LA MIRADA, CALIF. 鈥� 蓝莓视频鈥檚 Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts will launch on Friday, Sept. 20 with a full celebration and concert on the lawn. Open and free to the public, the evening will start with a dedication for the Earl & Virginia Green Art Gallery and conclude with a jazz concert under the stars.

Biola received a grant from to establish the new Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts, a significant initiative that will host events, support artists and seek to promote rich thinking about faith and art.

鈥淭his new center will seek to celebrate the role and promise of the arts in understanding our world and in representing a version of truth and beauty to a world that stands in need of a reminder,鈥� said David P. Nystrom, Biola鈥檚 provost and senior vice president.

The newly renovated art gallery will open at 6 p.m. featuring the show, 鈥淎mass: The Paintings of Linn茅a Gabriella Spransy.鈥� At 7 p.m., a formal program will commence outside the gallery featuring Dana Gioia, Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture, USC, and Howard and Roberta Ahmanson. The gallery will be dedicated to Roberta鈥檚 parents, Earl and Virginia Green.

At 8 p.m., guests are invited to enjoy a jazz concert on the lawn in the middle of Biola鈥檚 campus adjacent to the art gallery. Biola professor and renowned jazz musician Rique Pantoja has assembled four other powerful jazz artists to join him. The five musicians 鈥擱ique Pantoja, keyboard; Alex Acu帽a, drums and percussion; Abe Laboriel, Sr., bass; Mike Bagasao, sax; and gospel vocalist, Linda McCrary 鈥� share a spiritual and artistic depth as they play across musical idioms encompassing jazz, contemporary Christian, Latin and gospel music forms.

The launch event for the Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts is the first of many events for the 2013-14 academic year. See a full schedule of events at .

, which is funding the center, was founded by Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., and his wife, Roberta Green Ahmanson, longtime Biola supporters who guided the university鈥檚 in 2011鈥�12. Roberta Ahmanson served as 鈥渧isionary in residence鈥� for the yearlong celebration, which included dozens of events, lectures and exhibitions centering around the theme of 鈥淪anctuary and Sacred Space.鈥�

For more information on the launch event, CCCA, or interviews with speakers and artists, contact Jenna Bartlo, Media Relations Specialist, at jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu.