The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is a 501(c) nonprofit visual and performing arts complex in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The BCA houses several performance and rehearsal spaces, restaurants, a gallery, the headquarters of the Boston Ballet, the Community Music Center of Boston and several other arts organizations. The BCA also serves as home to four Resident Theater Companies and a number of artists. The BCA's main building, the Cyclorama, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Boston Ballet's headquarters was designed in 1991 by architect Graham Gund. [1]
The BCA began operation in 1970 when the Boston Redevelopment Authority, in an effort to revitalize the South End area, designated one city block for the development of a new arts center. The city of Boston purchased the old Cyclorama Building and neighboring brownstone buildings for the project and agreed to lease the property to the newly formed BCA for a nominal yearly fee. The BCA is fully responsible for the management of its historic campus. The Cyclorama, a large rotunda, was built in 1884 by Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears to house the Battle of Gettysburg, a panoramic painting by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux.
The building’s original façade included a number of turrets and towers, and a stately arch at the entrance, giving it the appropriate appearance of a fortress. [2]
Between 1899 and 1922, the Cyclorama building had many uses, including incarnations as a garage, a boxing ring, and an automobile workshop. The Boston Flower Exchange purchased the Cyclorama building in 1922 to use the space as its headquarters and venue for its flower shows. During the Flower Exchange’s tenure, the façade was renovated, the turrets removed and the arch demolished. The copper dome that sat atop the Cyclorama was replaced by a glass skylight. In 1967, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, spurred by Royal Cloyd, a South End resident and chairman of the Urban Renewal Committee, began planning the development of a new center for the arts in Boston. Cloyd, the founder and eventual first president of the BCA, realized the need for affordable space for artists to work during a visit to the Atlanta Arts Center. Under Cloyd's advice, the BRA designated the Cyclorama building, the National Theatre, the Pennock and Tremont Estates buildings as the site of the new arts center. The BCA has grown exponentially since its birth, becoming one of Boston’s premiere arts organizations and venues. In 2004, the BCA entered into a partnership with the Huntington Theatre Company, building the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, the first new theater venue built in Boston in over 75 years. The Calderwood Pavilion stands on the site of the old National Theater, a vaudeville theater that attracted the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Duke Ellington. [1]
In early October 2019, the organization’s board of directors announced that CEO Gregory Ruffer resigned following allegations of inappropriate conduct while he worked as a professor at College of Central Florida during the 2009-2010 academic year. [3]
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 million visitors annually. It houses internationally renowned performing arts organizations including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Juilliard School.
The Boch Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit performing arts organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. It manages the historic Wang and Shubert theatres on Tremont Street in the Boston Theater District, where it offers theatre, opera, classical and popular music, comedy, dance, and Broadway musicals. The center also offers a diverse mix of educational workshops and community activities; collaborates with artists and local performing arts organizations; and, acts as a champion for the arts in the Greater Boston community by aggressively helping to make the arts an integral part of the community's collective, daily experience. It maintains partnerships with numerous arts organizations in Boston, including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Fiddlehead Theatre Company, Express Yourself, and more.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It was named in 1964 as a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Opened on September 8, 1971, the center hosts many different genres of performance art, such as theater, dance, orchestras, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and folk music.
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on 117 acres (47 ha) of national park land in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, near the town of Vienna. Through a partnership and collaboration of the National Park Service and the non-profit Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, the park offers both natural and cultural resources.
The Ohio Theatre is a performing arts center and former movie palace on Capitol Square in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. Known as the "Official Theatre of the State of Ohio", the 1928 building was saved from demolition in 1969 and was later completely restored. The theater was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977 as one of the nation's finest surviving grand theaters.
Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1808 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by Walnut Street Theatre Company, a non-profit organization, and has three stages: the Mainstage, for the company's primary and larger productions, the Independence Studio on 3, a studio located on the building's third floor for smaller productions, and the Studio 5 on the fifth floor, which is rented out for independent productions. In May 2019, Walnut Street Theatre announced a major expansion, to begin in 2020. In March 2020, the expansion was postponed six weeks from its initial groundbreaking due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Marcus Performing Arts Center is a performing arts center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Managed by a non-profit organization, it is marketed as Milwaukee's premier presenter of the performing arts. It is located at 929 North Water Street, at the intersection of State Street in downtown Milwaukee, and is a dedicated War Memorial.
The culture of Boston, Massachusetts, shares many roots with greater New England, including a dialect of the Eastern New England accent popularly known as Boston English. The city has its own unique slang, which has existed for many years. Boston was, and is still, a major destination of Irish immigrants. Irish Americans are a major influence on Boston's politics and religious institutions and consequently on the rest of Massachusetts.
The Walton Arts Center is a performing arts center. This facility located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is currently Arkansas’ largest and busiest arts presenter, famous for bringing great performing artists and entertainers from around the world.
Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts is the premier location for cultural arts and entertainment in Raleigh, North Carolina. The center consists of four unique venues, Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, Meymandi Concert Hall, A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater, and Kennedy Theatre.
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,499-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US. The theater, which is largely underground due to Grant Park-related height restrictions, was named for its primary benefactors, Joan and Irving Harris. It serves as the park's indoor performing venue, a complement to Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which hosts the park's outdoor performances.
The Tulsa Performing Arts Center, or Tulsa PAC, is a performing arts venue in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It houses four main theatres, a studio space, an art gallery and a sizeable reception hall. Its largest theater is the 2,365-seat Chapman Music Hall. The Center regularly hosts events by 14 local performance groups. Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Symphony, and Celebrity Attractions are among the Tulsa PAC's major clients. Tulsa Town Hall, Chamber Music Tulsa, Theatre Tulsa, American Theatre Company, Theatre Pops, Playhouse Tulsa, Theatre North, and the PAC Trust also fill the PAC calendar.
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is a performing arts complex on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. The 318,000-square-foot (29,500 m2) facility, which opened in 2001, houses six performance venues; the UM School of Music; and the UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. It also houses the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library. The center operates under the auspices of the University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities.
The Huntington Theatre Company is a professional theatre located in Boston, Massachusetts and the recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, under the direction of Managing Director Michael Maso. It is notable for its longstanding artistic relationship with African-American playwright August Wilson.
Herberger Theater Center is an indoor performing arts venue featuring three stages in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, whose mission is to support and foster the growth of performing arts in Phoenix as the premier performance venue, arts incubator and advocate. The Herberger Theater Center is not only a performing arts center, but is known in the Phoenix area as a cultivator and advocate for the arts community.
The American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC) is a professional organization whose main goal is to apprise owners, contractors and/or architects of the services that a theatre consultant can perform, whether it be for a new or renovated facility.
The Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts venue located along Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, Texas. The Long Center is the permanent home of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Opera and Ballet Austin and hosts other Austin-area performing arts organizations.
The Greenhouse Theater Center is a professional, non-profit theater located in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park. The Greenhouse Theater Center hosts multiple Off-Loop theater companies, including Eclipse Theatre Company, Hubris Productions, MPAACT, Organic Theatre Company, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, The Magic Cabaret, and Theater Seven Of Chicago.
Company One is a non-profit theatre company located in the Boston Center for the Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The company is known for providing adventurous, race conscious, and socially aware theatre programming in Boston. Company One has produced over 50 plays.
Melinda Lopez is an actress, playwright, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. She is the first ever playwright-in-residence for the Huntington Theatre Company. She is a professor at Northeastern University.