New Bay College Arts Center Opens

The future of the arts in the southern U.P. gets a huge boost with Bay College’s new theater and performing arts center.

The school hosted a dedication and grand opening this morning for the Besse Center.

It has more than 12,000 square feet of new space, including a new art gallery.

Also, more than 5,000 square feet of the center’s existing space has been renovated.

The new theater space even hosted its first event, a preview of “Honk”. It’s a modern version of the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Ugly Duckling” geared to adults, and it’ll also be the first full performance to be staged there.

John and Melissa Besse of Gladstone gave the school more than $4 million for the project.

That money covered most of the cost of the new center.