RADFORD, Va. – After 40 months of construction, Radford University’s biggest academic building, the Artis Center, is complete.
“We are standing in the brand-new Artis Center for Adaptive Innovation and Creativity,” said Bret Danilowicz, president of the university. “What we’ve done is we’ve took a series of buildings that had art departments in them before and brought all the arts together underneath one roof.”
The new building has a little bit of everything for everyone; dance studios, graphic design rooms, large study spaces and it even has places for those not involved in the arts.
“More and more health services are interdisciplinary too,” said Danilowicz. “So, music therapy, art therapy, dance therapy, it’s not all just about occupational therapy.”
This year, the university saw a major increase in student enrollment, and for one dance student, he said seeing the university invest in the arts shows the folks in charge care about the success of the students.
“Them putting in the time, the effort, the money into this building for us to be here to create, to be able to do what we love to do, lets us know that we are a priority here and that they care about us,” said Onajae Edmund, a senior dance major.
The folks who made the donation to the building were also there to see the finished product. They said seeing the students enjoying the space makes it all the more special.
“It’s their future,” said Nancy and Pat Artis. “It’s their opportunity, and that is what we wanted to do with our donation.”
The Artis family donated $6,000,000 for the construction of the building.