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Arts Center Fast Facts
The Rhodes Center for the Arts fast facts
The Arts Program at NMH
The arts program at Northfield Mount Hermon is about synergy, passion, self discovery, and authenticity. For decades our school has brought the arts to the forefront of the NMH experience. Every student is touched by the power of artistic expression in some way, as participant, witness, and most often, both. The largest lesson is that the arts join us in profound ways—personally, culturally, and spiritually.
While the quality of the arts program is a pride point for our school, our arts facilities do not match up. We are short on performance venues, some spaces serve double duty for other school activities, and class and practice rooms are scattered across campus. The disciplines are meant to be connected.
Recognizing the impact the visual and performing arts historically has had on NMH students and the need for improved facilities, the NMH Board of Trustees approved a new center for the arts—a magnificent building that will bring together the arts faculty and departments, students, and ultimately, the entire community. Students will learn, practice, and perform in an inspiring, light-filled environment, and the community will witness their talents coming to life in this state-of-the-art setting.
Facts and Figures
- Architects: Childs Bertman Tseckares, Inc. (CBT), of Boston, MA
- Schedule: groundbreaking September 2006; target opening September 2008
- Size: 63,000 square feet on three levels
- Cost: $29 million
- Site plan: The facility is located on the eastern edge of campus between Holbrook Hall and Forslund Gymnasium, where Recitation and Silliman Halls once stood. Here, the center for the arts redefines the landscape and academic quad, creates community as it sits along current student paths, and takes advantage of shared parking in support of our plan to pedestrianize the center of campus.
- Unique design features:
1) an interior “street” that runs on an axis through all three levels, connecting the different parts of the building; 2) a tower that echoes Blake Hall, Memorial Chapel, and the towers of Northfield; 3) will be LEED gold certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Green Building Rating System®).
- Fundraising information below
Summary of significant program spaces
Music
250-seat concert hall: Raymond Hall
Recital hall and choral rehearsal: Heffernon Hall
Instrument rehearsal
Music classroom
Electronic music studio
Practice rooms (9)
Dance
80-seat dance practice and performance studio (aka studio theater or “black box theater”)
Dance studio (practice studio)
Costume shop (shared)
Theatre
250-seat end-stage theater
80-seat studio theater (aka“black box theater” or dance practice and performance studio)
Visual Arts
Painting and drawing studio
Digital and video design studio
2D design studio
Printmaking studio
Ceramics studio
Photography studio
Portfolio/exhibition preparation space & classroom
Teaching and professional galleries
Fundraising
In June 2006, NMH received a lead gift of $5 million for the new arts facility from William R. Rhodes ’53, chairman emeritus of the NMH Board of Trustees. In honor of this gift, the building has been named the Rhodes Center for the Arts as a continuous reminder of his and his father’s (Edward R. Rhodes ’16) faithful service to the school.
Several major naming opportunities are still available for gifts ranging from $50,000 to $3 million. For more information about specific opportunities or other ways to support this capital project, please contact:
Allyson Goodwin ’83
Chief Advancement Officer
413-498-3334
Bill Rowe '83
Director of Advancement Initiatives
413-498-3601
For information about other giving opportunties:
Arts program contact information
If you would like to learn more about the NMH arts program, contact:
Sheila Heffernon
Performing Arts Chair
413-498-3341
Philip Calabria
Visual Arts Chair
413-498-3492
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