Washington College Magazine
State of Maryland, Board of Visitors, Commit Funds To Performing Arts Center
With a $3 million capital project grant approved by the Maryland General Assembly and an additional $2 million committed by members of the Board of Visitors and Governors, Washington College is poised to undertake a major renovation/expansion of Gibson Performing Arts Center.
The new Performing Arts Center returns the arts to what College President Baird Tipson calls "their rightful place" at the heart of the liberal arts experience and reaffirms Rev. William Smith's vision for Washington College as the cultural center of Maryland's Eastern Shore.
In addition to the full renovation of Tawes Theatre, the Gibson project calls for two new performance spaces that are more intimately-scaled than Tawes Auditorium and that are also highly functional—a 200-seat music recital hall and an experimental theatre seating 200—each accessed through a common glassed lobby that State of Maryland, Board of Visitors, Commit Funds To Performing Arts Center overlooks Martha Washington Square.
The project allocates expanded rehearsal space, office space, classroom space, a scene shop and greenroom space to the drama department.
Similarly, the music department acquires better rehearsal space, more classrooms and individual rehearsal rooms, a keyboard laboratory and instrument storage. A small art gallery is also part of this project.
The College has launched a major fundraising initiative, devising naming opportunities that range from $3 million for the proscenium theatre, to $1.5 million each for the recital hall and the experimental theatre, to $100,000 for the keyboard laboratory, to $35,000 each for nine music practice rooms.
"Over the last decade the College has made major investments in its academic facilities," notes College President Baird Tipson. "We renovated and preserved William Smith Hall for the humanities, Daly and Goldstein Halls for the humanities and social sciences, and most impressively the new Toll Science Center for the natural, behavioral and mathematical sciences. Only the performing arts remained in the long-outgrown, forty-year-old Gibson Performing Arts Center. Now the time has come to restore the arts to their rightful place at the heart of a liberal education."
Architects are still finetuning the design, but the intent is to create a more welcoming façade that opens onto Martha Washington Square. Construction is expected to begin before the end of the calendar year and will take at least 24 months to complete. In the meantime, the administration is working with faculty and community members to identify suitable alternative spaces for classes, rehearsals and performances.
"This definitely calls for some creative thinking," remarks Dale Daigle, professor and chair of the drama department. The Prince Theatre in downtown Chestertown is one likely performance venue.
The total project cost is estimated at $15 million. For more information about naming opportunities, please contact Beth Herman, vice president for development and alumni relations, at 410-778-7801, or bherman2@washcoll.edu.
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