Rice University in Houston, Texas, US is set to build a multi-million dollar arts centre after securing a grant worth US$20m (£12.9m, 14.8m euro).

The funding, from Moody Foundation, which supports private colleges and universities, will see the university build a 50,000 sq ft (4,645 sq m) art centre.

The Moody Centre will provide three types of space: lecture and studio classrooms; a theater venue for experimental and smaller-scale productions; and galleries for exhibition of faculty and curated exhibits by Rice and the museums of Houston.

The new building will be located near the current arts and media centre and will house an interdisciplinary centre that will provide space for arts education, performances and gallery exhibitions on campus and promote collaborations with Houston's art museums.

Additional funding is needed for the project, along with approval of the Rice Board of Trustees, with an expected opening in 2015.

Caroline Levander, vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives, who will oversee the centre, said: "The Moody Centre will foster creativity in arts much like Rice's Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen enables creativity in engineering. The centre will provide space for arts creation and collaboration that we don't have on campus and complement our existing facilities devoted to the arts."

Levander said the new centre should help recruit highly talented faculty and students in the visual and performing arts.

"Rice is different from its peers because of the university's proximity to Houston's Museum District and the level of partnerships it has already established with MFAH, the Menil Collection, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Glassell School of Art and the city's other arts institutions."

The Moody Foundation was established in 1942 by William L. Moody Jr. and his wife, Libbie Rice Shearn Moody, to benefit present and future Texans.