The Center for the Arts

Here follows an excerpt from the George Mason University library website:

George Mason University: A History
Bringing the Mason Community Together:
Patriot Center, the Center for the Arts, and the Bellarmine Chapel

During President George W. Johnson’s tenure at George Mason, construction was commonplace; new dormitories and academic buildings sprouted all over campus. Residence halls and classroom space resulted from the practical needs of the student body, but Dr. Johnson desired George Mason serve not only its students, faculty, and staff, but also the Fairfax and Northern Virginia communities as well. Three special buildings have left their unique mark on the campus and continue to shape its legacy today.

The Center for the Arts

While Patriot Center’s large venue is a great place to showcase athletic talent, Dr. George Johnson and his wife, Joanne—a former chair of the George Mason Fund for the Arts and a longtime patron of the performing arts--also sought an impressive setting in which to feature outstanding dancers, singers, musicians, and other performing artists. No such facility had existed for most of Johnson’s tenure. It was not until 1988 that funding for the proposed Performing Arts Center was granted by the state legislature. Performance revenue and student fees also contributed to the construction of the $10.6 million building.

The completion of the Center for the Arts, initially called “Humanities III,” was the final component of a three-phase Humanities complex. The first phase --now known as the deLaski Performing Arts Building—was completed in January 1988 and includes music and dance studios, classrooms, a small recital hall, and the Black Box studio theater which seats one hundred fifty people. Humanities II consists of administrative offices and was completed in the fall of 1989. The Center for the Arts serves as the “performance arm” of the entire complex, in part because neither the Black Box nor Harris Theater can accommodate a full-size symphony orchestra or large theater or dance troupes, but also because of its beauty and architectural innovations. The “crown jewel of the Center for the Arts,” the state-of-the-art Concert Hall, is a unique structure designed by theatrical and acoustical consultant George Izenour. The famous engineer, inventor, and writer served as the lighting director and designer for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Theater Project in Los Angeles in the late 1930s, established the Electro-Mechanical Laboratory at Yale University, and consulted on the design of over one hundred buildings around the world. A large collection of Federal Theater Project materials is housed in the Special Collections Research Center within University Libraries.

The Concert Hall’s maximum capacity is two thousand, but the space can be reduced to just eight hundred seats when a performance is smaller or a more intimate setting is desired; acoustic panels can be adjusted to complement either situation. The stage is also adaptable—in addition to the main stage, a front “lift” stage provides an enlarged space for actors when raised, an orchestra pit when lowered, and further seating if necessary (when portable rows of seats are raised to the stage level).

The Grand Opening of the Center for the Arts on October 6, 1990, highlighted the Center’s exceptional Concert Hall. Marvin Hamlisch, the Oscar-winning composer and the evening’s Master of Ceremonies, noted: “There are a lot of wonderful performers here this evening, but the star is undoubtedly the theater.” Although certainly a centerpiece, the Concert Hall was not the only component that impressed; the dazzling show featured celebrated performers including, among others, the comedy troupe PDQ Bach, opera singer Roberta Peters, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, and members of Broadway’s A Chorus Line. Dr. Johnson expressed his excitement for its future: “What’s really happening here tonight is the beginning of a dream. Dreams are the stuff of this university. A university that conceives of itself not as a place, but as a state of always becoming, dreams realized and dreams begun.” Johnson emphasized the importance of the bonds that the Center for the Arts had the potential to create between the university and the community; it allows “a blending of students and community so that we gain support from the community and we also enable our students—when they graduate—to have a community receptive to them.” He added that the Center’s professional productions also “enable students to be more culturally literate and exposed to serious theater, dance, and orchestral music, visiting companies from abroad, and to be able to interact with those people.” The opening of Humanities III provided “a hopeful predilection that GMU and the surrounding community will enjoy a long and fruitful relationship immersed in the arts… [that will bring] prestigious cultural riches to the campus and to northern Virginia.” The Center for the Arts has done just that.