The opening ceremony for Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts is set for Feb. 24, according to Executive Director Allison Weaver. The Center, which cost a total of $30 million to create, was supported by a $20 million grant from the Moody Foundation in addition to the the Brown Foundation and others.
Open to the public, the center will focus on providing a space for integrating the arts, sciences and humanities. Architect Michael Maltzan designed the 50,000-square-foot center to include an “interdisciplinary maker lab” with resources such as wood and metal shops, prototyping areas, audiovisual editing booths and a technology lending library. In addition, the center will house an art gallery, black-box theater, experimental performance gallery and a cafe.
According to Weaver, Mona Hatoum will be the Moody Center’s first artist-in-residence. Hatoum is a Palestinian artist whose art, including sculpture, installation and performance video, is on exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. During her residency at the Moody Center, she will work on her first major United States exhibition in 20 years.
In a Rice News story, Rice University President David Leebron said the Moody Center represents Rice’s commitment to the arts.
“We are today equally proud of our dedication to and success in the arts and humanities [as engineering and science],” Leebron said. “[Arts] contribute in essential ways to every education and every intellectual endeavor.”
