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NMH Magazine : Spring 2006
Arts Front and Center
If you build it, they will come together.
This could be the catchphrase for NMH’s new arts center, which brings theatre, dance, music, and art together in a single building—for the first time, ever, at the school.
It began as a promise more than two years ago and unfolded over countless meetings between architects and arts faculty. “Tell us your dreams,” the architects said, then turned them into classrooms and concert halls, practice spaces and prosceniums.
Along the way there were designs and redesigns, cost increases and cost cutting, and the twin strictures of schedule and budget. The building shifted its shape from sprawling to right-sized, with jewel-box windows and a tower that sings of Northfield.
Now the dream is coming to life: groundbreaking ceremonies will take place this fall, and the arts center will be completed in spring 2008.
The visual and performing arts center will include the following components.
Visual Arts
painting and drawing studio • video and digital design studio • 2-D design studio • printmaking studio • ceramics studio • photography studio • portfolio/exhibition preparation space and classroom • teaching gallery (for student work) • professional gallery (for professional work) • four faculty studios
Music
225-seat concert hall • recital hall and choral rehearsal space • instrument rehearsal room • music classroom • electronic music studio • music library • nine practice rooms • drum studio • recording studio • teaching studios
Theatre
250-seat, end-stage theatre • scenery shop • dressing rooms • green room
Dance
80-seat performance studio (aka black box theatre) • studio for classes and rehearsals • costume shop
The new arts center will sit on near-hallowed ground: the sweep of land on the edge of campus between Holbrook and Forslund Gym, where Recitation and Silliman Halls once stood. Built in 1884 and 1892, respectively, these classroom buildings were lost to fire within a decade of each other (a short circuit caused a fire in Silliman in 1965; Recitation Hall burned down in 1975).
Why this site? For one, it anchors the eastern edge of campus and fills in the gap left by the loss of Silliman and Recitation. The center will occupy a key spot in the academic quadrangle; meanwhile, its tower, which echoes the spires of Blake Hall and Memorial Chapel (and pays tribute to Northfield’s towers), creates a triangular conversation among the buildings. The site creates community because it sits along current student paths; it also takes advantage of shared parking, supporting NMH’s plan to pedestrianize the center of campus.
Beyond rational reasons lies another realm—one of sentiment and history. The center for the arts will stand where generations of students listened and learned, dreamed and discovered. In this way, the site merges past and present—and serves as a foundation for the future.
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