Students at Quest have a history of building out their campus in very unique ways. In the past, the university has seen such student projects as the construction of the Bouldering Gym, the organizing of the Strangway archives, and the creation of the “Insect Hotel” (not to mention many other projects). With the return to campus this year, the desire to expand our University is as strong as ever. 

For several years, Quest has housed a student-managed recording studio on Red Tusk’s 3rd floor. However, it has remained a bit of a hidden gem. “Some students still don’t know we have a recording studio”, said Tamara Deliveyne, the Quest student who’s been spearheading the studio’s reopening. 

“[The recording studio] was designed and built by students as part of an independent study course in 2013,”Tamara explains, but equipment was disassembled and stored away when the rest of the Quest campus closed down last year.

The work of reopening hasn’t fallen on Tamara alone, who says, “Myself, Harrison [Cohen], and Lach [Vella] have worked very hard . . . on fully cleaning [the space], rearranging it, setting it up, and making it more accessible.” 

Quest’s Vice President, Academic, Dr. Jeff Warren (both a sound artist and accomplished musician himself), has played a tremendous role in helping students have this creative space to use.

“The recording studio has been a great example of students and faculty working together to create new curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities,” says Dr. Warren. “Students originally created the space . . . which then allowed me to offer courses like Songwriting and Recording. That led to more peer learning out of class, increased quality in the annual Quest student album (2016 album), and more Keystone projects based around the studio.” 

He confirmed the studio has been a very well used space. “In some years, the studio has been booked almost all day every day by students. I’m thrilled to see students again taking the lead to reopen the space.”

Although a lot has already been done, students will have to wait a little bit longer before they can book the room. “I’m hoping the studio will be available for students as early as the November block break,” says Tamara.

It’s been reported that the space makes for a high quality studio, even though the room wasn’t originally constructed for that purpose.

“Individual artists and several bands have all made use of the studio, including a Quest band called ‘Soup’,” says Tamara. 

In a 2019 interview, Quest musician Michaela Slinger was quoted, “The musician community at Quest was incredible! . . . Through the recording studio and Quest album project, I also got a taste of what [the production] process was like. Quest was a perfect place to start taking my art more seriously and trying things out.”

The studio isn’t only for musicians, however, as a number of students have also used the space to record podcasts.

“I’ll cross-post on Facebook and Quest U Connect when the studio officially opens,” Tamara says. Plans are to have the sign-up process run as smoothly as possible by using QR codes that will be situated throughout campus. 

Watch for the announcement of the opening of this amazing student space.

Nov 17, 2022 | Contributed by Derek Nobert
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