Knight Creative
The University of Akron will be a leading public research university with an unsurpassed commitment to community engagement with a great American legacy city, Akron.
We will:
- Be an opportunity university for all types of learners.
- Be known as a willing and constructive partner for business, government, and the non-profit sector.
- Be an institution of innovation willing to invest in unique approaches that increase opportunity for students and reduce costs.
- Be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive university.
- Sponsor an array of superb academic programs relevant to the future.
- Make and keep promises to our students, ourselves, and this community.
Knight Creative Renaissance:
Reconnecting UA with Downtown Akron
Knight Creative Arts Center: Civic Commons Partner
The University’s AkronArts bold initiative launched in 2021 will bring together local, regional, and national leaders and patrons of the visual, performing, and cultural arts to advocate on behalf of UA and its students, strengthen and grow collaborations with the City of Akron, promote academic programs with our arts faculty, and generate philanthropic resources to support UA arts and the local economy. As part of its ongoing “We Rise Together” campaign, UA will pursue opportunities to support these outward-thinking efforts.
Reimagine Knight Creative
The Knight Creative Building is our portal into downtown, and through Knight Creative renovation, we reimagine this iconic Akron treasure. Knight Creative will encompass a prime 17,000-square-foot space on the first floor of the Main Street entrance, featuring:
- stages for music, theater, dance, literary and other performances; nan art gallery featuring student, faculty, and Myers School alumni art;
- a Made at Myers boutique shopping experience a coffee shop for gathering, meeting;
- a café;
- and the Knight Creative Porch — a welcoming front porch for outdoor gathering on Main Street.
Integrated with our academic centers in the arts, the performance space will be programmed and operated by students in our arts administration program. Additional work can be done in future campaigns to enhance the Knight Creative parking deck to be adapted for open-air art and cultural events, with future hopes to enhance with mural paintings and other installations.
In direct proximity to the Akron Civic Theater, Lock 3 Park, Cascade Plaza, and the Akron-Summit Public Library — designated by the Akron Civic Commons as the “Civic Gateway” — Knight Creative opens the western edge of campus directly into the heart of the city’s cultural life. The University will contribute substantially to the Akron Cultural Plan’s call to “celebrate and market Downtown Akron as a premiere arts and culture district for local and national tourism and bolster the collective ownership of downtown and its cultural amenities for all Akron residents.” In line with Elevate Akron, our work will support the transformative, high functioning, and collaborative economic development system for the region.
