This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The University of Utah will debut the new $37.5 million Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts and Education Complex on Thursday.
Built with a $12.5 million donation from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation, the largest single gift of its kind in U. history, the facility will become the home of the College of Education and the Tanner Dance Program.
Ann Crocker, president of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and Beverley Taylor Sorenson's daughter, said the facility is a culmination of her mother's vision of bringing together the arts and education.
"We lost my mother last year, but I know she would have been unbelievably proud to know her legacy is being carried forward," Crocker said in a statement. It will offer community programming as well as university research and teacher training. The arts and education collaboration will focus on visual arts, theater, music and dance, said U. President David Pershing.
"The completion of this building," he said, "represents the beginning of an incredibly exciting endeavor for the University of Utah that has the potential to profoundly impact arts-integrated education on a national scale."
The 110,000-square-foot facility has seven classrooms, six dance studios, a 200-seat auditorium, a demonstration space for teacher training, 27 conference and project rooms, a black-box theater, an art studio and a costume fabrication shop.
"We know that the arts can have a profoundly positive impact on education for children," said María Fránquiz, dean of the College of Education, "and this new building provides us the opportunity to explore that concept in deeply meaningful and enriching ways."
Twitter: @lwhitehurst —
New U. arts and education complex opening
The University of Utah will hold a program at 11 a.m. and tours at noon Thursday of the new Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts and Education Complex, 1720 Campus Center Drive.