Colorado Mesa University will receive $39 million in state funding to rebuild the Robinson Theater on the Grand Junction campus.

The funding — the single largest amount CMU has ever received from the state — will enable the university to not only better serve performing arts students, but also continue to grow as a cultural destination.

“We appreciate the Legislature, the Joint Budget Committee and Gov. (Jared) Polis for seeing the value in what we’re trying to do and for the work our community and supporters did to help us get across the finish line,” said CMU President John Marshall. “This new theater will become a critical economic and cultural engine for decades to come in Western Colorado.”

“Building a campus theatre is one thing,” Marshall said. “What we’re doing is building a regional gem that we hope will bridge some of the cultural divides we see in our region and across the country.”

The Robinson Theater was originally constructed in 1968 as a 600-seat theatre. Plans for the new theater are still in progress, but the venue likely will be designed as a lyric theater with full theatrical lighting, technical support and the flexibility to accommodate a range of performances. Capacity will also increase to around 800 to 900 seats that will allow for better visibility and acoustics.

The new theater will be the only one of its kind between the Front Range of Colorado and Salt Lake City in Utah, enabling CMU to bring in touring companies and expand offerings for the region.

“CMU students will soon be given the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art technology in a state-of-the-art building preparing them for professional advancement in a highly competitive and ever-innovative field,” said Mo LaMée, head of the theater arts department at CMU.

Darin Kamstra, head of the music department at CMU, agreed. “The new theater will provide an elevated performing arts experience for CMU student performers in the departments of music and theater arts and for our patrons. This space will be acoustically designed to accommodate a wide range of performances from theater to guest speakers and classical music to popular music.”

Robin Brown, chief executive officer of the CMU Foundation, said $39 million in state funding and another $5 million from CMU will pay for a nice university theater. “However, we’re asking the community to help us take this project to the next level. By raising an additional $8 million in private funding, we can build a truly transformative performing arts center on par with Front Range facilities that will establish CMU as a regional cultural destination.”