The University Center for the Arts provides a forum in which the finest artists, performers, professors and students in our community can collaborate and actively incorporate the arts as a cornerstone of learning at Colorado State University.”
– Larry Edward Penley, President - Colorado State University
The University Center for the Arts (UCA), located in the renovated Fort Collins High School at 1400 Remington Street, is a state-of-the-art arts center.
The UCA houses the 550-seat Edna Rizley Griffin Concert Hall; the Bohemian Complex with a 317-seat thrust theatre and an experimental theatre; the William E. Runyan Music Hall, which houses both choral and music rehearsals; and ancillary theater spaces, including a paint and scene shop and dressing and green rooms. The UCA, a vibrant learning environment and showcase for the performing and creative arts, provides the opportunity for dynamic community-university collaborations and programs that will bring to Colorado State, Fort Collins, and the region a new dimension of cultural enrichment and economic benefit.
Additional performing and visual arts facilities are under construction. The final and largest phase of the project is underway and the completed UCA will include The University Art Museum, which will feature four discreet galleries for the exhibition of the university's permanent art collections and traveling exhibitions, the University Dance Theatre, a historic costume and textile gallery, recital and rehearsal chambers, and classrooms to enable students and members of our community to learn about and benefit from the arts. In addition, the center will provide clinic space for the Music Therapy program and the Center for Biomedical Research in Music. Having an environment that will bring the University’s performing and visual arts programs together will open doors to entirely new avenues in learning and creative expression. The entire project is expected to be completed in 2008. See the Schedule of Grand Opening Events
When complete, the UCA will bring performing and visual artists together in one place and provide them with the spaces, facilities, and tools they need to learn, teach, create, collaborate, display, perform, and excel. The UCA will improve opportunities for integrated and interdisciplinary learning by housing the academic units of Music, Theatre, and Dance in the same home for the first time in university history. The University Art Museum will provide exhibition space, on a rotating basis, for the university’s permanent collection with focus areas in modern and contemporary art, African art and Japanese prints. Additional climate controlled storage space will house the remainder of the collection and provide teaching and research facilities for hands-on study of the visual arts.
A short stroll through the College Avenue underpass brings you through the Annual Trial Gardens to the University Center for the Arts at 1400 Remington Street.