WASILLA -- The Valley's performing arts community is doing a happy dance over the passage Tuesday of a state bonding proposition allowing for the construction at the Mat-Su College campus of the area's largest auditorium.
"We're all very exited," said Sonja Babcock, who owns Sonja's Studio of Dance in Wasilla. "I do three major performances a year and we've had to do them at UAA because there aren't any places in the Valley big enough to hold our audiences of 800."
The new $23.5 million Valley Center for Art and Learning will feature a 30,000-square-foot theater able to seat up to 800. Currently the largest auditorium in the Valley is at Colony High School and can accommodate about 220 audience members, Babcock said.
The project also includes the expansion of the campus' Snodgrass Hall, providing additional space for its paramedic and nursing labs -- a long-awaited improvement. Mat-Su College specializes in certificate programs and two-year associates degrees, and it is part of the University of Alaska Anchorage.
The Mat-Su campus project is part of a $397 million package of projects that will be funded with state-issued bonds, after voters on Tuesday approved selling the bonds. The projects include an $88 million life sciences building and lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a $60 million sports arena at UAA, a $30.5 million student housing and career center at Kenai Peninsula College and $5 million in campus renovations at Prince William Sound Community College in Valdez.
Three worn-out K-12 schools in rural Alaska also will be replaced or renovated for $128.5 million.
In Mat-Su, where residents sometimes feel like they take a back seat to Anchorage, word of the new facilities at Mat-Su College couldn't have come at a better time.
"The space we have now for the college's paramedic program is very small," Kathy Griffin said Wednesday. She's Mat-Su College's paramedic program coordinator and assistant professor of paramedic technology. "We'll have more room to stretch our wings and use our life-like mannequins for training. That's crucial for preparing future paramedics and nurses for real-life scenarios."
PUTS CAMPUS ON MAP
Mat-Su College Director Talis Colberg said Wednesday he's pleased the community will be able to use the college as a cultural hub once the auditorium is completed in 2012 or 2013.
"Even though we've been right in the core area of the Valley, no one but students have had a reason to come here," Colberg said. "This will make the campus more prominent as a place where the community can gather, especially with the improvements to Trunk Road."
Colberg said administrators at Mat-Su Regional Hospital have expressed great interest in the college being able to expand its nursing and paramedics programs.
"The health field is a high-demand profession," Colberg said.
And, it seems, performing arts have become high-demand sources of recreation and creative expression -- not to mention entertainment.
Babcock and fellow dance parent, Janet Washam, joined scores of Valley and university folks pushing for passage of Proposition B.
About 400 local residents passed out fliers and made phone calls over the last month to promote the passage of the bond proposition, Babcock said.
"My daughter Elizabeth will be done dancing by the time the new facility is built, but it will be great for all the rest of the kids here," Washam said about her Colony High sophomore.
"This will be fantastic for the schools too. Colony's choir has to perform its concerts in two separate shows because they can't fit all the parents in their auditorium at one time."
Palmer Junior/Middle School teacher Grant Olson, who also teaches drama classes at Mat-Su College, couldn't be happier with the future facility.
"I have to say I was completely surprised when everybody was talking about being fiscally responsible and then voters go ahead and agree to this expense for education," Olson said. "It's going to be great for the Valley. We'll finally have a cultural mecca around which the community can find its voice."
Contact K.T. McKee at 352-6711.
By K.T. McKEE
kmckee@adn.com