Kennesaw
State University
Will Build New Performance Facility
Release date: March 19, 2004
At
the Kennesaw State University College of the Arts Third
Annual Benefit Gala on Saturday, March 20, KSU President
Dr. Betty L.
Siegel and Arts Dean
Joseph Meeks will announce plans to construct a new
multi-purpose facility to house, among other things, a music
rehearsal hall and a 750-seat performance hall.
The
university will fund the $6.5 million project from a combination
of public and private funds.
"We
are currently in the process of identifying a major sponsor
to name the building," Dean Meeks says, "but many
foundations, individuals and companies already have contributed
to the project."
| Kennesaw
State University is a comprehensive, residential
institution with a growing student population
exceeding 17,400 from 131 countries. The third
largest state university out of 34 institutions
in the University System of Georgia, KSU offers
more than 55 undergraduate and graduate degree
programs. |
|
The
new building is intended to meet the academic needs of Kennesaw
State's growing Department of Music and College of the Arts.
According to Dean Meeks, this facility is being designed
with long-term academic interests in mind, and would not
affect the university's affiliation with the proposed arts
complex at the Cobb Galleria. "Because the primary
purpose of this new facility is to provide necessary facilities
for daily use by our music program, it will have no impact
any of the collaborative projects being discussed by the
university and the Galleria," Dean Meeks says.
The
music department, which is nationally accredited by the
National Association of Schools of Music, is home to more
than 160 undergraduate music and music education majors,
and also serves more than 1,500 non-majors through the general
education and music ensemble programs. As part of their
academic training, all music majors are required to participate
in small and large performance ensembles.
"Unfortunately,
the current facilities are not large enough to accommodate
rehearsals and performances by some of these ensembles,"
Dean Meeks says. In recent years, some ensembles have had
to hold their concerts off-campus because the existing performance
facility, Howard Logan Stillwell Theater, is not large enough
for the instrumental ensembles and choral ensembles to perform
together.
"Stillwell Theater is a marvelous venue, but it was
really designed for theatre productions rather than concerts,"
Dean Meeks said. "It will continue to serve the university
very well. In fact, by creating a new space for the music
department, we will allow our growing Department of Theatre
and Performance Studies to expand its academic and public
programming in the Stillwell."
The architects for the project are Stevenson
& Wilkinson Stang & Newdow, who also designed
Kennesaw State's Ann & John Clendenin Computer Science
Building and the recently opened Anne Frank Exhibition at
the university. Acoustic design for the building is being
provided by Acoustic
Dimensions, a company renowned for its work on Ryman
Auditorium in Nashville, the Peabody Conservatory in Maryland
and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Shakespeare's hometown,
Stratford-upon-Avon in England.
Construction is slated to begin this summer.
