FARMINGTON – After several years of planning, members of the proposed Emery Community Arts Center committee wanted to share their dreams as they gathered for a news conference Monday.

Designed to complement but not duplicate Nordica Auditorium in Merrill Hall and Alumni Theater, the location of the proposed 14,000-square-foot center would create a cultural center for the town, said Yuri Funahashi, music department lecturer and committee member.

The big concerts would still be held in Nordica and plays in Alumni Theater but the center would provide more flexibility to bring the arts together.

The proposed center features a 100-seat, multi-purpose space along with smaller technology-equipped performance and gallery spaces.

An interior courtyard design provides space for art work, receptions and better handicap access to the theater while a glass facade encases and preserves the front of Alumni Theater.

Barn doors on the east and west sides of the multi-purpose space could slide open to expand the space into a two-story walkway along the Alumni Theater wall or on the west side to an outside area suitable for outdoor theater, music and presentations, she said.

Representing the Sandy River Players, director Jayne Decker, was enthused with the idea of summer theater on the lawn, mentioning a children’s theater program that has to limit enrollment and has a waiting list.

The center would include a wired space ready for equipment that could provide new projection and sound opportunities, said Dawn Nye, assistant professor of art.

A corridor on the west side of Alumni Theater would allow art to be exhibited in the theater windows while pedestrians can view events taking place in the multi-purpose space, Funahashi said.

The project began when the University of Maine at Farmington received an anonymous donation in 2000 to build a community art center, but it wasn’t ready to start until the new education building was completed, said Theo Kalikow, UMF president.

The group has worked with designLAB architects of Boston to create a building within budget. The final project cost would not exceed $5 million.

“The design is not what was imagined but it’s better than we thought,” she said.

A projected late summer start on the building depends on obtaining permits from the town and Department of Environmental Protection. The project would then go out to bid and be done in a year, Kalikow said.