Reinhardt University Celebrates Groundbreaking for
Ken White Music Center on May 15, 2012

An enthusiastic crowd of trustees, community members, faculty, staff, and music lovers attended the groundbreaking of the Ken White Music Center at Reinhardt University on Tuesday, May 15, 2012.  The Music Center will connect with the west wing of the Falany Performing Arts Center and will be completed by late summer 2012.

Due to the recent rain, the groundbreaking was held in the Ken White Atrium inside the Falany Performing Arts Center.  Architect Garland Reynolds (from left), Trustee and Naming Gift Donor Ken White, Reinhardt Board of Trustees Chair William G. Hasty Jr., Reinhardt President Dr. J. Thomas Isherwood, Reinhardt Student Government Association President Virginia Hutton, Music Dean Dr. Dennis K. McIntire and Brasfield & Gorrie representative Chris Britton staffed the shovels during the ceremony.

The 4,000 square foot Ken White Music Center at Reinhardt University will connect with the west wing of the Falany Performing Arts Center.  It will include six faculty studios, eight practice rooms and one music classroom and will be completed by late summer 2012.

Reinhardt President Dr. J. Thomas Isherwood thanked C. Kenneth White of Rocky Face, Ga., a member of Reinhardt’s Class of 1961 and a longtime Reinhardt trustee, for his continuing support for his alma mater.  “The Ken White Music Center will just about double the space available for our School of Music, and it would not have been available to us without the generosity of Mr. White.”

Impact of Gifts from Ken White Span the  Campus

Isherwood thanked White for the impact his gifts have made across the Reinhardt campus.  “This [the Falany Performing Arts Center] is one geographic end of the campus.  If you go over to the other end of campus, there’s our athletic facilities… the Ken White Fields.  So you have the Ken White Music Center at this end; you have the Ken White Athletic fields at the other end.”  Isherwood paused to smile, saying, “ Next year, we’re going to talk with Ken about working on the middle.”  This remark got a rousing laugh from the standing-room-only crowd.

By Fall 2012, Reinhardt Will Have the Largest Private Music Education Program in Georgia

Isherwood also recognized how the project supports institutional goals.  When Isherwood first came to Reinhardt 10 years ago, the University had seven students in the four-year music program.  By fall 2012, almost 170 music majors are expected, thus making Reinhardt University the largest music program of any private institution in the state of Georgia.
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