The University of Virginia has announced a $50 million gift from Tessa Ader in support of a performing arts center.

The commitment is the lead gift for a performing arts center that will serve as a home for concerts, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary art forms. The building will be located in the Emmet-Ivy corridor, where other facilities are already being planned, including the School of Data Science and the Karsh Institute of Democracy. While the building's design phase is slated to begin shortly, it is projected to include an eleven-hundred-plus-seat concert hall, a hundred-and-fifty-seat recital hall, rehearsal studios, and a highly adaptable experimental arts space.

"This extraordinary gift from Tessa Ader will transform the landscape for the arts at UVA and serve as a bridge to the Charlottesville community," said Jody Kielbasa, vice provost for the arts and director of the Virginia Film Festival. "It is also the beginning of what I hope will become a creative nexus at the Emmet-Ivy corridor as we look to expand our arts programming at UVA. The performing arts center will create an inviting entry for patrons of the arts to access the university. It will also play an important role in elevating the local arts ecosystem by connecting the surrounding community while elevating Charlottesville as a regional cultural center."

"My late husband, Richard, and I long felt that a state-of-the-art performing arts center was needed by the University of Virginia," said Ader. "As a longtime trustee of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, Richard and his co-trustee Joe Erdman made transformative gifts to the university and Charlottesville in support of the arts. I believe this new facility will be a wonderful asset to our community and am hopeful my gift will encourage others to come forward as well to make it a reality."

(Photo credit: Sanjay Suchak)