CORVALLIS, Ore. — The new, $75 million Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts on the Oregon State University campus is a few months away from opening its doors to the public.

Crews are hard at work trying to make the center, also referred to as “PRAx,” a reality. Peter Betjemann is the executive director of the project and could not be more excited about it. 

“OSU has never had a purpose built, professional venue for the performing arts and the visual arts,” he said.

At 49,000 square feet, the new arts center will have a host of new features and facilities for students to enjoy and learn about. Including a new concert hall, theater, art gallery, plaza, and garden. The project will open in April of 2024.

“It will be an all day event,” Betjemann said. “Guests can come in and take in the first exhibition in the gallery, experience performances in the concert hall, experience performances in all kinds of out of the way spaces — in PRAx we’re going to stash violinists and clarinetists in corners essentially.” 

Half of the funding comes from state grants. However, Betjemann said the other half of the comes from donations.

“We were very fortunate to have a wonderful donor, Patricia Valian Reser, who gave a lead gift that started a fundraising campaign to which some hundreds of additional donors contributed,” he said.

With so much money invested, officials believe the benefits it will bring are worth every penny. PRAx will allow students to have a truly “professional” arts venue in which to perform, officials said.

OSU also plans to have an artist presenting program, which will bring professional artists from all over the world to the campus’ classrooms. That kind of exposure, officials believe, will be incredibly transformative for the arts at the university. 

“We always pair those with an engagement activity such that the artist who might be coming from Taiwan — or New York, or Minnesota, who knows — will do master classes with students, will do workshops with students, do talks and lectures,” Betjemann said.

While the center will mainly cater to arts students, the university also wants it to be a place where anybody can learn, which means booking artists who have backgrounds in public health or forestry, for example. 

“In that way we really want PRAx to you know be a very broad tent.” Betjemann added.

The new center is even getting students’ attention. Colby Beck was very impressed by project. 

“I’m definitely jealous,” he said. “It looks like a very nice building and it’s cool for them that they are going to get a nice facility.”

Other students like Cherokee Price Kessoer believe this place is just what arts students need. They believe it will be a great source of inspiration. 

“It probably is, because it gives them something to focus on for their classes, I know a lot of my peers had to do perspective for their drawings,” Kessoer said.

The inaugural season for the center will be formally announced on November 6, and students will be able to purchase tickets beginning on November 15. 

“Yeah for sure, if they had shows or events here, I would definitely check it out, get some tickets,” Beck said.