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Visual Arts Center groundbreaking Ceremony set for July 1 at Southern Oregon University ASHLAND -- Groundbreaking for Southern Oregon University's new Center for the Visual Arts is set for 4 to 6 p.m. July 1 on the front lawn of the SOU campus. The celebration includes free food, music and parking. The public is invited to bring a trowel and take home a souvenir, and to help paint a display sign with the groundbreaking theme, "The Canvas Before Us." For information, call 552-6878. The new center is an $11 million project, financed through donations and a $5.6 million matching grant from the Oregon Legislature. Other challenge grants came from the Kresge Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust, and the Ford Family Foundation contributed $250,000. The Center for the Visual Arts was planned more than 30 years ago as a learning facility on SOU's campus. The first phase, the Schneider Museum of Art, opened in 1986, the remodeled Art East Sculpture Building in 1995 and a museum expansion in 1996. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA