The Courage to Create Campaign is a $6 million capital campaign to increase opportunities for students and community members to pursue formal degrees and a vocational interests in the fine and performing arts. The College is raising $3 million—to match $3 million in state funding—to renovate and expand the Fine Arts Center with adjacent sculpture garden, and to support its Black Box Theater and Music Center.
Campaign dollars will support the preservation, renovation, and expansion of the existing Art Barn transforming it into the new Fine Arts Center, doubling the space of the existing facility. These improvements, the first since the 1970s, will position the College to meet the needs of its constituents for the next decade and beyond. The Fine Arts Center opened to students in time for spring 2009 classes. It will serve more than 3,500 students and community members annually and supports the offering of the Associate in Fine Art degree.
The adjacent sculpture garden will feature the steel and metal sculptures of Leon Sitarchuk, one of Philadelphia’s most famous public space artists. The beautifully landscaped gardens will provide areas of individual reflection, as well as gathering spots for social events.
The new Black Box Theatre and Music Center features a state-of-the-art theatrical control center, performance workshop space, soundproof music practice rooms, a choral classroom, percussion space, and a digital piano lab housing the latest in electronic keyboards. Central to the new facility is the Black Box Theater itself, a flexible, modern space with 125 seating capacity. This Center allows the College to expand music and theatre courses and Associate in Arts degree opportunities.
