Paper cranes hang from the ceiling in long, colorful strands of yellows, reds and pinks. Two students criss-cross an intricate pattern of yarn on the front windows. Tables set up just when you step in contain half-installed works of art.

The Jordan College of Fine Arts Annex—also known as the JCX or the annex—is almost ready for its art show.

Many students will recognize the recently converted area as the former Jordan Academy of Dance, located next to Facility Services at the corner of Boulevard and 52nd Street.

The building contains four studios. Two will be dance studios and used mostly for physical well being classes. Currently, they’re rented to Dance Kaleidoscope.

The other two are the university’s first art studios for its art + design program.

Opened at the beginning of the semester, the two studios host the program’s more intensive programs. Next year, the annex will hold all of the art classes, including the core art class “Perspectives in the Creative Arts: Introduction to Visual Art.”

“The most important thing is that students can leave out their work while it’s in progress,” said Elizabeth Mix, associate professor of art history. “It has been the most challenging part of not having our own space.”

In addition, Mix said it’s nice to have rooms that are set up for art work, with sinks and storage closets for supplies.

“It’s just so beneficial to come in on my own time,” said Jasmine Gonsalves, a freshman art + design major. “We aren’t as confined in this space, and I think it will make the show more art-like.”

The new space has given them an entirely new art show to look forward to. To accompany ART NOW, Art at the Annex is open to the public Thursday and Friday.

Mix said that the show, as opposed to ART NOW, features installation pieces from the art + design program’s “space” and “function” classes. In addition, the program’s two thesis students, Laura Kramer and Daniel McCullough, present their final projects for the show.

“At the annex, we can do what we need to do because it’s our space,” Mix said. “It’s a flexible space to create the art show we’ve always wanted.”

As the sun set on Thursday, Lilly Hall was bubbling with activity. Musical scales and melodies echoed outside the practice rooms on the second floor, classes were wrapping up in the ensemble rooms on the first floor, and the Butler Theatre was alight with people preparing for a week of tech rehearsals.

“[Lilly] is my place of solace,” said sophomore dance major Elizabeth Simoens, adding that she likes to dim the lights of the dance studios at night and dance improvisatorially alone or with a pianist.

“It’s like playtime,” she said, smiling.

Lilly Hall is full of creative energy during the day. It is the home of the Jordan College of Fine Arts as well as the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, American Pianists Association, Dance Kaleidoscope and other arts organizations.

As the night set in on Thursday, Lilly Hall began to change.

Thursday 9:30 p.m.

The basement is eerily empty. The only sounds echoing off the walls are my footsteps. Two girls chat in the lobby by the Butler Theatre on the first floor, where rehearsal for this week’s opening is ongoing.

Thursday 9:47 p.m.

A group of men in suits, all awaiting initiation into Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, sing together in the “old Lilly lobby” on the southwest corner of the building. They hold the red books given to all initiates, which contain the history and meaning of the organization.

James Caleca, sophomore music education major, was initiated into the men’s music fraternity on Thursday evening. He laughed and said that he and his fellow initiates decided it would be “a good idea to prance around Lilly Hall serenading girls” before the ceremony. Judging by the smiles on the audience, they were right.

Thursday 10:37 p.m.

Photo by Reid Bruner

On the third floor, Simoens works with a group of instrumentalists on a music and dance collaboration piece. Simoens commissioned this work from graduate composer Brian Spicklemire for a performance at a student choreography showcase next year, but it will be premiered on Saturday at Spicklemire’s composition recital. The dance is also on tomorrow’s Composers’ Orchestra concert  but without Simoens.

Using  Laban scales as a foundation, Simoens said she plans to weave her movements through the sounds of the instrumentalists, picking out musical “asides” to emphasize in order to avoid repetitive flowing movements. She has also developed a thematic movement, crossing all spatial axes, that will tie the piece together.

Thursday 11:22 p.m.

The second — floor music practice rooms are largely empty. Viola, piano and trumpet music floats down the corridors from various directions. A music student is asleep in the old lobby.

Friday 12:55 a.m.

After rehearsal, a group of theater students watch an episode of AMC’s television show “The Walking Dead” in the theater design lab.

Friday 2:22 a.m.

The last musician leaves her practice room and heads home for the night. The fluorescent lights in the hallways buzz, awaiting the sunrise and the influx of students for morning classes.

The metal door locked behind me, and the crisp air enveloped me as I left the building in the small hours of Friday morning, surprised and inspired by the mix of diligence and light-heartedness that is Lilly Hall after dark.

Butler University has increased both its number of applications received and the number of admittances extended for the class of 2016.

Tom Weede, vice president for enrollment management, said that Butler has admitted about 6,300 students for next semester.

“That was right around our goal for what we were hoping to admit,” he said.

Weede said that that number could rise even higher because of late applicants, late sports recruits or specialty performers in the Jordan College of Fine Arts.

Weede said that the ideal size of the class of 2016 is about 1,000 students, just a bit above the size of the current freshman class.

Dropping from 6,000 admitted students to 1,000 enrolled students may seem difficult, but Dean of Admission Scott Ham said the office of admission made a concerted effort to admit a high number like this.

“Nationally trending, students are applying to more institutions,” Ham said. “Because students are applying to more schools, we have to make more offers of admission.”

This is a 9 percent increase in the number of offers from last year.

Ham said that ease of applying to college is one reason for this.

“The Common Application makes it so easy to apply to 10 or 15 schools simply by clicking a link,” he said.

In addition, the office saw an increase in the total number of applications it received. More than 9,500 students applied to Butler. This is a 3 percent increase from last year, building on the 41 percent increase in 2010.

Success of the Butler men’s basketball team is still a major reason for the increase.

“I think the basketball tournaments the last couple years have introduced the university to people who didn’t know about it before,” Weede said. “But the nice thing is people don’t enroll at a college because it has a good basketball team. They enroll because it has the right size, fit, location, majors.”

Lade Akande, an admission counselor, said that basketball success is only the first step.

“They (high school students) got on the web and realized that Butler is a small, liberal arts school, the class sizes are small, there are not teaching assistants,” Akande said. “They found out all these great things, and that’s what drew them to Butler even more.”

Akande, who works with high school students from not only the Midwest but also the Southeast and Puerto Rico, said that the championship appearances have also increased the number of out-of-state applications.

Ham said that a final factor in the growth of applications is word-of-mouth, starting with students.

“They go home and talk about what a great experience they had,” Ham said. “The best promotion that Butler University can have is a satisfied student.”

BY THE NUMBERS

9,658 students have applied this year—a 3 percent increase from 2011.

About 6,300 have been admitted so far—an increase of 9 percent.

The goal size for the class of 2016 is about 1,000 students.