The MIX Center, which opened to students at the beginning of the fall semester, houses The Sidney Poitier New American Film School’s production and post-production programs, plus classes in digital media technology, worldbuilding, experience design and gaming from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
A clip from the Apple documentary “Sidney” was shown at ceremony. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, founding director of The Sidney Poitier New American Film School, noted that over his life, the iconic actor and director talked about the importance of giving everyone an opportunity to tell their stories in film.
“The storytelling of humankind has been around forever, and now we are at a place where technology can help our storytellers excel,” she said.
“The MIX Center is going to allow our students to work with this new technology in a way that’s never been done before to bring their stories to life. We want our students to travel along the road that a story takes, from its inception all the way through to the audiences.”
The MIX Center is meant to be used by everyone in the Mesa community, according to Jake Pinholster, founding director of the MIX Center and executive dean in Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. He described it as “a technologically advanced living room.”
“We have built it to be a space for public discourse, entertainment and cultural amenity, and as a space for education and advancement,” he said.
“It is my profound hope that all members of the Mesa community will see this as their space and that the students at the MIX Center will see themselves as core members of that community.”
The opening celebration continued on Saturday at an all-day “housewarming party” for the community, which featured demonstrations of the technology in the MIX Center, panel discussions, trick-or-treating, games, food trucks, musical performances and a screening of the Pixar movie “Coco” on the giant outdoor screen.
Crow said that ASU @ Mesa City Center is a response to a rapidly changing economy.
“This facility, this design, this technology, these programs, these activities are the best of the best of the best that exist on the planet, sitting right here in downtown Mesa.
“Anything that can be thought about in digital creativity can be done in this building.”
Crow said that the new complex is an example of how Arizona is on an upward trajectory.
“We’re building a new economy — an economy that’s built on creativity,” he said.
“Our hope for this project is that we will have industries clustering in Mesa, have creative enterprises clustering in Mesa and have more educational opportunities in Mesa.”
Top image: The new Media and Immersive eXperience Center in downtown Mesa includes a high-definition, 100-foot outdoor screen. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
