Education Minister Randy Horton has set a date for the reopening of the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium — more than 16 months after it was shut due to mould.

Mr. Horton told The Royal Gazette in an e-mail that he expected the $7-million arts facility at CedarBridge Academy, which was closed with the rest of the senior school in November, 2006 due to mould infestation, to open its doors again on March 17.

The news has delighted some members of the arts community who have relied on the state-of-the-art facility since it opened in January 1999.

Others told this newspaper they were "surprised" to hear of the reopening as they understood it was not ready yet and they had received no official notification.

Mary Faulkenberry, development director of the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda, said: "That's fantastic news! We have desperately missed it.

"It's the only venue that can really accommodate dance productions appropriately because of the size and also it has facilities downstairs such as the warm-up facility and changing rooms. City Hall is a wonderfully intimate theatre, but for dance it's too small."

Suzette Harvey, founder and owner of United Dance Productions, said her dancers had sorely missed the RSJ Auditorium after making it their "home".

"It's a great facility and it's definitely needed," she said. "I heard about this and I don't know if it's true but I definitely would be very, very excited if it's going to happen soon."

Culture Minister Dale Butler said: "I am sure this comes as great news for the students, teachers and parents, as indeed it has come to us because we hold a number of events there each year.

"This is great news for the cultural committees who have been dancing on each other since the loss of this facility."

Karen Pollard, artistic director of Bermuda Festival, which had to relocate several performances and cancel one act in 2007 because of the closure, said she would wait to comment until she received official notification from Government. "We haven't actually had any notice that it's opening on March 17. If it's true, we will be delighted that it's back in service," she added.

Greg Smith, general manager of Bermuda School of Music, said his organisation had cancelled a concert booking for April 26 as it was not possible to get confirmation that the venue would be ready in time.

"We are pleased that the venue is reopening," he said. "It's a useful space. We are surprised because we were led to believe that it wasn't going to be reopening. We couldn't get an answer."

The RSJ Auditorium remained shut when the rest of CedarBridge reopened after a two-month, $4-million clean-up of mould in January, 2007.

This newspaper reported the reason as a contaminated air conditioning system. Two months later, the school's board of governors advertised for a local contractor to clear mould from the site.

Mr. Horton did not respond to e-mailed questions yesterday about why it took so long to clean. School principal Kalmar Richards and George Scott, chairman of the board of governors, also did not respond to e-mails about the reopening.

The Ruth Seaton James Auditorium, named after the first Bermudian woman to serve as Registrar General, seats almost 650 people, has five dressing rooms, an orchestra pit for 60 to 70 musicians plus warm-up, rehearsal and green rooms.

It was built on the site of the original Ruth Seaton James Auditorium from the 1960s, which was torn down due to problems with the foundations.

In December 1998, then Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott hailed it as "an investment in the community".

But Auditor General Larry Dennis, in his report for 2004/5, raised concerns about how annual operating losses at the performing arts facility were "draining" the school's cash resources.