Lasting Impressions: Naming opportunities announced for Rockefeller Arts Center addition/renovation

There’s been a surge in the arts in recent years at Fredonia — a greater awareness of the role they play on campus and a growing outreach that’s attracting more patrons to Rockefeller Arts Center (RAC). You can be a part of this excitement through naming opportunities available in the first major expansion and renovation of the original RAC.

The Fredonia College Foundation has designated more than 70 individual spaces to raise funds to support ongoing needs in our diverse arts programs that cannot be met through Fredonia’s state-appropriated funds — which now comprise less than 12 percent of the campus’ consolidated operating budget.

Naming opportunities in the RAC range from $5,000 to $5 million and involve offices, classrooms, studios, performance venues, common areas and even include the naming of the School of Music and College of Visual and Performing Arts. Naming gifts below $25,000 will be placed in a priority needs endowment account for a respective department or area of study, or into an existing arts endowment fund; those over $25,000 will allow the donor to create a named endowment with a specific focus.

Attractive wall plaques will be placed in corresponding areas to recognize supporters at all funding levels. These spaces will be recognized at the official dedication of the completed expansion project on Oct. 21 — kicking off Homecoming 2016 this fall. A gala dinner will accompany the dedication.

The anticipated move-in date for the first-floor addition is late February or early March, while the overall project completion is to be this summer.

Academic departments within the umbrella of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and Visual Arts and New Media) are thriving, but they’ll soon be even better positioned to enable more than 1,000 students majoring in these areas to achieve greater artistic goals. Arts enrollment has nearly doubled since RAC opened in 1969, accounting for 20 percent of Fredonia’s students.

Stephen Rees, professor and chair emeritus of the Department of Theatre and Dance, is serving as project shepherd. June Miller-Spann, development associate and foundation liaison to the College of Visual and Performing Arts, is coordinating the naming opportunities initiative. She can be reached at spannjm@fredonia.edu or 716-673-3321.

To learn more, visit www.fredonia.edu/racaddition.