NMH Magazine : Spring 2006

Leading Lines

We’ve been fortunate to work with architects who listen to us, have studied our curriculum, and have designed a building that will allow us to deliver our programs to our students. It’s not unlike having someone take our measurements to make our clothes instead of buying them off the rack. The fit feels just right.

Mind you, we haven’t put money into extras like lavish curtains, plush rugs, or gold faucets. The building does exactly what we need—no more, no less. We’re putting the dollars into program support: an electronic studio, a theatre modeled partly on Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, a concert hall with acoustics fit for adolescent voices, dance studios with just the right kind of floor, art studios with ideal lighting.

This building will be tangible evidence of our motto—it will be a crossroads of the head (the cerebral aspect of studying the arts), the heart (the spiritual joy of creating and appreciating), and the hand (creating).

Defining the arts center of our dreams has taught us to think in new ways. It’s also been a rollercoaster ride: The original budget was $13 million, which rose to $20 million and beyond; CBT’s first design was an enormous complex that would have cost upward of $40 million. We all went back to the drawing board after that one! One of the bleakest moments happened last fall when the budget came in much higher than we’d expected, and we had to consider eliminating the theatre from the building.

Conversely, one of the best moments happened at the same time. A trustee listened to our concerns, looked at the original design, and said, “We have to take this design back to the trustees because we need a theatre. We must make it clear that we haven’t allocated enough money.” Knowing that the trustees were listening closely to us and that they fully backed our program needs has been huge.

When people ask what my favorite elements of the design are, I have trouble choosing only a few. Most of all, I love the fact that all the arts are under one roof. The students will be in a community of artists, and their collective energy will create synergy. I love that the building has a main “street” that leads students past all the spaces. I love the glass, which is so inviting, and the tower, which not only echoes Blake Hall and Memorial Chapel, but also reflects the towers of Northfield. I’m hoping the carillon from Northfield will one day go in that tower, although it’s not specifically in the budget.

Imagine two years from now, walking through campus on a late fall evening and seeing the arts center glowing with life, as if to say “Please come in.” I can’t wait until we put on our first musical, with a stage that has an orchestra pit and wings. I look forward to the first time the choir gets to sing in that magnificent concert hall, and the look on the singers’ faces when they make a chord and realize how beautiful it is. I’m eager for the classes of ’06 and ’07, who won’t get to see this center completed, to come back as alumni and participate on stage and know that their involvement kept the arts alive at NMH.

Every day I take my dog Bailey for a walk, and we inevitably end up on the grassy stretch of campus that will hold the arts center. As we walk up the hill, I say to Bailey, “Hey, we’re walking through the choral rehearsal room! Now we’re in the theatre, and there’s our concert hall—and here’s where the ceramics studio will be.” It’s wonderful to be able to imagine such a place, and it will be even more wonderful to witness the arts flourishing in it.

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Sheila Heffernon is chair of the performing arts program and director of choral music. She has been at NMH for 26 years.

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