Wichita State UniversityWichita State will officially unveil its new state-of-the-art professional production space – Shocker Studios – at an open house noon-5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, at 3805 E. Harry St. All are welcome to attend.
Shocker Studios, located in the Harry Street Mall, is home to WSU’s new Bachelor of Applied Arts in Media Arts (BAA), one of only a handful of degrees in the United States that focus on animation, audio production, game design and filmmaking.
The 35,000-square-foot Shocker Studios includes recording studios, a virtual reality studio, film studios, a motion capture studio, computer labs, design studios and general classrooms.
The modern applied learning space, combined with the BAA curriculum, merges arts, sciences and technology, creating opportunities in emerging creative technologies that will vastly improve students’ career competitiveness. Facilities that include everything Shocker Studios has to offer are rare in this region and mostly seen on the East and West Coast.
“For a number of years, students have been requesting that we develop degrees that were more hands-on in the areas specific to the Bachelor of Applied Arts in Media Arts,” says Justin Rorabaugh, director of educational outreach for WSU’s College of Fine Arts. “Given the applied nature of the degree, we needed a space that would match those needs.”
While media arts projects don’t need to be “place bound,” Rorabaugh says, Shocker Studios provides the opportunity for those who want to develop and create these types of projects all under one roof.
Shocker Studios also has studio space and equipment available for rental to non-BAA students, as well as the public, including audio, lighting and still / video cameras.
The facility is staffed 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays. Other times are available by appointment.