George H. Brimhall Building

The Brimhall Building is located on the south end of campus. The first floor of the building was constructed in 1918 and used for the vocational training of the Student Army Training Corps during World War I. It later served as the Mechanical Arts Building, where classes in such vocational arts as blacksmithing and woodworking were taught. In 1935 two more stories were added and was named to honor George H. Brimhall, BYU president from 1904 to 1921. It houses the communications department offices, classrooms, and news labs.

In 1984 the building underwent major renovation and 4,700 square feet were added. From 1979 until 2003, the it housed the interior design, graphics, illustration, industrial design, and photography programs of the Department of Visual Arts.

Completely remodeled in 2004, the Brimhall building became home to the Department of Communications and NewsNet, a combined television and newspaper student-operated news room.

George Henry Brimhall was the fourth president of Brigham Young University from 1904-1921. He was known as a conversationalist and a powerful speaker. During his presidency, Brimhall brought the local community back to an awareness of its educational needs and responsibilities that it had formerly lost.

Gerrit de Jong Concert Hall

The de Jong Concert Hall comprises two floors, seats 1451 individuals, and is accessible on the third and fourth floors of the Harris Fine Arts Center. It is the largest room in the HFAC, and is used by choral and symphonic groups as well as many musicals, operas and dance performances. During the spring and summer terms, the de Jong Concert Hall is used for the weekly university devotionals.

Gerrit de Jong, Jr. was the first dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications and a professor of modern languages at Brigham Young University from 1925-1960. Gerrit de Jong was eminently successful as a creative artist and conductor at BYU

Elbert H. Eastmond Art Seminar Room

The Eastmond Art Seminar room is located in A-410 HFAC. It fulfills a variety of purposes for the Visual Arts Department and the college.

Elbert H. Eastmond was head of the Visual Arts Department (known then as the Arts Department) from 1904-1936. He was an acclaimed artist and exhibited his work in many major cities throughout the United States.

B. Cecil Gates Music Theatre

The Gates Opera Workshop is a rectangular room in A-254 HFAC. It has an oversized doorway that allows for the transportation of large scene pieces back and forth from the stage area to the workshop room. A large storage area is located in the west side of the room. The Gates Music Theatre is used as a large lecture classroom.

Brigham Cecil Gates was head of the Music Department of the LDS University (now known as LDS Business College) from 1913 to 1925, assistant director of the Tabernacle Choir from 1916 to 1935, and a member of the General Board of Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association from 1918 to 1929. He was appointed chairman of the Music Department at Utah State University in 1923. He composed a substantial number of choral and orchestral works that were popular with individuals at all levels of musical ability.

Henry E. Giles Museum of Musical Instruments

The Giles Museum of Musical Instruments was located in E-400 HFAC, and has since been removed. The room, however, continues to be used as a classroom.

Henry Evans Giles was head of the Music Department at Brigham Young Academy (1886-1896). In addition, he was chorister of Utah Stake, and conductor of the Provo Tabernacle Choir. “His life was characterized by his dedication to the advancement of music and culture and his love for his family.”

Harold I. Hansen Rehearsal Hall

The Hansen Rehearsal Hall is located in B-201 HFAC. It is used as a rehearsal room for dance and other performances.

Harold I. Hansen served as chair of the Department of Speech from 1952-1966 and remained as an active faculty member until 1979. In addition, he revived and directed the Hill Cumorah Pageant from 1937 to 1977, excluding the years during WWII. Over eighteen years, Harold I. Hansen took seven tours to the Pacific, the Orient, and Europe, where he provided shows for United States servicemen. The seven tours resulted in 350 performances given by 126 troupers to approximately 129,500 servicemen.

Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center

The Harris Fine Arts Center is located on the north end of Brigham Young University campus. It was established in 1965 and houses the majority of the colleges departments and divisions, several of the colleges named areas, study rooms, small painting studios, theatre work rooms, class rooms, and faculty offices.

The center has five performance halls, including the  Gerrit de Jong Concert Hall, named for the first dean of the college. Renowned acoustician Harvey Fletcher designed the hall

There are four additional theatres, four art galleries, fifty-three practice rooms, and nine pipe organs. It also has 150 other spaces used as media classrooms, computer labs, rehearsal facilities, and studios/offices. More than three hundred annual performances and exhibits draw patrons to the center.

The center houses the School of Music, Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Department of Visual Arts, BYU Broadcasting, and Division of Design and Production.

Franklin Stewart Harris served as President of Brigham Young University from 1921 to 1945. His administration was the longest in BYU history and he oversaw many changes in the University. He helped the school move towards being a full university by establishing several colleges, including the College of Fine and Performing Arts. After the dedication of the Harris Fine Arts Center, the Department of Communications was added, thus changing the college’s name to the College of Fine Arts and Communications.

Jesse Knight Building

The Jesse Knight Building is located on Brigham Young University’s campus. It houses  portions of the college's Visual Arts Department. 

Jesse Knight served as a member of the board of Brigham Young Academy from 1901 until his death in 1921. He donated land, bonds, irrigation shares, and money to assist the university. The Knight family funded half of the $130,000 needed to build the Karl G. Maeser Building, and when more money was needed, Knight bought back the Blue Bench Irrigation bonds, for $20,000, he had donated to the school.

