With a gift of $10 million from the Safra Foundation, the University is planning to build the new Safra Center for Fine Arts near the Spingold Theater.Due to shortage of space, the studio arts program for graduates and seniors is housed in a rented, converted warehouse in Waltham. Faculty members say the new center will likely remedy this problem.

According to fine arts Chair Charles McClendon, the $10 million dollar gift has given the funds to start the planning process, such as hiring an architectural firm.

The total cost of the building, however, may cost twice as much as the Safra gift.

McClendon said that new facility will be able to offer courses in new technology such as digital imagery and video in conjunction with the traditional core curriculum of drawing, painting, sculpture and print-making. The new center could also include gallery space for students to display their artwork.

According to Dan Feldman, the associate vice president for planning, design and construction, the new fine arts center is part of "enhancing the identity and character of the arts quad on campus, as recommended in the Brandeis Campus Master Plan."

The arts quad is composed of the Rose Art Museum, Spingold, and Slosberg, added Feldman.

"The fact that we provide such...a crucial role in the liberal arts education at Brandeis, the fact that we have more students than our facilities can accommodate, and the fact our facilities are so run-down all contribute to the realization that we're in urgent need of larger, better facilities," McClendon said.

McClendon said that the two existing on-campus buildings, Goldman-Schwartz built in 1968 and the Pollack Fine Arts Teaching Center built in 1972 were seriously outdated, intended for a much smaller program,and potentially hazardous.

Feldman said that his office hired architectural firm Polsheck & Partners Architects to help develop programming for the new center. He emphasized that this is a planning stage and that there have been no decisions about the size, shape or precise location of the actual building.

McClendon said that the architectural firm was hired "in order to suggest ways in which this type of curriculum and program can be accommodated. Not design or style but types of spaces, flow of spaces, and suggesting ways to incorporate or to interrelate different activities."

According to McClendon, his team is composed of faculty, administrators and students working this year to decide what curriculum and activities will be offered in the arts building.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, who heads the planning committee, said that this is a multi-phase project and emphasized that a lot more funding will be required to complete the project.

"The assumption is that doing all of this would cost more money than we are going to have in the next few years," Jaffe said. He added that it might not be possible to move on to certain phases until further funding becomes available.

University President Jehuda Reinharz was in charge of searching for fundraising for the new arts center. He made the announcement about the Safra Foundation's gift and the construction of the fine arts center at last year's graduation ceremony.

Reinharz and the development office are now both working to raise additional funds needed to complete the building project. according to Jaffe.

McClendon said a presidential advisory council was instrumental in pushing for a new fine arts building for several years.

He said the actual design of the building will not begin until next year McClendon said.

The fine arts department is composed of studio arts and art history. It has 40 majors, 30 to 35 minors and more than 1,400 students enrolled in its courses annually, according to McClendon.

McClendon said that there is also a hope to relocate the Office of the Arts into a larger office in the new building.