Waynflete School in Portland's West End marked the opening of its new Arts Center and Joan Sayward Franklin '46 Theater with a series of school assemblies today, and will have an open house tonight for donors friends.

With 276 seats, the theater and adjacent classroom space give the school an additional 7,000 square feet and the ability to teach students more effectively with an arts curricula, said Head of School Mark Segar.

"The arts give young people the opportunity to solve problems in the absence of rules," he said. "Education used to be about mastering specific bodies of information. In today's fast-paced world, information is accessible with a keystroke or two of a keyboard or phone. We are trying to teach kids to solve problems that do not have a single right answer, and the arts can help us do that."

Waynflete raised $7.2 million for the theater and classroom space, with the lead contribution coming from alumnae Joan Sayward Franklin.

The project was designed by Scott Simons Associates and built by Stroudwater Construction. David Cimino of Stroudwater attended Waynflete and was present at today's opening assemblies.

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