Student paintings and sculptures line the hallways of the Math and Arts Center (MAC), where Concord Academy’s visual art studios—for ceramics, painting, fiber arts, filmmaking, photography, and more—get a lot of use.
The Centennial Arts Center, under construction, will be completed in spring 2025 and in support of the performing arts and community and bonus academic spaces. The following is an overview of what it will offer:
This flexible and functional space will offer 175 retractable seats to accommodate mainstage productions, directors’ workshops, CA’s Playwriting Festival, technical theater classes, dance performances, CA’s Music Café, film screenings, class meetings, and courses across disciplines. Seating capacity is intentionally reduced to optimize audience engagement and provide students additional opportunities to perform their work. Unfettered by a traditional stage and fixed seats, directors and creators will be able to stretch their imaginations. In addition, classes in every area of study across the school will be able to configure this space for their needs.
A light-filled room with 75 fixed seats, this hall will provide appropriate acoustics and open floor space to accommodate chamber music, chorus, jazz workshops and ensembles, masterclass-style opportunities, practice, performance, group meetings, courses across disciplines, and events.
An open space with a reconfigurable layout to serve multiple programmatic needs, P3 will support the integration of performing and visual arts, create gallery/display capacity, and power the school to meet 21st-century technology demands. This is a multifunctional classroom that will also be used as a gathering and meeting space.
Adjacent to the P3 Lab, the DPL will provide a functional recording studio, communications technology to support media production across all disciplines, and tools for classes across departments (e.g., languages, visual arts, film, photography, digital graphic design, computer science, podcasting, student portfolios, video production).
This much-needed space will enable musicians to practice in groups. It also will include a practical classroom space to support “on your feet” dynamic learning.
In this dedicated maker space, students will be able to participate in set construction. We will be able to offer highly desired courses such as woodworking and additional opportunities for fiber arts. This shop will also allow the PAC to remain open while sets are designed and built.
These 13 soundproof rooms, designed to accommodate various uses, will create the conditions for students and teachers to study and work undisturbed. Technology will connect to the Digital Production Lab, creating recording capacity currently unavailable to our program.
For the first time in 100 years, CA will have suitable dressing rooms, costume and instrument storage, and bathrooms for performers. Meeting these basic requirements will transform the CA experience.
Providing dedicated room for adults to work and advise will further make the Centennial Arts Center a destination for collaboration and community building.
