In 2018, a collective of students and faculty in Western Washington University’s Department of Art & Art History petitioned against the planned closure of the Viking Union Gallery, the only professional student-run gallery on campus. Over a thousand petition signatures later, they succeeded.
Now, seven years later, the gallery is once again slated to close. This time to repurpose the space for the growing La Plaza Latine Student Center, established in fall 2024 and currently housed in an office space on the Viking Union’s seventh floor.
The Front reached out to the La Plaza Latine Student Center but they declined to elaborate on their March 18 Instagram announcement.
In a May 12 post, students shared their excitement about the potential for increased collaboration between Latine students, more programming and the new space’s proximity to the Black Student Coalition.
Melynda Huskey, vice president of Student Affairs, said a space analysis determined the current VU Gallery as the best available space for La Plaza to move.
“We concluded that it’s within our purview to change the use of that space without needing to get permission from anybody else,” Huskey said.
With the planned closure in fall 2025, Arts & Music Productions is establishing a VU art program to begin in fall as well. A new visual arts coordinator position will take on exhibition planning and event programming — responsibilities of current VU Gallery Director Noah Gray. The three existing gallery attendant positions in Arts & Music Productions will be discontinued.
Applications for the visual arts coordinator position will open around May 28, with hiring anticipated to begin in August.
Art will be displayed on at least five designated walls in the Viking Union. Casey Hayden, associate director of Student Activities, said one option would be to reserve conference rooms for week-long exhibitions, which would be less frequent than those currently held in the VU Gallery.
Gray said he “wasn’t given any input” in the decision to close the gallery and called it “unreasonable.”
Even though Gray graduates this spring, he worries opportunities for student artists to showcase work and students in the Museum Studies program to gain exhibition experience will be less available.
Hayden said he hopes an art program will increase student engagement with art.
“It’s important to me, the student artist community, whether you’re an art major or not, that your needs are met,” Hayden said.
Some aren’t convinced designated walls in the Viking Union would fill the void of the VU Gallery.
Garth Amundson has been a professor of photography at Western since 2000. He currently acts as faculty advisor for a group of art students fighting against the gallery’s closure.
The group’s online petition has collected 535 signatures as of May 25, 2025.
“It’s a symbol of the complete and utter omission of the arts on Western’s campus,” Amundson said about the planned closure.
Generations of Western students have passed through the VU Gallery’s doors. Archives of the alternative newspaper The Northwest Passage advertise exhibitions as far back as April 1970.
“There needs to be an open, transparent discussion with students,” Amundson said.
On May 19, a “Save the VU Gallery Open Forum” took place in Red Square and the Department of Art & Art History lawn from 11-4 p.m. Amundson said Art & Art History faculty and students are not the only stakeholders in the gallery’s planned closure because “a good student-run gallery serves the entire community.”
Signs proclaiming “Save the VU Gallery” and “What Next?,” among other messages, surround the Fine Arts & Western Gallery sign on the building’s lawn at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. on May 19, 2025. The signs were put up as part of a “Save the VU Gallery Open Forum” event. // Photo by Josh Hernandez
So far, there has been “little to no sunshine policy” surrounding meetings between students, faculty and members of the university administration, said Amundson.
“In good conscience, how can you make a decision like this?” Amundson asked.
Huskey sees this decision as a benefit to the whole campus community but also understands “people’s regrets and sadness” about the planned closure.
“I hope people will come to understand this is a really important thing that is a cause for happiness for everybody,” said Huskey.
Kuma Kisch, costume covering the student head to toe, wields signs reading “The VU Gallery Belongs To Everyone!” and “We Want Both La Plaza + The Gallery” at a “Save the VU Gallery Open Forum” in Red Square at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Wash. on May 19, 2025. “This is not a protest, it’s an open forum event,” Kisch said. // Photo by Josh Hernandez
Josh Hernandez (he/they) is a campus news reporter for The Front this quarter. He is a third-year journalism news/ed major. Outside of journalism, his other interests include literature, geography, and music history. You can reach him at [email protected].