Venues
The 84,000-square-foot Prior Performing Arts Center is designed by architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, whose other cultural projects include the High Line, The Shed, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and the ICA Boston.
The Beehive
The heart of the building, the Beehive is a playground for study and performance, encouraging collaboration via flexible work spaces and multipurpose rehearsal and performance areas. It features the O’Connor Family Café, an innovative tea bar serving hot teas brewed to order along with a variety of iced teas, customizable Italian sodas, and snacks.
Luth Concert Hall
The 400-seat multipurpose proscenium theater is the College’s principal venue for music, musical theater and dance performances. Its unique design creates an intimate dynamic between audience and performer, even as performers enjoy an unusually expansive stage. In concert configuration, the stage is framed by a shell of sustainably sourced Makore wood; in theatrical configuration, the shell can be removed, theatrical drapes hung and additional flooring surfaces laid as necessary.
Boroughs Theatre
The 200-seat studio theater is a fully flexible performance space, inviting artistic experimentation by students, faculty, and visiting artists alike. Configurations include a 80- or 160-seat proscenium option, a three-quarter thrust, or seats in the round. The “Skywall” separating the Boroughs from the Beehive can be raised to create another entrance to the theater or to allow for continuous playing space or audience seating to flow out into the atrium.
Booth Media Lab
Opening onto the Beehive, the multimedia lab is home to digital music creation, sound and video editing, digital studio art, and film, lighting, and set design–among many other possible activities. When not in use as a studio classroom, it can be transformed into an open, flexible space for events, performances or installations.
Foley Scene Shop and Costume Shop
The Foley Scene Shop and the Costume Shop are visible to visitors, showcasing traditionally behind-the-scenes labor and expertise. They serve not only as working laboratories but also as classrooms where students can learn the latest technologies in myriad fields.
Alden Trust Performance Studio
With sweeping views of Worcester and the Blackstone Valley, the Performance Studio is used for dance and music classes, rehearsals, performances, and special events.
Lovelette Ensemble Room and the Recording Studio
The completely soundproof ensemble room and the adjacent recording studio are used in tandem to create, record, mix, and master music.
Music Practice Rooms
The center’s four music practice rooms, each featuring an upright Steinway piano, are designed for use by individual artists or small groups.
Outdoor Inspiration
The performing art center’s outdoor spaces include the Patterson Amphitheatre and the Tony and Renee Marlon Foundation Courtyard, as well as other areas for meditation and creative work.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
For nearly four decades, the Cantor Gallery has promoted and supported the intellectual and cultural life of the College through its exhibitions and acquisitions, both historical and contemporary. Located behind an expansive wall of glass directly above the main entrance to the building, the new gallery features exhibition space, archival storage for works of art in the permanent collection, a space for reviewing works in a seminar setting, and a workroom for tools and supplies.
Cantor Window Commission
Opens September 3
Soo Sunny Park | Boundary Conditions, 2014
plexiglass, stainless steel, paint, daylight
In her large-scale and immersive installations, Soo Sunny Park explores liminality and the transition between two seemingly opposing qualities: inside and outside, sculpture and drawing, objects and shadows. In the Cantor’s front window, Boundary Conditions emphasizes the space as housed interiorly but outward-facing, with abundant natural light.
A large sculpture made of steel and plexiglass strips hangs from the ceiling as the focal point of the work. Park works with utilitarian materials that create “boundaries” like fencing, plastic, and sheetrock. On the wall behind it, Park traces patterns of shadows that emerge as light interacts with the sculpture. For the duration of the display, the light shining in continues to interact with the sculpture as new, changing shadows are cast atop the drawings to activate the sculpture in a performative manner. Boundary Conditions questions our assumptions about light as immaterial and passive.
Image courtesy of artist