James Madison University

2002 General Obligation Bond Projects

 

 

Center for the Arts -- $29.8 million 

(Additional private funds are also being raised for the project.) 

 

The Center for the Arts will house facilities of the School of Theatre and Dance and be the key building in a new arts complex planned on Main Street across from JMU's original campus.  The School of Theatre and Dance has a national reputation for excellence in spite of current sub-par facilities.  The School is located in a building that is a former chicken hatchery built in 1922.   The building (Theater II) has extensive deferred maintenance and life safety code deficiencies and is unquestionably the university's worst academic facility.  Reactions to the building from members of the General Assembly during a recent campus tour could best be characterized as "appalling."  Renovation is not a possibility for the theater building.  It is structurally beyond repair and too small for program needs.  Without a new facility sized and designed for its purposes, the School of Theatre and Dance will lose its accreditation.  The accrediting agency has made this possibility quite clear.  Loss of accreditation would severely damage a program with an excellent national reputation - fewer students would enroll and graduates would face greatly reduced professional opportunities.