classrooms and display areas for students’ works out in the main hall. One of the four spaces is actually a double that could be partitioned off into two areas.

“It’s roughly 7,000 square feet reasonably split down the middle,” said Jeff Gray, GMC VP of engineering of the OCB base space. “We’ve got all the tables and chairs already in inventory that we’re going to put on this (the art) end. Most of the stuff for the bookstore — we’ll reuse what’s currently in the bookstore. We will have to buy some shelving and stuff, but we’ve got a reasonable plan for that.”

He revealed that the renovation will cost around $450,000 including the purchase of supplies and new furniture. Plans are for renovations to be complete by June 1, so all furniture may be moved in in time for the start of the 2017-18 school year.

GMC officials said this summer that construction will begin on what they are calling the Jenkins Hall Annex that will house additional cafeteria space and expanded capacity for the fine arts program.

“This is the initial introduction of it,” Caldwell said of the OCB space. “Once we had made the decision and hired Paige Barlow, we started asking Paige, ‘What input can you give us?’ So she’s able now from the ground floor up to identify the specifications and tell us the design that would best work for a visual arts program. With the new construction that will start this summer we’ll take into account hopefully just about everything she wants and sees that would be the best way to bring a program on and further expand it after one year of introducing it here.”

The estimated $8 million annex will be on the west side of the Old Capitol Building near Jenkins Hall and is scheduled to open August 2018. Renovations are also in the plans for Jenkins Hall, but officials were not ready to divulge what would be housed there.

Grant said the art curriculum will chiefly be for middle school students and seniors with enrichment opportunities for the other grades.

“Another thing I’m very excited about is we’re going to be able to touch all the students in our middle school,” she said. “All of our sixth, seventh and eighth grade students will have an opportunity to take art classes under [new art director] Paige [Barlow], and then we’ll offer some specialty classes to our seniors. We hope to expand from there, but it’s something that’s going to be all-inclusive for all of our students in the middle school.”