A ‘groundbuilding’ ceremony will kick off the University’s introduction of the Wolfe Center for the Arts to the campus and community this weekend. A reception for the facility will begin on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a ceremony following at 1:30 in parking lot N, where the Saddlemire Student Services Building used to stand. It will be called a ‘groundbuilding’ because students will be assembling a ceramic model of the facility and students will be performing a presentation with 25 full-sized plaster body casts, Director of Marketing and Communications Dave Kielmeyer said. The ceremony will also include a performance from a 60-student wind symphony and over 100 students singing the Alma Mater, he said. Speakers at the event will include University President Carol Cartwright, Dean of Arts and Sciences Simon Morgan-Russell and Craig Dykers, founding member of the Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta.’ Snohetta is designing the facility.’ Their projects include the Oslo Opera House in Norway, Alexandria Library in Egypt and the King Abdulaziz Center for Knowledge and Culture in Saudi Arabia. ‘This will be their first project in the U.S and their next project will be the September 11 Memorial Museum,’ Turner said. Construction will begin in early fall and is expected to be completed by fall 2011, Kielmeyer said. The facility will be located between the Moore Musical Arts Building and Fine Arts Center, creating an artistic hub on the Southeast end of campus and it will become the new home of the Department of Theatre and Film, said Sara Turner, business operations manager for the department. The facility is expected to bring students from different artistic backgrounds together, Turner said. ‘We hope this location and facility will help collaboration evolve naturally between students in different disciplines,’ she said. Features of the facility will include a traditional performance stage, a black box stage, editing bays, computer labs, classrooms and a choral rehearsal room, Turner said. The facility will help the University’s reputation in the art community, said Morgan-Russel in a University press release. ‘The Wolfe Center for the Arts will shine an international spotlight on the arts-one of BGSU’s collaborative areas of excellence,’ said Morgan-Russell. ‘The center will embody a sense of energy and creativity and emphasize the importance of embracing the arts and culture in student development.’