Bent F. Larsen Gallery

The Bent F. Larsen Gallery is placed in the heart of the Harris Fine Arts Center and is a “comprehensive gallery program [that spans three floors and] permits use of all areas in a continually changing exhibit program.”

Bent F. Larsen “was affiliated with Brigham Young University from 1906-1958. For 22 of his 52 years of service he was chairman of the Art Department” He had a great reputation as “a highly artistic painter,” and had a “generous, open-minded attitude toward all types and styles of sincere creative expression

Franklin and Florence Jepperson Madsen Recital Hall

The in the HFAC. Its stage area is large enough for a chamber ensemble performance, and it has a seating capacity of 450 people. During the week it is used as a rehearsal room and classroom. It is accessible on the fourth and fifth floors HFAC.

Franklin and Florence Jepperson Madsen “formed an ideal team, not only as husband and wife but as teachers and performers of music.” Franklin was a professor of music at BYU from 1920-1950. Florence Jepperson was an active vocalist, composer, and teacher. She was a professor of music and head of the Music Department 1920-1952 at BYU.

Philip Margetts Arena Area Theatre

The Margetts Arena Area Theatre is located in C-188 HFAC. The theatre is 30 feet by 50 feet and seats 125 people. The design of the theatre gives the director the flexibility of audience and actor placement and is specifically designed to place actors and spectators into close and personalized proximity. The seating can be arranged in any part of the theatre and in any relationship to the acting area which the director desires.

Philip Margetts was an outstanding figure in dramatics in Utah. He organized the Mechanics’ Dramatic Association which impressed President Young so that he made plans for the construction of the Salt Lake Theatre. Philip Margetts “performed in plays, six nights a week for fifty years.

Walter and Ebba Mathesius Music Seminar Room

The Mathesius Music Seminar Room is located in E-432 HFAC. It is a 25 feet by 14 feet room, and is designed for graduate classes, seminars, informal demonstration performances, faculty conferences, 

Dr. and Mrs. Mathesius contributed substantially through the Mathesius Music Foundation at BYU. Walter Mathesius was president of the Geneva Steel Company, and Ebba was a concert pianist and accomplished musician, writer, and patron of the arts.

Harrison R. Merrill Debate Theatre

The Merrill Debate Theatre is located in F-201 HFAC. It seats 100, and was created as an auditorium and platform for the presentation of debates and is a place for the discovery and display of the arts of language.

Harrison Reuben Merrill was a member of the BYU English Department from 1921 until his death in 1938. He was managing editor of “The Improvement Era” for four years, director of the Extension Division at BYU, and a member of the YMMIA General Board. He published hundreds of articles, essays, stories, and poems.

Albert Miller Orchestra Room

The Albert Miller Orchestra Room is located in E-250 HFAC. This two stories high, 67 feet by 44 feet room, is designed with nonparallel side walls and ceiling, and is soundproofed to adjacent areas. The Albert Miller Orchestra Room is designed for the rehearsal of orchestra, chamber orchestra, band, and other instrumental groups. It is used for instrumental workshop classes as well as for large lectures.

Albert Miller assisted teaching music at Brigham Young Academy from 1901 until his death in 1906. He sacrificed considerably to organize the first Brigham Young Academy band and orchestra. “His life was one of service in his profession and the Church and the community.”

Miriam Nelke Experimental Theatre

The Miriam Nelke Experimental Theatre is 20 feet by 28 feet and seats about 280 people and is located in D-201 HFAC. “Its elevator-stage and sharply-raked auditorium provide myriad ways by which imaginative playwrights and directors can lead advanced audiences through new theatre experiences.” This theatre also complements student directors’ measuring and testing of prevailing theatre theories.

Miriam Nelke gave many recitals and was a member of what would later be known as the National Speech Arts Association. She taught at Brigham Young Academy for eight years from 1901-1909 under Presidents Cluff and Brimhall. “Her popularity in Provo led to the formation of the Nelke Reading Club.”

T. Earl and Kathryn Bassett Pardoe Drama Theatre

The Pardoe Drama Theatre is a theatre in which virtually any type of production is feasible and it is essentially a laboratory for the application of production theory. The theatre seats 612.

T. Earl and Kathryn Bassett Pardoe were a respected and beloved team in speech and dramatic arts. T. Earl Pardoe served as head of the Speech and Drama Department at BYU from 1937-1952. They were known not only at Brigham Young University, but throughout the intermountain area as well as other parts of the nation. The Pardoes donated more than three thousand plays and musicals to the drama collection at BYU.

Stephen L. Richards Building

The Richards Building is located on the east end of Brigham Young University campus. The facility houses the CFAC’s Department of Dance and portions of the School of Music. It includes three Olympic-size heated swimming pools, numerous dance studios, administrative offices, basketball, volleyball, and racquetball courts, locker rooms, and classrooms.

Stephen L. Richards was a proponent of physical education and good sportsmanship. He served on the BYU Board of Trustees, as assistant commissioner of Church education, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (1917-1951) and as a counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1951-1959).

Robert Sauer Band Room

The Sauer Band Room is located in E-251 HFAC and is 44 feet by 44 feet and two stories high. It has visual contact with the Level 3 sound control room and has excellent acoustical characteristics.

Robert Sauer was director of the BYU Band from 1908-1943. In his years at BYU, “he became one of the foremost band directors in the area, and was noted as a capable national band adjudicator.