CU Foundation to sell naming rights for Visual Arts Complex
Whoever wants the naming rights to the new Visual Arts Complex to be completed in 2009 will have to pay.
The Visual Arts Complex will replace the recently demolished Sibell Wolle Fine Arts building and cost $60 million, $10 million of which will come from the naming rights for the name of the complex sold to the highest bidder.
“We have a lot of donors that are interested in a lot of the possible naming opportunities,” said Graham Oddie associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. “I don’t have any doubt that we will find a donor to name the building and all major spaces.”
Naming rights to the CU Art Museum, five of its galleries and the Department of Art and Art History are being offered at $3 million a piece.
The most specialized permanent collections gallery will cost $2 million. The jewel box permanent collections gallery and the changing exhibitions gallery will be sold for $1.5 million each. The projects gallery will cost $1 million and the video gallery will be sold for $250,000, according to the CU Foundation.
Donors given the naming rights generally have an “affinity with the department area that they are donating to,” said Gigi Reynolds, Assistant Vice President of Marketing Communications for the CU Foundation.
According to the CU Foundation, in addition to the private investors, student fees will also be a major contributing factor to the complex’s funding.
In April of 2005 UCSU passed a bill that would make all full-time students pay a fee toward the building and/or renovating of specific building projects.
Student funding is not being overlooked by those that are in charge of developing the complex.
“Everyone involved thinks it is important to acknowledge the students commitment to this building and we are currently discussing ways by which we can recognize them for their participation,” said Micah Abram, CU Foundation director of development.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Andrew Nute at andrew.nute@colorado.edu
