Bishop Seabury Academy seventh-graders Santi Martinez-Sosa, left, and Frank Brou hold signs of appreciation for donors and trustees Friday morning during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new arts building on the campus, 4120 Clinton Parkway.

Gilbert Reese, left, his wife, Lou, and Don Schawang, Bishop Seabury Academy's head of school, walk away from a Friday morning groundbreaking for a new campus building, Reese Hall, to house the arts at the private school. Grandparents of two Seabury students, the Reeses are from Granville, Ohio, and had agreed to match grants for the capital campaign up to 00,000. School leaders hope the building will be ready this spring.

At Bishop Seabury Academy, a hole in the ground is a welcome sight.

“Its absence makes me very happy,” Don Schawang, head of school, said Friday morning about a building the school had demolished.

His comments came during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new arts building that will house the independent school’s art, theater and language arts classes. It’s the major component of a $1.5 million capital campaign.

“This building gives us the added opportunity to attract and accommodate more students,” ninth-grader Reed Grabill said.

The new building will be named Reese Hall, for the family of Gilbert Reese, Grabill’s grandfather.

Reese, 82, and his wife, Lou, traveled to Lawrence for Friday’s ceremony from their home in Granville, Ohio, where he is a lawyer and businessman in a nearby city.

At the beginning of the capital campaign, Reese had pledged to match gifts up to $500,000.

“I am proud to say that we have risen to the challenge and now honor his vision by making Reese Hall a reality,” said Greg Silvers, a trustee and capital campaign member.

Reese also has a granddaughter, Reese Grabill, a Seabury eighth-grade student, and two other younger grandchildren, who live in Lawrence with their parents, Megan and Eric Edwards.

Schawang called donors’ investment “an act of faith and idealism.”

“Reese Hall is a tangible symbol of the willingness of so many people to embrace and to fortify this school’s mission,” he said.

About four years ago, Seabury moved into the former Alvamar tennis center, 4120 Clinton Parkway – now the academy’s main building – from a site east of Lawrence.