Are you a visual, performing, or communication arts student who wants to live and connect with other creatives? The College of the Arts Living Community (ALC) offers a shared residential experience for students who thrive in artistic, collaborative environments.
The ALC is home to students majoring in art & design, music, theatre, dance, television, and communication and media. Located in Freeman Hall on the south end of campus, just across from the Cali School of Music and only a short walk from studios, classrooms, and performance spaces. It places you at the center of the College of the Arts.
But the ALC is about more than location. It’s about creative community. Students with multidisciplinary interests live together, exchange ideas, support one another, and share both the challenges and rewards of being artists. It’s a space to explore common ground, spark collaboration, and build lasting connections.
The ALC Experience
The College of the Arts Living Community is open to incoming first-year students as well as currently enrolled College of the Arts students. To support an interdisciplinary environment, efforts are made to balance representation across majors whenever possible.
Residents have access to a shared lounge and an adjacent art studio space equipped with a piano, work tables, easels, and display walls. These spaces allow students to create, rehearse, and collaborate close to home, outside of scheduled class time. A community bulletin board highlights exhibitions, performances, field trips, and other opportunities to get involved.
ALC floors are supported by Resident Assistants (RAs) who are upper-class students majoring in the arts. RAs help foster connections across disciplines by encouraging collaboration, organizing social and creative activities, and supporting peer learning. Residents participate in floor meetings and are invited to initiate or help plan events such as open-mic nights, talent shows, exhibitions, and group outings.
Quotes from Arts Living Community Residents
“I made some of my best friends in the ALC.”
“I love being surrounded by arts people of all kinds. It’s wonderful to be with people who share common interests.”
“I had an absolutely amazing time. I do not think my college experience would have been as good if I had not been living on the Arts Floor.”
“The community allowed me to make friends in my own major, allowing class to be a much more enjoyable experience…allowing study groups to form and inevitably, friendships.”
How to Apply
Students interested in living in the ALC must be admitted as majors to the College of the Arts as well and demonstrate an expressed interest in participating in an interdisciplinary arts living community. Applicants must also have paid their admission and housing fees.
While the majority of students in the community are freshmen, upperclassmen may be allowed to return on a space available basis — particularly those who wish to help enrich and foster the community together with new residents.