A new 747-seat performing arts center opened Friday on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus.
The music, dance and theater venue is being described as both a gateway to campus, and a destination. It is the first major performance hall to be built and opened in the area in decades. An inaugural performance was planned for Friday evening, featuring RIT student performances in a cabaret-style show.
“This building will serve as central stage in the already flourishing performing arts ecosystem, the largest of our performance venues on campus,” Erica Haskell, director of RIT’s School of Performing Arts, said in a news release. “We anticipate productions and concerts in the Performing Arts Center will be infused with cutting-edge technologies enabled through cross-college interdisciplinary collaborations.”
RIT began offering performing arts scholarships in 2019.
"Our students are engineers who sing, designers who dance, and coders who compose," RIT President Bill Sanders said in prepared remarks for the ribbon cutting. "They demonstrate that STEM and the arts are synergistic, and together prepare our students to lead in a world that demands both technical excellence and creative thinking."
The four-story venue includes two balconies, an outdoor amphitheater, a rehearsal studio, costume and scene shops, space for food service, a box office and operations staff. Yet to be installed is its centerpiece, an antique Barton Opus 234 theater pipe organ, which is being restored offsite.
"RIT has always been a place for makers, innovators, and problem-solvers," Sanders said. "We imagine, we design, we engineer, and we create. The RIT Performing Arts Center was built not just for performance, but for possibility. It will be a space where technology enhances artistry, where access is foundational, and where collaboration thrives.
