The center is planning a year full of concerts, Broadway shows, dance performances and other events, including the UCF Pegasus Arts Festival scheduled April 6-16. The new $514 million center is scheduled to open in November.

鈥淭he Dr. Phillips Center is a fantastic space and will be a draw from all over Florida and indeed the whole world,鈥� said Paul Lartonoix, assistant vice provost who attended Thursday鈥檚 schedule announcement at the Aloft Orlando Downtown hotel. 鈥淭his space allows us the opportunity to partner and create an event that will show off the UCF arts, including film, music, studio art, theatre, digital media, dance, animation and gaming.

鈥淢uch of the Orlando community knows that UCF is arts friendly but few know the depth that the university invests in the arts.聽UCF is very active in many arts disciplines in our academics, but we are also very involved in the Orlando arts community. We want everyone to know we are an arts university.鈥�

Organizers are still working on details for the festival, but plan to feature the UCF Orchestra, UCF Big Band, visual/digital media installations, ensemble and dance performances, displays from the School for Visual Arts & Design, video game jam, theatrical performances and other works.

Part of the festival will be set aside for showcasing the arts to recruit high school students from all over the state. Those performances will be designed with a focus on education and to get participation by the high school student audience.聽The performances will encourage innovation and creative thinking across all disciplines, and present examples of that from UCF.

鈥淭his annual festival will provide the platform to share with all of Orlando and the Central Florida region not just the products and performances of the university鈥檚 arts units, but to feature the collaboration with our community partners,鈥� said Jeff Moore, director of the School of Performing Arts and artistic director of the new festival. 鈥淯CF鈥檚 commitment to partnerships is well established and the festival celebrates these relationships as it demonstrates UCF鈥檚 strong positive impact in Central Florida and beyond.鈥�

Moore said he hopes the festival expands to two weeks at the Dr. Phillips Center in the coming years.

鈥淗earts from the Arts,鈥� the gallery鈥檚 first outreach exhibit of this kind, is a joint project with ArtWorks, an Orlando organization that strives to build the self-esteem of children in need. Many of the works are accompanied by biographical notes from the artists:

My picture is about my life. It shows that everywhere around me there are a bunch of storms. The storms represent all the hardships in my life. The sea is my refuge. 鈥� Kyle, 17

The exhibit, which opens Thursday, Sept. 6, features acrylics, ceramics, watercolor, collage, photography and other media created by 40 artists ages 6 to 17.

The collaboration resulted from a conversation between gallery director Paul Lartonoix, interim director of UCF鈥檚 School of Visual Arts and Design, and Ren茅e Schneider, founder of ArtWorks, which is a project of St. Luke鈥檚 United Methodist Church in Orlando.

Schneider, an artist and art teacher, has shared the joy of creating with hundreds of children since ArtWorks started nearly a decade ago.

鈥淪he is dedicated to them,鈥� said Diane Daugherty, UCF Art Gallery coordinator. 鈥淚 love that she can get them to open up. She gets them connected.鈥�

My portrait represents before and after. The left side is red and shows the significant pain caused by the abuse and misery that ripped my life apart. The right side represents happiness鈥ven though I feel myself becoming happier, the knife on the left side represents that there is still an open wound in my heart that has not healed. 鈥� Dorie, 15

The gallery exhibits work from local and national artists, but this is the first children鈥檚 outreach exhibit to be brought in, and organizers hope it serves as a catalyst for culture and community engagement.

The Central Florida children who created the pieces are cared for through Great Oaks Village, Orlando Union Rescue Mission, Edgewood Children鈥檚 Ranch, Howard Phillips Center for Children & Families, and the Foundation for Foster Children.

This is the first time their works have been shown at the same exhibit 鈥� and Schneider said showing the pieces at a university campus is a wonderful opportunity for both the children and viewers.

Many of the children live in generational poverty, and having the show at UCF may plant the idea for them to one day go to college. 鈥淭his is a way for them to say, 鈥業f I had the talent, this could be a career path for me,鈥欌�� she said.

鈥淧lus, this is good for their self-esteem to be at an official gallery and it gives them an opportunity to interact with people in the community. When you鈥檙e homeless and in foster care, you鈥檙e pretty isolated. For those who come and meet the kids, it鈥檚 something they weren鈥檛 expecting. It makes the statistics personal now because they know a child in this situation and it isn鈥檛 something abstract.鈥�

The clouds in my portrait represent different parts of my life. The cloud glowing at the bottom represents God and how he is changing me. The dark cloud on the left represents my old life. It is being pushed aside and a rainbow has appeared. 鈥� Latisha, 13

Photos in the exhibit were the result of some ArtWorks鈥� children working with Kayla Hernandez, a photographer and the gallery鈥檚 permanent collections manager.

Hernandez worked with six girls from Great Oaks Village, showing them how to express themselves through photography.

鈥淚 spent four weeks showing the girls how to use their cameras to translate ideas and perspective of their everyday life,鈥� Hernandez said.

鈥淓very week they would present their newest photo and talk about why they took the pictures.鈥�

I made my body out of Tetris pieces to represent that there are many things about you that make up who you are. However, people often judge you on just one or two of those things. 鈥� Chris, 16

Hearts from the Arts will have a free opening-night reception 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 6, and the exhibit will be on display 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays through Oct. 5. The gallery is in the Visual Arts Building.

For additional details about the gallery and show, go to .