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 Art and Art History, Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS), English, Theater, and Dance, the space will include a teaching museum, a dramatic theater, a cinema theater, a small black box theater, dance studios, the student-run radio station, KRLX, 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 library containing the College's audio, video, and digital resources.

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