Claire Trevor School of the Arts breaks ground for Media Arts Center

The shovels were out in force Thursday, Feb. 21, as UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts broke ground on a five-story $33-million building. The Media Arts Building will incorporate various architectural elements from existing buildings in the arts school, including brick and masonry and strong red accents. Glass walls will wrap around the 38,000-square-foot facility. When complete in spring 2010, the building will house a professional exhibition gallery, a multimedia performance space, a motion capture studio, and offices and studios for MFA students. “We want to connect the arts to the community,” said Nohema Fernandez, dean of the arts school. “It’s going to be a very exciting place.” Fernandez also announced that the Studio Theater will be renamed the Robert Cohen Theater, after the Claire Trevor Professor of Drama and founding chair of the drama department.