After nine years and millions of dollars, vision becomes reality

The Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall has been called the "crown jewel" of the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus. That jewel rests in a platinum setting of an intimate recital hall, flexible theater, dance studio, classrooms and other work and performance spaces, all of which were open to the public Sunday for the formal dedication of the River Campus.

"Good afternoon," said Dr. Kenneth Dobbins, Southeast president. He then corrected himself, "Well, it is a great afternoon, actually."

Dobbins spoke to a nearly full auditorium in the Bedell Performance Hall, which seats 940 and will host plays, ballets, concerts and various other stage acts.

"I knew that it was going to be a special complex," he said in an interview last week, "but it has exceeded my expectations."

The University bought the land where the River Campus now sits in 1998. At the time, it was an abandoned Catholic seminary. The land was purchased for $800,000 using a donation by the late B.W. Harrison, a local businessman.

His donation started what would end up in roughly $13 million in private donations to Southeast -- the largest amount of money raised for a single project in the school's 24-year history, according to Dobbins. That money, combined with state, federal and municipal funding, has made the River Campus dream a reality. The total cost of the campus hovers around $50 million, Dobbins said.

Don Dickerson, who was president of the board of regents when the River Campus was first conceived, was at the dedication ceremony Sunday. He looked up at the facade of the building and smiled. "This was my vision," Dickerson said before entering the building for the ceremony.

Dickerson was largely involved with funding and realizing the River Campus, but remained modest in his speech.

"Bald headed and 76 years old this year, I know this song isn't about me," he said. "It's about you -- it's a song about the future."

Bringing the River Campus to fruition has been a tennis match of challenged, approved and denied funding over the last nine years.

Despite four lawsuits over the legality of the voter-approved restaurant and hotel tax, and after several financing hurdles, the campus is finally a reality.

One of the many compromises made by the city to move the project forward was an agreement to repeal the approved motel and restaurant sales taxes once the city garnered enough money to pay off the bonds for the city's share of the funding. Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson said the city may be able to start paying the bonds near 2015.

"This type of culture is not something I'm used to," Knudtson said in his speech at the dedication. "It's the type of culture that binds our community."

He spoke about the importance of working together. "We have to dance," he said to Dobbins. And they did; the two men -- equally large in stature -- danced heavily across the stage.

"There's going to be dancing in this hall for generations to come," Knudtson said to the applauding audience.

The entire campus was open for public viewing Sunday. Dancers practiced a routine in the studio with the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge and the Mississippi River as a back drop. The windows in the room can be blocked off to create a performance space for up to 125 people.

"What a view. Wow. This is just fantastic," Margaret Harmon said quietly while watching the students twist and leap. "I'm just so proud of this. I think it could be nationally famous within five years."

Gary Lucy later explained his commissioned mural "Inland Waterways: The Highways of Our Heritage," which covers the wall just outside the Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp II Southeast Regional Museum.

Wandering around the River Campus, the old architecture of the seminary and new technology of the additions mix and blend like song and dance -- the perfect tempo for learning and creativity.

The seminary chapel has been converted into the Robert F. and Gertrude L. Shuck Music Recital Hall, which can seat 205. The room has the original stained glass windows from the seminary and three poplar beams exposed in the 26-foot ceiling.

The Wendy Kurka Rust Flexible Theatre was arranged in a traditional proscenium arrangement Sunday, but as its name suggests, can be modified to fit a variety of different stage positions.

The Art Gallery in the seminary building is a 1,275-square-foot exhibition space capable of housing paintings, statues and digital artwork.

"I didn't realize it was so cool," said Terry Houston, a sophomore at Southeast. This was his first time in the art gallery and he said he would be coming back whenever he could.

"This is actually a good date spot," said Nelson Elliot, a senior at Southeast. "There's so many places to walk around."

"I don't think words can describe it," Donald Bedell said outside the new building. Bedell donated more than $1 million to the project.

"The amazing thing is how this opens the entire region up," he said.

The John and Betty Glenn Convocation Center will serve as pre- and post-event reception space and a welcome center to Cape Girardeau.

With the convocation center, Crisp Museum, state-of-the-art classrooms and practice and performance spaces and the rich views of the Mississippi River, the River Campus is a diamond in the rough between competing metropolitan cultural venues of St. Louis and Memphis. The completed River Campus extends a grand handshake to visitors to the city and performers onstage.

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246