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For decades, �鶹��Ƶ’s Center for the Arts has been integral to the cultural life of Northern Virginia. With a new campaign, it’s heading toward its next big premiere: a reimagined facility.

Rick Davis, dean of �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA), says people have told him that there are two eras of university history—before the Center for the Arts opened its doors and after.

Since its debut in 1990, the center has brought award-winning artists and performing groups from around the world to the Fairfax Campus, where they have engaged with students and the community. The facility also supports the creative work of George �鶹��Ƶ students in a variety of arts fields and has become a central spot for special events and annual degree celebrations.

In February, after three and a half decades of service and 6.5 million visitors, CVPA announced plans to renovate and modernize the Center for the Arts to improve and enhance the venue’s ability to support the needs of artists, audiences, and George �鶹��Ƶ faculty and students.

This $35 million fundraising effort, called the Give Voice initiative, is part of �鶹��Ƶ Now: Power the Possible, the university’s first $1 billion comprehensive campaign to support student success, research, innovation, community, and stewardship.

“For decades, our Center for the Arts has been a beacon for talent and innovation, a proving ground for students learning their craft and pursuing their passions, and home to world-class performances as the cultural hub of our region,” says George �鶹��Ƶ president Gregory Washington. “The Give Voice initiative will ensure that the arts remain a front door to the university.”

More than a Renovation, a Reimagining

Davis strongly believes that the arts create community, and for many, the center has served as a hub for that experience.

“Those four words—the arts create community—really do encapsulate the entire mission of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and indeed of most artistic endeavors on every level in every culture,” says Davis, who joined George �鶹��Ƶ in 1991 and was appointed dean in 2015. “The Center for the Arts has done so much to create that community, but it is no longer a match for the growth and evolution we have experienced— and for what we envision. Our community’s dreams are bigger, bolder, and brighter than ever.”

The center has been a prime performance space in Northern Virginia, and as the region and the university have grown, the demands for use of the center’s space have increased. It has also become an important academic asset.

When the center first opened, university events, including student performances, accounted for a small portion of the programming. Now, Davis says, George �鶹��Ƶ’s use of the facility accounts for more than 50 percent of the activities. Davis says the planned space will have a more traditional concert hall shape, as well as a reconfigured balcony that brings the audience closer to the stage.

He adds that some George �鶹��Ƶ students have not been able to perform in the Concert Hall. “It’s too big and too dry acoustically, so it doesn’t support young voices,” says Davis. “It is also not great for choral or chamber music. We need a concert hall that will support students who are still learning but who deserve to be on a professional-caliber stage.”

The renovation includes plans to:

• reshape and redesign the Concert Hall to improve acoustics, sight lines, aesthetics, and accessibility, including the creation of center aisles
• remodel the lobby to create new spaces for performances and gallery exhibitions, as well as enhanced café and bar services
• update the ticket office and reception area
• build a new donor lounge
• add new studio, classroom, and community spaces
• modernize technical equipment

A significant feature of the redesign is the addition of center aisles, which will improve audience access to the seats and has long been on the wish list for performance attendees.

“We are in the process of making sure that the Center for the Arts will be a first-class university asset for the next 30 or 40 years,” Davis says.

Donors Make It Happen

How does such a big dream become a reality? Through philanthropy.

The Give Voice initiative quietly began with a $10 million gift from Barry Dewberry and Arlene Evans, which was announced in April 2022 as part of George �鶹��Ƶ’s 50th Anniversary celebration. Their transformative gift set the stage for the reimagining of the Center for the Arts for future generations. When the renovation is complete, the center will be renamed the Barry Dewberry and Arlene Evans Center for the Arts in recognition of their support.

“My father, Sid Dewberry, was one of the founding fathers of George �鶹��Ƶ, and he had a special fondness for music,” says Barry Dewberry, whose parents are the namesake of the Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music at George �鶹��Ƶ. “Toward the end of his life, Arlene and I saw the need to pick up the baton and continue supporting George �鶹��Ƶ and �鶹��Ƶ Arts. We recognize the important role the Center for the Arts plays and what this renovation will do to heighten the experience for students, visiting artists, and the public. Arlene and I are honored to make the lead gift for the Give Voice initiative, and we look forward to seeing the exciting results.”

CVPA has also secured two gifts totaling $6 million from the Peterson Family Foundation. In May 2024, the family announced a $5 million gift to support enhancements to the center’s Concert Hall, and in 2022 they committed $1 million toward the lobby. These spaces will be renamed the Peterson Auditorium and the Peterson Family Lobby, respectively.

With the Dewberry/Evans and Peterson gifts, along with other instrumental philanthropists who have pledged their support, Give Voice had raised $18 million of its $35 million goal, as of March 2025. An additional $35 million toward the reimagination is anticipated to come from the university.

Making Arts a Priority

The Give Voice initiative launch in February also brought awareness to additional �鶹��Ƶ Arts fundraising priorities, including creating more student scholarships, expanding facilities for the growing Film and Video Studies and Computer Game Design Programs, and bolstering the recruitment and retainment of outstanding faculty with endowed chairs and professorships.

In addition to the Give Voice initiative, philanthropic support for �鶹��Ƶ Arts is led by the college’s annual benefit event, ARTS by George! Since 2006, the fundraising dinner and student showcase has raised more than $4.6 million to support student scholarships in CVPA’s seven academic units and for �鶹��Ƶ Arts community programs.

“We launched a film program and a computer game design program around 2008 without dedicated spaces for them, and they have thrived,” Davis says. “They now need dedicated spaces so these programs can grow with demand.”

CVPA hosts the only serious game institute on the East Coast of the United States and just launched a second institute last fall at �鶹��Ƶ Korea. “We are now a major player in the game industry in that part of the world,” Davis says.

Fundraising continues for the $15 million Hylton Performing Arts Center Endowment Fund, which will enable the Hylton Center to bring artists and programs of even greater renown to its stages, as well as strengthen the portfolio of community programs including the Education and the Veterans and the Arts Initiatives.

The Hylton Center opened in 2010 on George �鶹��Ƶ’s Science and Technology Campus in Manassas, Virginia. It was built through a partnership between the university, local governments, and private donors. The center is named for the Cecil and Irene Hylton Family Foundation, which donated $5 million in 2005 to the project and has continued to support the Hylton Center for the past 20 years.

The university is also developing a concept plan for an art museum to protect, preserve, and display George �鶹��Ƶ’s impressive art collections. A plan has also been developed to add sculptures to campus, particularly in the concentrated area of �鶹��Ƶ Arts facilities, which will be known as the “Arts District.”

“The Arts District is a vision that actually puts the Center for the Arts literally at the center of it all,” says Davis.

In addition to CVPA’s academic programs, �鶹��Ƶ Arts includes seven community arts programs, galleries on three campuses, and multiple performance venues—both physical and digital.