Setting the Stage for New Regional Performing Arts Theater

Generous Challenge Match Announced

On a sunny Friday afternoon in mid-November there was great excitement, a flurry of activity, and plenty of maroon, gold and black paint flying at a construction site on the Colorado Mesa University campus. CMU Foundation and Shaw Construction held a Topping Out ceremony for the new performing arts center that is well under construction. A Topping Out ceremony is a tradition in construction projects for raising the final structural beam into place.

Drama and music students, alums, faculty, university officials, donors, and community leaders gathered to make their mark on the building, signing their names and placing their painted handprints on the beam before it was hoisted high in the air and into place.

At the event, our Community Foundation was pleased to announce a challenge match of $50,000 from our Dave and Mary Wood Fund for the capital campaign. Emily Orbanek, Director of Programs, explained the impetus behind the large grant to the assembled guests.

"Dave and Mary Wood were considered patrons of the arts. They have been supporting musical arts for decades, from bringing national musicians to perform in the Town of Ouray where they lived and helping restore the historical landmark Wright Opera House in Ouray, to being generous season sponsors of the Grand Junction Symphony. They also help fund a lot of smaller arts and cultural organizations. Our donors would be thrilled to see the construction of this state-of-the-art theater as they well understood the value of promoting arts and culture here in western Colorado, encouraging careers in music, theater, and dance for our CMU students, and also the economic impacts a regional theater will have on the community."

When completed, CMU’s new performing arts center will be able to host Broadway-scale productions and will be the western-most performing arts center in the state. CMU’s new arts and cultural hub is set to open Fall 2024.

To read the Daily Sentinel coverage on the event, CLICK HERE.



To learn more about the project, CLICK HERE. 

In partnership with the United Way of Mesa County, the Business Incubator, Hilltop Community Resources, and Roice-Hurst Humane Society, our Community Foundation commissioned and funded an economic impact study on nonprofit organizations in Mesa County.

The last impact study of the local nonprofit sector was completed in 2017. The past few years have brought a lot of change, especially with the COVID pandemic. More recent data was just released and presented to a gathering of community leaders.

Dr. Nathan Perry, Associate Professor of Economics at CMU, conducted the research and presented his report. Highlights from the research include:

• Nonprofit organizations employ 3,535 people in Mesa County, with 59% of these being full-time positions.

• Total labor income created was $191,740,384 - 4.7% of total Mesa County wages.

• Contribution of local nonprofits to regional GDP is $224,010,826.

In terms of expectations and challenges for nonprofits in the future, some highlights from the report were shared:

• 43.8% of nonprofits reported having problems retaining employees.

• While almost 60% of nonprofit respondents expect an increase in revenues in the next several years, over 20% expect some contraction.

Our Community Foundation celebrates the important and varied work our nonprofit partners are doing and looks forward to expanding financial support and other ways to support and strengthen them.

For a copy of the study, Economic Impact of Non-Profits in Mesa County, please CLICK HERE