Update: This version includes newly announced info about the center's first season and opening week events.

As construction of Cape Fear Community College’s Humanities and Fine Arts Center nears completion, the venue’s first raising of the curtain has been announced.

Dubbed Artsplosion at the Center, the Oct. 10 event will feature performances by Pittsburgh-based, nationally touring multimedia troupe Squonk Opera, in addition to those by students and other local artist groups.

“We are pleased to be working with local arts leader and producer Beth Crookham, who will curate the official opening performance, a celebration of some of the best arts organizations throughout New Hanover County,” CFCC Humanities and Fine Arts Center director Shane Fernando said in a statement. “Ms. Crookham will be working with a jury of local performing arts professionals to select the organizations that will represent the New Hanover County performing arts community in this one-of-a-kind event.”

While the free, community event will include the official initial raising of the center’s curtain, a ticketed gala opening is slated for Oct. 3. That event will feature the N.C. Symphony and award-winner entertainer Liza Minnelli.

“We wanted star-quality to open the Center. Liza Minnelli is show business royalty. It doesn't get much bigger than Liza. Her impact on American culture is unrivaled,” Fernando said in a news release.

The next day, on Oct. 4, the N.C. Symphony is scheduled to open its official season at the center with a Russian Spectacular classical music performance, officials said.

“The opening of the building will be CFCC’s time to shine as well as showcase what Wilmington has to offer,” said Bob Jones, associate director of the CFCC Foundation. “We have no doubt that people will be coming from all over the area and the region [to attend shows]. It’s going to be an economic game changer.”

The center's inaugural season also will include visits by Boz Scaggs, Lily Tomlin and
Jackson Browne as well as Broadway productions of Disney's Beauty and the Beast -- scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6 during opening week -- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Mama Mia.

It will host a contemporary dance series featuring the touring dance companies
Gaspard and Dancers, a North Carolina; SEOP Dance Company, from South Korea; and
Contra-Tiempo, an urban Latin dance company based in Los Angeles.

The venue will also be available for use by outside groups, for example concert promoters, to bring in acts, officials said.

“We fully expect to host 30 additional performances presented by outside organizations between now and the end of 2015," Fernando said.

While the three-story Humanities and Fine Arts Center will house a 1,500-seat auditorium with state-of-the-art technology, officials said that the center’s top focus will be student growth and academics. Besides the performance theater, the 160,000-square-foot facility will include classrooms, art and music studios and more, for obtaining related degrees at CFCC. 

The center also will provide the college’s students with hands-on training opportunities. They’ll be able to work behind the scenes in some of the venue performances.

“Besides increasing the quality of life, the center will also be a gateway to showcase what CFCC has to offer the community as an institution,” Jones said. “Ultimately, it’s about our students and the arts.”

While construction of the Humanities and Fine Arts Center is funded by a designated portion of the $164 million 2008 New Hanover County bond project, the college has launched fundraising efforts to pay for enhancements, including an orchestra pit lift. One of the fundraising campaigns is Set the Stage, which includes naming opportunities in the new building.

The goal for Set the Stage, Jones said, is $1.2 million. Anything raised above that “goes towards students, scholarships and programming.”

“ … with the Set the Stage campaign there is still room to grow. We look forward to everyone’s continued support to help our students succeed and to create programs to enhance the region,” Jones continued. “We take our role very seriously and are proud to be moving forward as an institution people are proud of.”

Another fundraising effort is Have a Seat, in which donors can purchase an inscribed plaque that dedicates one of the performance theater’s seats to a person of their choice. Donations run from $300 to $1,500, depending on the seat’s location within the auditorium.

Have a Seat is an ongoing fundraiser that will continue until each theater seat has a dedicated plaque. But Jones was quick to add that the center-based fundraisers aren’t competing with the school’s primary fundraising efforts.

“We’ve gotten an outpouring of community support,” Jones said. “The great news is that we raised what we were expecting for our operations budget, so that [Have a Seat or Set the Stage] campaign hasn’t hurt our standard fundraising.”

Located on North Third Street between Brunswick and Hanover streets, construction of the new building was wrapping up as of press time. All venue seats were in place, and the carpet was being installed.

Tickets go on sale for the Cape Fear Stage productions starting Aug. 10 at capefearstage.com or at the temporary box office at CFCC’s storefront, 254 N. Front St.