By Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

The Arts Partnership, a nonprofit collaboration between the Minnesota Opera, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, The Schubert Club and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, announced on Wednesday, June 11 the official names of the newly constructed concert hall and adjoining spaces at the Ordway. The new facilities, which are expected to open in February 2015, replace the former 300-seat McKnight Theatre.

The first floor lobby and outside area in front of the Ordway will be designated as 3M Plaza, acknowledging 3M as the largest corporate sponsor of the campaign and one with historic connections to the performing arts center. 3M has a long-standing history of contributing to the vibrancy of the arts in St. Paul and has been a leading funder of the Ordway since its inception. It was the granddaughter of 3M investor Lucius Pond Ordway, Sally Ordway Irvine, who gave the lead gift and rallied the community to build the Ordway 30 years ago.

The public spaces throughout the second level of the Ordway will be named the Target Atrium, acknowledging Target for its longstanding leadership of the Arts Partnership organizations as well as the partnership itself.

The third-level lobby of the new hall will be named the Securian Sky Lobby, while the existing third-level lobby of the Music Theater will be named the Securian Balcony Lobby, both offering spectacular views of Rice Park and the Saint Paul Cathedral. Securian’s Chairman and CEO, Bob Senkler, and Minnesota Philanthropy Partners President and CEO, Carleen Rhodes, were instrumental in conceiving the Arts Partnership.

Finally, the newly constructed performance space will be called the Concert Hall and willfeature a plaque at the entrance honoring John and Ruth Huss, whose leadership and generosity made the construction of the Concert Hall possible. For more than 30 years, John and Ruth Huss have generously contributed both time and resources to numerous nonprofit organizations, including all four members of the Arts Partnership.

In celebration of the announcement of the naming of the spaces, the Arts Partnership also held a beam-raising event where the final beam in the construction of the Concert Hall was hoisted into place. The Arts Partnership also gave attendees an update on its campaign, which has raised $80 million to-date.

“Excitement is really building now that we can envision what the finished hall is going to look like,” said Thomas W. Handley, chair of the Ordway’s board of directors. “The naming is a big step towards the completion of the new hall, so it was the perfect time to gather our board members, donors and community partners and celebrate with the Norse tradition of ‘topping out’ a building.”

Attendees of the naming and beam-raising event included Saint Paul Mayor Christopher B. Coleman; Ordway board member John G. Ordway III; Arts Partnership Campaign Chair Lucy Rosenberry Jones; Ordway Board Chair Thomas W. Handley; Greg Hedin, McGough Construction; Tim Carl, HGA Architects and Engineers; and the CEOs of the four partner organizations: Kevin Ramach, Minnesota Opera; Patricia A. Mitchell, Ordway; Bruce Coppock, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and Barry Kempton, The Schubert Club.

About the Arts Partnership The Arts Partnership is a nonprofit collaboration between the Minnesota Opera, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Schubert Club and the Ordway in which the needs of the community are placed above the needs of any one particular organization. To date, the Arts partnership has raised $80 million to fund the construction of a new 1,100-seat concert hall at the Ordway. The Arts partnership has been recognized as a national model of arts community collaboration. For more information, visit www.artspartnership.org.