A TRANSFORMED CAMPUS
From vision to reality, the $55 million Performing Arts Center has been nearly 10 years in the works. In the meantime, the Department of Theatre and Dance has nearly tripled the number of students in its programs and created the first undergraduate theatre education program in SUNY. The Performing Arts Center has already begun to transform campus, from the outside in. The College’s first new academic building in 40 years, the project was a massive and complex undertaking during construction. The building’s distinctive angled rooftops are already a highlight of the campus skyline, and its hallways are becoming busier by the day, as the campus community filters through on the way to classes or just to look around. Now, as the center hosts its first classes and performances, the state-of-the-art facility has also opened new doors for students and faculty to master the latest technology, advance their artistry and reach out to new audiences. “We feel very excited and very honored to be given this opportunity, and we are working hard to meet the increased expectations that come with a new facility of this caliber. This building is going to be a paradigm of interdisciplinary excellence,” said department chair Dr. Jay Pecora. “For the first time, we are competing on a national level. Our facilities are now better than a number of SUNY and private schools.”
A STORY BEHIND EVERY WALL
The Performing Arts Center is designed to be a crossroads of creativity, a place where audiences, professors, students and guest artists converge—and all are inspired. The building’s location adjacent to The Crane School of Music brings the campus’s major stages together, and a new landscaped patio area and drop-off circle will serve as the gateway to all performing arts at Potsdam. The center’s light-filled lobby is a place “to see and be seen,” said lead architect Lorenzo Mattii of Pfeiffer Partners. The entrances to the three performing spaces—the proscenium theater, the dance hall and the black box theater—are laid out around you, but you can also see the windows of the department offices and the corridors leading to classrooms, laboratories and studios above. “We designed this as a town square of sorts, a piazza where students could overhang from balconies, perches and landings” Mattii said. “I hope students find themselves here, whether they go on to work in the arts or not.” Tucked into a corner of the lobby, with windows facing the rest of campus, is a café that will serve snacks and meals and host receptions for performances. It’s the kind of space designed to encourage faculty and students from all disciplines to mingle and collaborate. Ashley Guerry McLaurin is the new production and facility manager for the Department of Theatre and Dance, and has the important task of serving as building administrator for the Performing Arts Center. “By creating an arts complex, where theatre and dance is alongside The Crane School of Music, the College is going to encourage even more collaborative opportunities. For students, it will provide a much more organic experience of coming up with ideas while they hang out and study in the building’s nooks and crannies,” she said.
THE WORLD’S A STAGE
Whether students are on stage or behind the scenes, the Performing Arts Center gives them the opportunity to work with the most current technology in a professional-caliber setting. w w w.potsdam.edu/people
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