Brian Lewis/KANSAN

The KU Ministry of Sculpture is a close-knit group of sculptors who hang out in the Sub-Base in the Art and Design Building. The group consists of several experienced sculptors including TJ Tangpuz, Kansas City, Mo., nontraditional student; Andrew Hadel, Riley junior; Andrew Leek, Olathe senior; Bradford Kessler, Pratt senior; Justin Riley, Fayetteville, Ark., senior; and President Sarah Heath, Wichita senior.

While most KU students study in coffee shops, libraries and at home, upper-level and graduate sculpture students have their own little space to work located below the Art and Design sculpture room called the Sub-Base.

To these 13 students it’s more than a workspace or a studio — it’s an artist community, said Dave Werdin-Kennicott, a.k.a. Smiling Dave, Kansas City, Kan., graduate student.

It looks like a set for a stereotypical college movie: Old comfy chairs and couches and magazine clipping collages attached to randomly painted walls with avant-garde music filling the air in a common room.

Surrounding this common room are six studios where the artists work busily on sculpture projects.

It even has its own phone booth.

To Brett Richardson, Olathe senior, it could be a second home.

“It’s kind of personable — lived-in if you will,” Richardson said. “It’s almost like coming into someone’s apartment.”

Richardson admits he spends more time in the Sub-Base than his own apartment.

The Sub-Base’s pet and mascot, Montel, the brown recluse spider lives in Richardson’s studio space.

Montel was caught from a friend’s apartment and has been living in his glass-jar home in the Sub-Base for two weeks, Richardson said.

Montel replaced a small field mouse named Testicles (which rhymes with the Greek figure Pericles) that died after living there for a day.

“It might have been the shock from living in captivity,” Smiling Dave said.

The occupants of the Sub-Base regularly bring in communal snacks, have pot lucks and costume and collage parties, Smiling Dave said.

Because the Sub-Base occupants are so close-knit, new people have a sense of being an outsider even though they are welcome to hang out, Andrew Leek, Olathe senior said.

They also watch out for each other’s tools, art and studio space from people who steal items, Leek said.

“Sculptors have a lot of tools,” Leek said. “We have a lot stuff on shelves. We know enough to lock up other people’s studios if they leave them open and to turn off on appliances.”

One of the downfalls of working in the Sub-Base is that the occupants have to move oversized work up a hill and to the front of the Art and Design Building, because the stairwell leading to the main part of the building does not accommodate large objects, Smiling Dave said.

“It challenges you to make easily-transferable stuff,” he said. “A lot of my sculptures have wheels on them.”

The Sub-Base is also headquarters to the Ministry of Sculpture, a new student group for anyone with an interest in 3-D art, Smiling Dave said.

The occupants of the Sub-Base usually change yearly depending who leaves school, Smiling Dave said.

“I’ll miss it,” said Richardson, who is graduating this semester. “It’s a nice environment and it’s more than just a shared studio.”