Berea College to Open Visitor Center Showcasing the “Berea Story”
New space in College Square will offer immersive displays, craft demonstrations and an educational experience highlighting the College’s mission, values and history.
March 10, 2026
BEREA, Ky. – The Berea College Visitor Center will undergo a major transformation designed to immerse guests in the “Berea Story,” offering a deeper connection to the College’s mission when it reopens in summer 2026.
President Cheryl Nixon says the redesigned space – located at 104 South Main Street in College Square – will focus on telling visitors the “Berea Story.”
“We are reimagining our Berea College Visitor Center, in College Square, to capture who we are as a College and how we share our mission and values – past, present and future – with the many people who come to campus each year,” Nixon said. “The new Visitor Center will be dedicated to helping visitors deepen their connection to Berea College. It will operate within the Alumni, Communications and Philanthropy division and align closely with that division’s storytelling and relationship-building roles.
“Whether someone is a prospective student, alumnus, donor, community member or first-time traveler passing through Berea, the Visitor Center will offer a meaningful and inspiring introduction to the College we all serve,” Nixon added. “I look forward to welcoming visitors into a space that reflects the heart, history and future of Berea College.”
The Visitor Center is expected to close in May and reopen this summer with more than just updated décor.
Through displays and kiosks, the reimagined space will highlight the many things that make Berea unique – its history and Great Commitments, academics, athletics, centers, music ensembles, farm and forest, student labor, craft and more.
The Visitor Center is being designed first and foremost as an educational and interpretive experience.
“Although the look and feel will be different, the redesign of the Visitor Center will complement the type of storytelling we see in the redesign of Boone Tavern’s Crafted dining room,” Nixon added.
The new Visitor Center will feature craft demonstrations and sell student-made craft items so visitors can take home a representation of Berea’s mission and values, while keeping the primary focus on learning, discovery and radical hospitality.
As part of this process, the College’s Log House Gallery will continue Berea’s retail business and oversee the creation of a new Berea College “spirit shop” in the former White Stitch location on College Square.
In the coming months, the College will undertake a multi-phase redesign process, including steps such as a search for a Visitor Center director with experience in museums or public education, exhibition design and inclusive hospitality.
Aaron Beale, associate vice president of Student Craft, will oversee this process.
“Since 1855, Berea College has provided unparalleled educational access to students while offering them an amazing breadth of life-changing opportunities to complement that academic education,” Beale said. “The new Visitor Center will allow us to share these stories in one location for the first time, and we hope this new center will strengthen the bond between visitors to Berea and the College’s dynamic mission.”