A groundbreaking ceremony was held today for Oklahoma City Community College's new 1,000-seat Performing Arts Theater. The $16 million theater will be located on the northwest side of the main campus, attached to the Visual and Performing Arts Center. The Performing Arts Theater at OCCC, designed by architectural firm Triad Design Group, will host cultural events for the students of OCCC as well as the community.

In 2006, students of the OCCC Leadership Council supported an additional fee that provided $8 million in bond funding, covering half of the estimated cost of the facility.

"Most of our students are often students who are paying their own way through college, oftentimes working full-time, two jobs and trying to raise a family in addition to going to college," Dr. Paul Sechrist, OCCC president, said. "It really meant a lot to me for them to commit to increase their cost of going to college because they believed that this college needed a first-class performing arts theater."

Sechrist added that lead gifts of one million dollars from the Sarkeys Foundation and $500,000 from the Inasmuch Foundation initiated a community fundraising campaign. Another two million dollars in donations from foundations, corporations and individuals, combined with OCCC capital improvement funds, have set the stage for construction to begin in early 2011.

The expected completion date is December 2012.