Carleton College is in the process of turning the former Northfield Middle School into The Arts Union, a facility geared toward creative collaboration that will support multiple student and classroom projects and allow faculty members to teach with words, images, sounds, and narrative in a variety of media.

In addition to housing the departments of Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS), and Theater, and Dance, the space will include a teaching museum, a dramatic theater, a cinema theater, dance studios, classrooms and a coffee shop. The building will also be home to the Presentation, Events and Production Support (PEPS) office and the Digital Asset Resource Center, a shared, interdisciplinary laboratory for exploring and learning to use technology.

The first phase of construction is scheduled to be complete in Fall of 2011.