Lone Star College-University Park celebrates long-awaited arts center opening

On Dec. 6, students, faculty and community members gathered to celebrate the opening of Lone Star College-University Park’s $25 million visual and performing arts center.

The gist

Approved by voters in 2014 as part of the college system’s $485 million bond, the 31,000 square-foot center will provide new, larger facilities for the college’s visual and performing arts departments. New facilities include:

• A 338-seat auditorium
• A 100-seat black box theater
• An art gallery and an art studio
• A music ensemble classroom

The LSC community celebrated the opening of the long-awaited VPA center—located at 930 University Park Campus Drive, Houston—with a ribbon cutting with the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce. The event also included a mariachi performance from Klein ISD students and a Christmas-themed theater performance from LSC students.

To view the new facility and the Dec. 6 ribbon cutting, click through the gallery below:

How we got here

The project was announced in late 2019 and the center's construction was initially delayed in September 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and funds being needed to repair facilities following Hurricane Harvey in 2017, as previously reported by Community Impact. Spikes in material costs and labor shortages continued to delay the project through late 2021.

Construction on the $29.3 million project began May 31, 2022.