Breaking Ground on Groundbreaking Arts Complex

Published: March 25, 2014 | Read Time: 2 minutes

The cultural landscape of southern Utah will soon take a major step forward with a groundbreaking ceremony that signals the beginning of construction on a new performing and visual arts complex. The groundbreaking for SUU's Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts is scheduled for Thursday, March 27, at 3 p.m. on the grounds of the Randall L. Jones Theatre.

The groundbreaking ceremony is expected to draw state representatives, civic leaders, trustees, major donors, board members, officers and executives from Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA). In addition, the event features SUU presidents past and present, performing and visual artists, and a special presentation that celebrates this unique center for the arts.

“This $30 million project, the largest in our University's history, will help us increase the cultural service that has become a hallmark of Southern Utah University,” said SUU President Scott Wyatt. “We couldn't be more grateful to all of the friends of the University and the Festival who have helped make this incredible project possible.”

The Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts is expected to begin rising on the SUU campus summer 2014 and should be completed by the summer of 2016. This progress is in large measure thanks to the generosity of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and the late Mrs. Sorenson, a visionary and singular friend of education and arts education for children in particular.

The Center will incorporate visual arts, live theatre, and dynamic arts education on the SUU campus and will dramatically enrich the cultural life of Cedar City and its surrounding region. The Center, home to the Utah Shakespeare Festival's new outdoor Shakespeare theatre and a new studio theatre, an artistic/production building for the Festival, and the University's Southern Utah Museum of Art, will be a year-round destination for thousands of visitors.

Thursday's groundbreaking festivities are free and open to the campus community and general public as part of the University's Founders Celebration.


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