SILOAM SPRINGS : Pledge pushes drama center
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/234710/
John Brown University announced the fourth-largest pledge in its history Monday, a $ 5 million lead-gift commitment toward an $ 8. 5 million performing arts center.
The donors are Bill and Donna Berry, who live in Texas.
Bill Berry graduated from JBU in 1956 and his wife attended the school in 1953. Bill Berry has been a member of the JBU board of trustees for more than a decade and recently sold his Pampa, Texasbased business, Titan Group, which makes equipment for oil drilling companies.
The Berrys’ pledge is the largest given to the Siloam Springs university from alumni or former students, said Jim Krall, JBU’s vice president for university advancement.
“We love the university. We’ve been blessed, and it just seems like an appropriate thing to do,” Bill Berry said.
The gift will go toward construction of the 500-seat auditorium and center, which will host theater productions, music recitals, lecturers, meetings large and small, and other campus events.
JBU has initiated the design and development phase for the project with architects Sparks Education, a division of Crafton, Tull, Sparks and Associates Inc.
Total construction costs, including architectural and engineering fees, are estimated at $ 7 million, Krall said, adding that the $ 8. 5 million project includes a $ 1. 5 million operational endowment. Annual operations costs haven’t been estimated.
No date for a groundbreaking has been set since officials still are raising funds for the project. University officials expect the auditorium will be west of the Mabee / Chapman parking lot near the Broadhurst apartment complex.
The 23, 950-square-foot Berry Performing Arts Center is needed, JBU officials said.
Now the university, with more than 2, 000 students, hosts most of its performing arts programs in the 100-seat Jones Recital Hall or in the Cathedral of the Ozarks, which seats 948 people and is often too large a venue. Neither offers dressing rooms, a backstage or set design areas.
Terri Wubbena, a JBU music professor, said in a news release that the fine arts program’s continued growth is hampered without a new center.
“We have reached an impasse in our ability to provide our students with an adequate facility to display their talents,” he said.
The private Christian university’s most recent capital campaign ended in January, when fundraisers announced they had raised $ 6. 1 million aimed at preserving a group of campus buildings that included the school’s landmark cathedral.
JBU’s largest pledges have been $ 10 million from an anonymous donor in 2006 for scholarships and $ 10 million from another anonymous donor in 2007 for JBU’s continuing $ 20 million campaign to build the school’s endowment fund.
The endowment campaign runs until June 30, 2012, Krall said. It involves the donor matching others’ gifts one-to-one and has raised a total of $ 5. 4 million, thus far.
The third-largest JBU gift pledge was given, also anonymously, in 2003, Krall said.