After spending three years on the decline, the Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) department is attempting to fight its way back to respectability.

VES has created a new studio and lounge for concentrators, in response to student complaints in response to student complaints last spring about a lack of space and resources for studio artists, said VES head tutor Robb Moss.

Christopher D. Killip, chair of VES, showed off the studio at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts last night to a group of about 30 undergraduate concentrators.

The new studio and recreational space is a step in the right direction for a department in which the number of concentrators dropped by nearly one-half between 1991 and 1994.

The situation became so bad that two years ago Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell took the unusual step of convening a special advisory committee to evaluate VES.

The committee's report criticized VES for numerous flaws in its curriculum, facilities, and overall structure. In particular, the report said that the studio arts were neglected in favor of greater emphasis on film and photography, and recommended major changes.

The studio arts program is "the least generously staffed" of the VES offerings, and partly as a result of this neglect, is "embryonic and parochial," the report said.

Many of the students and faculty present at the unveiling said this common space should bring students of the studio arts to parity with the department's film track students.

"For the long time I've been here, this is a big change in emphasis," said teaching assistant Jan E. Mazur '78.

The newly created space has been partitioned into two distinct areas.

The east half will be used by seniors doing honors theses in painting and by teaching assistants for their own projects.

The west half will serve as a lounge and common space for all VES concentrators. All students in the department will be issued a key to the room by the end of the week, Killip said. In addition, the west side will be used for performance art visiting speakers, and tutorials.

"Certain kinds of work need space," said head tutor Moss. "You can go to a library and think great thoughts. In the studio arts, you need different space."

The conversion of the former Jorge Luis Sert Gallery was kept secret to students until yesterday's debut.

"It was definitely a surprise," said Daniel Arbelaez '97. "I think it's great to have space where students can just come and hang out."

Killip, the VES chair, said he hopes the space will bring together students from different tracks within the concentration and allow them to work together in an informal setting.

This would address the most sweeping condemnation of VES made in last year's committee report--that the department lacks of integration of film, studio arts and design.

The report said integration can be achieved by allowing "opportunity for students in each track to be exposed to the other."

But some students expressed concern that use of the room for recreation will make it hard for students to get their work done. "I'm a little worried about the security and the upkeep," Arbelaez said.

While teaching assistants will step in if noise gets out of hand, Moss stressed that the students must cooperate and be respectful to each other while using the room.

"It's a community, and the community sets the standards," he said