ASU film, digital media school opens in downtown Mesa

PHOENIX – And … action! Students in film, video production and digital technology will begin fall classes Thursday at the new Arizona State University campus in downtown Mesa.

University officials expect the Media and Immersive eXperience Center, nicknamed MIX, to welcome hundreds of students to the facility at Centennial Way between First and Main streets.

Construction took 2½ years with $100 million investment from the East Valley city and ASU.

“The state-of-the-art facility is a game-changer for downtown Mesa,” Mayor John Giles said in a press release Wednesday.

ASU said students will be making films, designing virtual worlds and video games and creating other immersive media experiences of all types.

“We are proud to work with the city to open and help Mesa City Center and the surrounding area to flourish,” ASU President Michael Crow said.

The building also houses the Sidney Poitier New American Film School’s production and post-production programs and is a piece of ASU at Mesa City Center, that includes a plaza for public use that features space and a large screen to view movies.

The ASU film production programs enroll about 700 students, said Steven Tepper, dean of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts there, but that number is expected to double over three to five years.

Other programs offered at the school “will develop technology to impact numerous industries, like gaming, film and design, along with applications that will serve health care, aviation and advanced manufacturing,” Giles said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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