Project Rationale

Rockefeller Arts Center opened in 1969 at a time when the arts at SUNY Fredonia consisted solely of undergraduate programs in Music, Applied Music, Art and Speech/Drama.  There was no Dance program at that time.

These degree programs and others added over the years, now under the College of Visual and Performing Arts have more than 965 students currently enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Rockefeller Arts Center houses the Department of Visual Arts and New Media, and the Department of Theatre and Dance.  While program enrollments have burgeoned in the intervening 45 years, the available space within the building for instruction, study, rehearsal, studio work and performance has not increased.

Completion of this addition, along with the renovation of selected spaces in the existing structure, will provide program-specific teaching facilities as well as public performance and exhibit spaces for the current and future needs of the campus.