In positioning all visual and performing arts disciplines around the revitalized entryway to campus at 15th Avenue and High Street, we are creating an arts ecosystem — an enduring, yet ever-evolving hub for artistic, educational, social and commercial interchange.
 

WE ARE WELCOMING THE COMMUNITY TO CAMPUS THROUGH THE ARTS.

Arts District Map

Click through the interactive map below to see where the new buildings will be located within the Arts District. View the full screen map here.

The Mission of the Arts District

Tuba player

Educating future leaders, thinkers, creators and performers


These new buildings will offer a state-of-the-art training ground for performing arts students and faculty and foster collaboration with other disciplines in the surrounding Arts District spaces.

Students dancing with masks on

Aligning passion with purpose


Students are not required to major in music or theatre to take part in of any of our myriad ensembles or productions and nearly all our performances in these buildings will remain free and open to the public. These spaces will serve as an entryway for our neighbors and friends to participate in and experience the arts at Ohio State.

Theatre performance

Driving economic and community health


As the flagship land-grant institution for Ohio, we must make the arts accessible to all — through our longstanding arts outreach initiatives and with this new entryway to campus, we will advance diverse perspectives, cultivate empathy, deepen engagement and foster tolerance through the arts.

Project Features

Project Features

  • These new facilities will establish the Arts District as the new front door of the campus
  • The design of the new facilities is grounded in principles of openness, visibility, permeability and connectivity, which will facilitate interactions across campus and with the community
  • Large windows will wrap both buildings, providing the campus and community a view to creative activity within
  • An open, active outdoor plaza will connect both new buildings
  • New café will fuel social interactions and celebrate activity
  • Streetscape will include a tree-canopied walkway, creating a new pedestrian route from the North Residential District to the Arts District and the heart of campus
  • Project budget is $161.6 million
Arts District Rendering

Timashev Family Music Building Features

  • Faculty, staff and students — currently stretched between Hughes Hall (built in 1948) and Weigel Hall (1979) — will finally come together under one roof
  • Five-floor building, with classroom, performance, studio and office space on all levels, and a lower level for mechanical and back-of-house operations
  • New expansive lobby will connect the new Timashev Family Music Building to a renovated Weigel Hall
  • A new 195-seat recital hall will offer a new performance space, joining the existing 720-seat Weigel Auditorium
  • Improved acoustics throughout the facility
  • New large ensemble rehearsal space
  • Studios for jazz and percussion
  • New practice rooms for students

School of Music Lobby Rendering

Theatre, Film, and Media Arts Building Features

  • Faculty, staff and students — currently located a 20-minute walk away at the Drake Performance and Event Center — will join the emerging Arts District in the heart of campus
  • Five-floor building, with classroom, performance, studio and office space on four floors, a top-floor mechanical room and a lower level for mechanical and back-of-house operations
  • New, state-of-the-art performance spaces, including a 450-seat proscenium theatre and a hybrid thrust/black box theatre
  • Spaces for students to create, including a New Works Lab for new and experimental productions, a lighting lab, a design studio, and a costume shop
  • Spaces for students studying film, moving image production and media arts, including two sound stages, editing suites, a sound lab and a screening room

Theatre Black Box Rendering

USNWR Logo

 

#15 in U.S.
#27 worldwide

Best Global Universities for Arts and Humanities
U.S. News and World Report

Arts Programs By the Numbers

1,483

Majors

1,017

Minors

280

Graduate students

219

Faculty and lecturers

$17M gift supports the College of Arts and Sciences

Ohio State alumnus Ratmir Timashev MS ’96 and his wife, Angela Timashev, have committed their charitable foundation to provide $17 million to the college. This gift — the largest philanthropic contribution made by an individual or foundation in the college’s history — will in part support construction of a new music building as part of the university’s emerging Arts District. 

In recognition of this incredible generosity, the new music building will be named the Timashev Family Music Building.

"The density and visibility of the arts at the entryway to campus will create an arts ecosystem that encourages creativity, engagement and dialogue across all sectors of our campus and the broader community. As a seed bed to the creative economy of central Ohio, the Arts District will contribute to both economic innovation and civic health." Gretchen Ritter Executive Dean and Vice Provost, College of Arts and Sciences

Inside the new buildings

Inside the new buildings

Holder Construction is making great progress on the Timashev Family Music Building, which is scheduled to open in 2022. With this tour of the building, get a sneak peek at the building's interior.

Arts District Rendering

Project Timeline

Project Timeline

  •   

    May 2018 – July 2019

    Design

  •   

    May 2019

    Board construction approval

  •   

    June 2019 – January 2022

    Timashev Family Music Building construction

  •   

    November 2020 – December 2022

    Theatre, Film, and Media Arts building construction

  •   

    Early 2022

    Timashev Family Music Building opening

  •   

    Early 2023

    Theatre, Film, and Media Arts building opening

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