State, city and local officials, along with hundreds of other people celebrated the newest building proposed for Western Connecticut State University at its groundbreaking Monday.

The $97 million, 135,000-square-foot building on three floors is designed to educate artists of all kinds, teachers of arts and to attract world-class artists to Danbury.

"This new visual and performing arts center will be transformational," said James Schmotter, Ph.D., and president of WCSU. He said the school will transform students, by adding art to their lives, and it will also transform teachers, who will bring art to their future students. He said it will transform hundreds of students who will move into work as graphic artists.

"It will bring to the whole university a spirit of creativity," Schmotter said.

The project had been thought about and proposed decades ago, and former Gov. Jodi Rell, who attended the groundbreaking ceremonym, told Mayor Mark Boughton it took as long to start as Route 7, Boughton said.

"What a wonderful investment in Connecticut's future," said Robert Kennedy, Ph.D., and interim president of the state Board of Regents for Higher Education.