$8.5M art center will benefit community

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Hundreds of people put on hard hats Monday to watch crews demolish a building at the site of a new arts center in Wards Corner.

It's not something you would expect to see on a Monday morning at Norfolk Collegiate School , but it is something that 400 students and faculty have been waiting for for a long time.

"It is very important that our student body is involved in this because this is for the students," Headmaster Scott Kennedy said.

The new facility, funded by school supporters and donors, will house new classrooms, a chorus room, two art galleries, and a 425-seat theatre.

"There's going to be dance rooms,there's gonna be studios for the computers ,and there's gonna be a humongous stage," student Parker Purrington said.

Norfolk Collegiate also wants to lend a helping hand to the city it has called home since the late 1940's.

Judy Davis, the Chair of the English Department, said, "This facility is one of the things that might help revitalize Wards corner. It's going to be a resource not just for Norfolk Collegiate School, but for the surrounding community, as well."

The doors of the new facility will be open to the community for specials events and private functions.

"We see this an opportunity to have a facility that is open to the entire region of Hampton Roads," Kennedy said.

Officials hope to have the New Center for the Arts open sometime in the Spring of 2013.