OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
Open search box
PRAx, which will be prominently located at the corner of 15th and Washington Way, will serve as a highly visible entrance to campus – emphasizing OSU's commitment to the arts and to a culture of creativity. The center supports university goals of moving from a STEM to STEAM education model and provides additional performance and event space on campus. PRAx will serve as a statewide portal to the arts, enabling collaboration with public school systems throughout the state to ensure that all Oregonians have better access and exposure to the arts. Visit the Holst Architecture website for information about the design details that bring this dream to life.
Follow PRAx on social media @OregonStatePRAx
PRAx will feature an acoustically superior concert hall that doubles as a classroom, and a smaller, black box performance space that can be configured in multiple ways for theater productions, rehearsals and teaching. The large stage will accommodate a range of performances from soloists to a 100-person chorus. Backstage and support space will be integrated throughout the center to support arts productions and break down barriers between teaching, rehearsal and performance. Art gallery space will feature secure, dramatically lit spaces with appropriate climate control for displaying OSU's art collections and featuring cutting-edge art shows.
You can make your mark on the future or celebrate someone special with an engraved plaque on one or more of these seats. Learn more
2022-2027
PRAx activates the power of the arts across disciplines at Oregon State University.
PRAx uses its marquee venues to present content in music, theatre, dance, film, design, visual and installation arts, media and digital arts, industrial arts, science-based arts, literary arts, and experimental forms. It uses its networking capability to organize, amplify, and publicize arts activity in spaces outside the physical building – including community sites, research laboratories, field stations near and far, and settings where artists and creative thinkers bring new ways of looking at familiar content.
PRAx does this work in order to inspire new audiences, to reframe perspectives on complex problems, and to activate the range, depth, and diversity of the large public research university that it represents.
Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts
Oregon State University celebrated business leader, philanthropist and OSU alumna Patricia Valian Reser Friday night for a decade of transformative gifts totaling more than $36 million for university arts programs, faculty, students and facilities.
Oregon State announced that a new $75 million arts center under construction on its Corvallis campus will be named the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts. The announcement was made as the university and the OSU Foundation publicly launched Oregon State’s second university-wide fundraising and engagement campaign.
PRAx Leadership
Peter Betjemann, a national expert on the history of art, design and literature, has been named the inaugural Patricia Valian Reser Director of Arts and Education for PRAx.
Betjemann, director of the college’s School of Writing, Literature and Film since 2016, will oversee the opening of PRAx. Construction of the $70 million center will begin this summer with the 49,000-square foot center to open in April 2024. read more >
PRAx Construction
Construction is nearly three-quarters complete on the $75 million Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts, a multidisciplinary performance, gallery and teaching space that will open April 6, 2024 on Oregon State University’s Corvallis campus. "For Oregon State to reach its full potential as a world-leading, problem-solving, changemaking university, bold investment in the arts is necessary,” Patricia Valian Reser said. “PRAx will foster connections between the arts, academics and research.
Building the dream
We usually think about the work of architects in terms of how the buildings they design look.
But for the designers of PRAx, another question was just as important: How will the building sound?
The facility, now under construction on the southeast corner of OSU’s Corvallis campus, will include the Lynne Hallstrom Detrick Concert Hall and Edward J. Ray Theater. The acoustics need to be terrific in both of those spaces.
And not just in there: The 49,000-square-foot building also will include a greenroom/classroom, a gallery, multiple areas to display artwork and Thomas W. Toomey Lobby designed for flexibility. The sound needs to be good in those spaces as well.
PRAx
October 14, 2022 — OSU Memorial Union Quad
Presented by PRAx, the College of Forestry, the Office of the Provost, and the College of Liberal Arts
The project will also include a renovation to the current Anderson & Keeling Memorial Target Range, which will turn this historic building into a classroom and rehearsal space. Built in 1910 as the original heat plant for campus, the building is a part of the Corvallis Historic District and required close coordination with the Corvallis Historic Commission to restore the character and appearance of the building. This world-class rehearsal space will accommodate up to 80 students for choral rehearsal and music history classes.
Projected Start Date: Groundbreaking in June of 2020
Project Opening Date: April 2024
Project Budget: $70 million
Project Manager: Julie Drolet
Construction Manager: Rick Freeman
Architect: Holst Architecture
Leading Oregon State University donor’s gifts surpass $36 million for the arts - October 14, 2022
Oregon State Board of Trustees approves construction of $70 million Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts- January 29, 2021
OSU’s new Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts to be located at 15th Street and Washington Way - July 2, 2019
Finishing the Story: the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts- OSU Foundation 2019
Starting with a thrilling $25 million gift in 2017, over 175 donors have come together to support PRAx. Fundraising is ongoing and gifts of every amount will help make this dream a reality. If you’d like to learn about giving options—including naming a space in the new facility—contact Grady Goodall, Director of Development, at 541-231-1111 or grady.goodall@osufoundation.org. Or you can click here to make a gift and name a seat today in the Lynne Hallstrom Detrick Concert Hall.
