Local College Opens New Arts Center WXXI (WXXI) - The new $10 million Nazareth Arts Center is complete, and the school is ready to get the show on the road.

The planning process for the project started about three years ago, and renovations got under way a year later.

The college has built its largest art gallery yet, two lounges, and reconstructed the main piece of the center - its theater.

For the first time a fly space - a backstage area for scene changes - could be added.

College president Daan Braveman says the new arts center is important to the college as it grows its programs in music, arts and theater.

"Our theater program has been ranked by the Princeton review ... as the sixth best college theater program in the United States," Braveman says. "So ... now the students have exactly what they are going to have when they go out into the world, in terms of a place to learn."

Braveman says the key to the project's success was the partnership between the college, state government and private donors.

The new Nazareth College Arts Center's week-long opening celebration starts Friday evening with the unveiling of the gallery.

Events are free and open to the public
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