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$100 `bricks' will help arts center By PAUL FATTIG ASHLAND -- Brick by brick. That's how the "Give Art a Home" campaign began late last year to build a visual arts center at Southern Oregon University. And that's how it will end with a community phase which begins today and will wrap up next year, says Lisa James, executive director of the SOU Foundation, which is running the campaign. Donors can purchase a limited number of "community" bricks for $100 each as part of an effort to raise the final $686,000 the foundation needs for the $11.4 million project. Donors' names or a memorial name will be inscribed on each brick. Since late last year, the campaign to "Give Art a Home" has raised more than $5.1 million out of the target goal of $5.8 million. The goal is to raise $200,000 more than the $5.6 million the state has agreed to donate in the form of matching funds for the project. "We always make a big splash about big donations but this project is really about broad-based community support," James said, noting that more than 60 percent of the campaign's donations so far have come in the form of small gifts from individuals. "We want people to recognize that, particularly with the beginning of the community phase of the campaign," she added. "All the donations, not just that of a wealthy person, will be matched." The campaign is the largest fund-raising project in the school's history. Until now, the largest was a campaign of less than $500,000 to build the original Schneider Museum building in 1986, James said. "We've done very well," James said. "But, because this involves matching grants, it's pretty much all or nothing." Last week, the Meyer Memorial Trust in Portland pledged a $500,000 matching grant. That pledge joined other large foundation donations contributed by The Kresge Foundation, the Carpenter Foundation and U.S. Bank. Individuals have pledged gifts of up to $350,000 each. The goal is to build a visual arts center to house SOU's art department, which is now spread among seven buildings on campus. The structure, to be built at Indiana Street and Siskiyou Boulevard, will include a 19,500-square-foot art building to contain administrative offices, a multimedia lecture auditorium, classrooms and a ceramics studio. The project also calls for renovating and adding to the Siskiyou Commons, a building housing arts activities, enlarging it to 34,500 square feet. Plans also include a new plaza and garden area which will serve as an outdoor classroom connected to the center. "Aside from the 200 majors in the art department, it will serve every student on campus," James said. Moreover, the project will be the first time in nearly two decades that the learning institution will be able to add classroom space, she said. As visual arts programs move into one new building, room will be freed up around campus for science, math and language arts, she said. "It will have a positive impact campuswide," she said. The goal is to break ground on the project next year, she said. Art center drive starts today ASHLAND -- Southern Oregon University's community campaign for the Center for the Visual Arts kicks off today. The campaign opens with a reception from 4-6:30 p.m. at the university's Schneider Museum of Art on the corner of Siskiyou Boulevard and Indiana Street. The reception will feature music, refreshments, door prizes and the chance to reserve memorialized bricks for the center's plaza. Donations can be sent to the SOU Foundation, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland OR 97520. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA