Tampa Catholic High School scheduled the official opening and unveiling of the Bellini Center for the Arts for Thursday, Nov. 12, from 10 a.m. to noon.
The Diocese of Saint Petersburg says the center was supported by an $18 million gift from Arnie Bellini, a 1976 graduate, and his wife, Lauren. The notice is just as specific about the work inside: visual, digital and performing arts, plus technical theatre, audio-visual work, costuming, set design and prop building.
A Building Drawn Around More Than A Stage
The diocese lists a theatre, gallery, classrooms, studios, workshop, leadership suite, dressing rooms and an amphitheater. Performance, classes, shop work and a leadership office all get a name.
Tampa Catholic's project announcement described the center as a planned 28,000-square-foot facility with a 750-seat theatre and auditorium. Those figures belong to the plan the school published, beside a program that runs from visual and digital arts through performing arts and the offstage jobs.
The combined list covers a performance, the classes around it and the shop that builds it. On that plan, a student could go from a studio or gallery to a workshop for sets and props, then to dressing rooms and a theatre the announcement put at 750 seats.
From $7 Million To An $18 Million Gift
The center already carried the Bellini name in 2019, when the gift attached to it was a different size. Arnie Bellini is a Tampa Catholic alumnus. Lauren Bellini is his wife.
On May 16, 2019, the diocese said a $7 million gift from the couple would be allocated to the Bellini Center for the Arts. The school's principal put it this way: "A $7-million gift is truly unprecedented in the state of Florida for a Catholic school."
In January 2024, the Tampa Bay Times reported that a $15 million gift from Arnie and Lauren Bellini was expected to largely fund the center, and estimated the project at $17.6 million. That estimate was a projected cost. The diocese's unveiling notice describes something else: an $18 million gift supporting the center.
The school has named a further gift since. At the 2026 Cross & Shield Gala, Tampa Catholic said Lauren and Arnie Bellini gave an additional $2 million toward hiring an interior designer to complete enhancements. An Oct. 5 Tampa Bay Business Journal report described the additional gift as $2.7 million and said that sum brought the couple's total support for the performing arts center to $18 million. The diocese, in its own notice, also puts the supporting gift at $18 million.
The additional amounts do not agree, and the school is specific about what its $2 million was for. The earlier figures have their own dates. Seven million dollars was the 2019 allocation. Fifteen million was the gift the Times expected, in 2024, would largely fund the center. Adding those announcements together produces a total the later $18 million figure does not claim to be.
Turf, Tuition And The Same Gala
The gala account that carried the $2 million also said the event raised $402,000 to support a turf upgrade and tuition assistance. The school called the amount transformative. The targets were plainer: the field, and help with tuition.
Beside the Bellini gifts for the arts center, $402,000 is a smaller pool with a different job. The school put both on the record from the same event. One was the couple's additional gift for finish work inside the new center. The other was what the gala raised for turf and tuition aid.
Creativity, In The School's Own Terms
In that 2024 story, the Times reported that the school hopes a focus on creativity will prepare students for the future. The unveiling notice makes the hope more specific. Visual, digital and performing arts are named. So are technical theatre, audio-visual work, costuming, set design and prop building.
A theatre the announcement sized at 750 seats is an audience room. The workshop, studios and dressing rooms are where the school has said the rest of that work would live, inside a facility it described as 28,000 square feet. The unveiling was scheduled for Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon.
