Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts home of St Bonaventure University's art collection, art galleries, School of Visual and Performing Arts faculty and classrooms, and the Riga Family Theater, a 321-seat performing arts venue for both the campus and the greater Olean/Allegany communities. The operations of the center was significantly disrupted by the pandemic in all areas, essentially shuttering most facets of the center's mission.

Construction of the Quick Center for the Arts began in 1992. A donation from Regina and Leslie Quick, the parents of a 1975 alumni, funded the majority of the project. The building was to become the new home of the University's extensive art collection, which, at that point was held in Friedsam Memorial Library. The collection had been developed from Friars who collected pieces while doing mission work, as from private collections such as the estate of Michael Friedsam.

The Quick Center would first open its doors in January 2000. Several additions to the Quick Center followed, including additional classroom and gallery spaces.

When the student body of St Bonaventure was sent home in mid-March of 2020, the role of the Quick Center was very much in question. Throughout the end of the semester and the Summer of 2020, the Quick Center was closed. All events and galleries planned during those months were cancelled. Staff of the Quick Center shifted to working online. When students were set to return in the Fall of 2020, the university began to identify large spaces throughout the university to use as alternative classrooms. The paintings on display in the main galleries of the Quick Center were removed, and the gallery spaces were converted into classrooms. Desks, chairs, lecterns, projectors, and projector screens were brought into the galleries to make the rooms effective instructional spaces. In addition to the gallery spaces, the 321-seat theater was converted into a classroom with the addition of a white board. Seats were taped off to maintain social distancing, and drastically reducing the capacity of the theater.

Frank, Dennis. The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St Bonaventure University Archives. Accessed November 30th 2021. http://archives.sbu.edu/buildings/quickarts.htm.