A $7.5 million Center for the Creative Arts school is under construction in Fort Smith, Ark.
The Community School of the Arts, a private organization, is building the 60,000-square-foot facility on 10 acres in central Fort Smith, reports The Fort Smith Times Record. Across the road, one acre of land has been set aside for a set and costume design building.
The center has space for 500 students from western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma and will offer classes in music, theater, dance, visual arts, film and culinary arts. The facility also will have a 350-seat theater, recording studio and kitchen, along with a multipurpose educational space.
Grants and private donations are covering 60% of the cost of construction.
The school began in 2016 under Rosilee Russell, the former director of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Academy of the Arts. It facilitates programs for students from 39 school districts in a 60-mile radius. Classrooms now are at St. Boniface Catholic School, Central Presbyterian Church, and through programs at public schools in the area.
WER Architects/Planners is the architect and Turn Key Construction is the construction manger.
