Fine and Performing Arts Center
Marianapolis Preparatory School has reached a significant crossroads in its history at which the best course forward is, at present, unattainable. Deeply committed to educating the whole person – body, mind and spirit – the Fine and Performing Arts at Marianapolis are a mainstay of the School’s curriculum and intended student experience. Currently, however, these programs and facilities are in dire need of enhancement to forge ahead in providing a contemporary, innovative educational experience to our students.
Current Constraints:
- All musical performing arts programs share community spaces for both practice and performance: the Black Box Theater, Chapel, and Library. These spaces are also used by academic and other extracurricular programs, creating significant conflicts in scheduling and availability.
- Capacity limits restrict student enrollment in arts classes.
- Current practice spaces for performing artists are limited, pushing many course offerings from the traditional class schedule into the evening. Meeting only once weekly, these classes are jeopardized and often cancelled due to weather and other important all-school programming.
- Because these programs meet in different spaces for practice versus performance, many heavy and fragile pieces of equipment must be transported regularly, resulting in loss of time and frequent damage.
- Music and dance performances occur in community spaces not designed for sufficient capacity, sound production or spectator visibility. This creates further infrastructure challenges as furniture must be arranged and rearranged often in common spaces, rendering them unavailable for other uses and requiring time and labor from other departments on campus.
- Students do not have access to any designated spaces suited for instrumental practice, which limits their learning and progress.
- Equipment and instrument storage is severely limited, preventing proper maintenance and organization such that damage is unavoidable.
- Space constraints limit student access to the visual arts curriculum by number and seniority, as these rooms offer a maximum seating capacity of 12 students per class.
- Like performing artists, visual artists can showcase their work only semi-annually in multipurpose community spaces such as the Student Lounge, but no permanent gallery space exists for displaying and celebrating the talents of our students.
- The Arts Department is currently spread across campus, with dance located in the Athletic Complex, music and drama in the Main Academic Building, and visual arts in St. John’s Hall. Faculty collaboration and shared access to resources is severely limited.
The Plan:
A new building that will expand the educational, practice, and performance space required to deliver the caliber of arts programming desired and planned for Marianapolis students. Current facilities constraints render this unfeasible.
To reinforce our commitment to the arts as a critical component of students’ development – and attract scholars and guest artists whose influences could shape the identity of art at Marianapolis – we must provide designated spaces with appropriate capacities. A new Fine and Performing Arts center with collaborative workspaces, ample instructional zones, permanent gallery display space, and a 600+ capacity theater for whole-community gatherings and large music and dance productions will chart the course forward. Advancing the Arts at Marianapolis and creating a central gathering space for the full community will thus enhance the nurturing of each student’s mind, body, and spirit, as well as that of the entire School.