After receiving a $20 million gift from the Leon and Toby Cooperman Family Foundation, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark is slated to expand, building a multipurpose education and community center.

“We’ve been talking about a new home for our education programs and more broadly for our other community programs for a couple of years,” said John Schreiber, president and chief executive of the performing arts center. “We have a robust arts training program that’s operating now in a building that’s not a 21st-century facility.”

The donation is the largest individual gift the center has ever received, Mr. Schreiber said. It will make possible a major upgrade, in the form of a 35,000-to-45,000-square-foot space, to be named the Cooperman Family Education and Community Center. The hope, Mr. Schreiber said, is to break ground on the building sometime between July 2020 and June 2021.

“This new education and community center, designed to serve citizens from all corners of our city, will provide life-enhancing programs and activities for everyone from babies to seniors,” Ras Baraka, the mayor, said in a statement. “We’re grateful to the Cooperman Family for their thoughtful philanthropy.”