Feb. 23 topping out ceremony will be broadcast on Facebook Live

Next week, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will announce a significant total of donations raised for endowed scholarship funds that will make quality art and design education attainable for more UA Little Rock students. 

The scholarship campaign update will be announced at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, during a topping out ceremony on the construction site of the new Windgate Center of Art + Design, located on the northeast corner of the campus. The brief ceremony will be streamed on Facebook Live as construction crews will raise the center’s highest beam on the 64,000-square-foot building.

The beam will bear signatures of scholarship donors, art faculty, and others, and display the American and Arkansas flags and a ceremonial live tree. According to an article in Slate magazine, the tree celebrates a safe construction site, expresses hope for the completion of the building, and blesses the building and its future occupants.

The public is invited to attend the ceremony, view the ceremony live on Facebook, or watch the video at a later time. Parking is available in Lot 15, off 28th Street near Fair Park Boulevard.

Viewers will hear from Chancellor Andrew Rogerson and Tom Clifton, dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences, among others, who will describe educational and community opportunities at the center and an update on scholarships.

Construction is 25 percent complete on the new state-of-the-art educational facility scheduled to open Jan. 8, 2018. The new center is funded by a $20.3 million gift from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. After the new building was announced, the university launched a $3 million endowed scholarship campaign to make art and design education more affordable to students.

Related: UA Little Rock launches construction on Windgate Center of Art + Design