University of Wyoming Opens Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts

After over a decade in development, the new Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts is open to the public. Though the new renovations to the University of Wyoming's Fine Arts building have been finished for over a month, the official unveiling of the renovations took place on Thursday, October 8, 2015.

Though discussions about the renovations started over 10 years ago, construction on the Buchanan Center didn't start until May of 2013. The final cost of the renovations added up to $42 million. Among the new features of the building are new practice rooms, a new auditorium, and a concessions stand.

Speakers at the event included University of Wyoming Trustee Dave Bostrom, UW Arts & Sciences Advisory Board Member Greg Dyekman, UW Music and Theatre & Dance Department Chairs Theresa Bogard and Leigh Selting, and former UW President Tom Buchanan.

Each speaker commented on the importance of the arts, and praised the Fine Arts department at the University of Wyoming, though former university President Buchanan made the most popular comment of the evening, saying that "a university without a strong commitment to the arts is a university without a soul."

Members of the public are free to tour the new Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts.