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A Bright Future: the new Performing Arts Center

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To ensure the quality of existing cultural arts programs and expand arts collaborations with the community, West Chester University of Pennsylvania is building the new School of Music and Performing Arts Center. Projected for completion in the Spring of 2006, it will feature a 375-seat performance hall as well as a 125-seat recital hall along with an art gallery. The center will host campus and community events and make West Chester University of Pennsylvania the cultural center of Chester County. It will be located on High Street, adjacent to the Bull Center, which houses the Department of Theatre & Dance.

These facilities will:

• increase the University's capacity to serve growing numbers of students in music, theatre, art, and dance
• new curricular development
• improve the quality of music and arts instruction and expand faculty access to instructional tools that enhance teaching
• broaden the array of performing arts programming in which WCU can engage (theatre, opera, symphony, musical theater, art, etc.)
• provide community arts organizations with a home for performances and displays while avoiding the needless duplication of facilities
• dramatically increase regional access to the arts

The Center will include the existing E.O. Bull theaters and 85,000 square feet of new space that is planned in two sections. The first is the three-story, lyrically shaped School of Music building comprising classrooms, state-of-the-art music laboratories, rehearsal rooms, faculty offices, practice rooms, and a recital hall, library, and art gallery. The other wing features a 375-seat proscenium theater, reception gallery, and support spaces. The new facilities will be located adjacent to the two theaters in the E.O. Bull Center thereby creating the region’s premier cultural arts venue with four stages, an art gallery and sculpture garden, and convenient parking.

The new School of Music building will be named in honor of Dr. Charles E. Swope, former President of the University. Other parts of the Center are available for naming by generous supporters of this project.

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