After graduating from USU in 1968 with a zoology major, Michael Butkus enlisted in the Army, eventually receiving training as a combat engineer officer and military intelligence officer. He earned a master's degree from USU in outdoor recreation in 1976, began working at USU in 1988, and currently serves as an academic advisor in the College of Natural Resources. He recalls the following about spending time in the mid-1960s in the Art Barn, where he posed as a model for art classes:
"The Vietnam War was going on hot and heavy; it was getting even worse and Utah State was not above its little influences as far as demonstrations with the activists around. But as I thought back about it, the Art Barn sort of sat in the middle of everything; it seemed like kind of a refuge from some of the other stuff that was going on. By the student center there would be demonstrations and people would be marching around and so forth, but it just seemed like the Art Barn itself, just based on its nature on what went on in there, was kind of a refuge from all that, and I sort of got that sense when I went in to do my posing.
"It was pretty quiet, and people were focused on the art aspect of what we were doing, and there weren’t other influences that would be evident at that particular time. I always thought it was kind of cool that we had sort of a neat little facility right there in the middle of campus, particularly in this time of our history when it was pretty intense and all the stress going on with different people and people had chances to relieve that stress. I think maybe that was something that the Art Barn could give."
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