Back to State of the Arts: The Bryant Arts Center at Denison University

Once it was Cleveland Hall

Originally constructed in 1904 as a men’s gymnasium and later becoming a student union, a women’s gym, and eventually the home of studio art, the building was named Cleveland Hall in honor of benefactors and university trustees from Cleveland, Ohio, including John D. Rockefeller, Ambrose Swasey, and Henry A. Sherwin.

As a gymnasium, the Jeffersonian Federal Revival style hall was a place for exercise of the body, mind, and spirit. A 1907 article in the college’s student newspaper, The Denisonian, noted that Cleveland Hall was where “the three-sided man [found] encouragement for the exercise of all his powers.”

In 1950 the male athletes moved from Cleveland Hall (and the adjacent Wigwam gymnasium) to the new Physical Education Center on the north side of College Hill. At the same time, women athletes moved across College Street to Cleveland Hall from their smaller Doane Gymnasium (now Doane Dance Building). This also was concurrent with the art department’s move from Barney Science Hall (now Barney-Davis Hall) to the former Doane gym which was promptly renamed Doane Art Building. Shortly after the women athletes joined the men in the Physical Education Center in 1970, studio art moved again, this time to its current home in the spacious Cleveland Hall.

Along the way, Cleveland Hall also was utilized as Denison’s student union, complete with dining facilities, a social hall, and meeting rooms. It was described as having “furniture painted in red and white” and “green slipcovers edged with brown to cover the window seats.”

Today it is the Bryant Arts Center

Investing in the arts was an important priority of Denison’s remarkably successful Higher Ground Campaign, which surpassed its goal in 2008 to raise more than $177 million for the college.

As part of that campaign, the $14 million restoration of Cleveland Hall was made possible by a $6 million lead gift from Donald L. Bryant Jr. , class of 1964, a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and member of the International Advisory Board of the Tate Gallery in London. Other leadership benefactors include Pete and the late Joy Stahn Alpaugh, classes of 1944 and 1945; Denison parents Ken and Kathy Boehl; the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; the William Bingham Foundation, the family foundation of Perry Blossom, class of 1986; and Seymour and Jean Holman Preston, class of 1955.

Ground was broken for the project in April 2007, and the new Bryant Arts Center opened in August 2009 as the home of studio art and art history.