Mesa Arts Center is a major downtown Mesa cultural hub and Arizona’s largest comprehensive arts campus, completed in 2005 as a $95 million complex devoted to performance, exhibitions, and arts education. Its facilities include theaters ranging from the 99-seat Farnsworth Studio Theater to the 1,600-seat Ikeda Theater, the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum with five galleries, 14 classroom studios, and indoor and outdoor gathering spaces. Designed in a post-modern style inspired by a geode and the Sonoran Desert, the campus features the Shadow Walk and public art. Strongly backed by former mayor Wayne Brown, the project was funded through public bonds and private fundraising.