Cultural Arts Center
A modernist, 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) pillared cultural arts building opened at Chalmette High School in 2011. Clad in brick, stainless steel panels and cement plaster, and complete with a glass atrium lobby, the $28.7 million building on East Judge Perez Drive features a 420-seat theater as its centerpiece. It was paid for through FEMA and Community Development Block Grant funds and private donations.
Designed by Waggonner & Ball Architects of New Orleans and constructed by Mapp Construction of Baton Rouge, work began in March 2009 and was substantially completed by December. It includes a 7,980-square-foot (740 m2) public library on the first floor, fronting Judge Perez Drive.
In addition to the larger theater, there is a 120-seat technology center that has a large cinema screen. Students can plug in laptops at their seats while listening to lectures. Upstairs, there is a choral room, two practice rooms and an instrumental music ensemble room, each soundproof and equipped with recording equipment. There are two dance studios, one that has the same dimensions as the large theater's stage, thereby providing students with a separate practice space. The large theater is designed with acoustics in the forefront, according to its architect, David Waggonner. It sports a classic proscenium arch, an orchestra pit and a fly loft that will allow students to hoist scenery and lights. A student-run coffee shop will provide concessions during shows.
Read more about this topic: Chalmette High School
Famous quotes containing the words cultural, arts and/or center:
“To begin to use cultural forces for the good of our daughters we must first shake ourselves awake from the cultural trance we all live in. This is no small matter, to untangle our true beliefs from what we have been taught to believe about who and what girls and women are.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“Women hock their jewels and their husbands’ insurance policies to acquire an unaccustomed shade in hair or crêpe de chine. Why then is it that when anyone commits anything novel in the arts he should be always greeted by this same peevish howl of pain and surprise? One is led to suspect that the interest people show in these much talked of commodities, painting, music, and writing, cannot be very deep or very genuine when they so wince under an unexpected impact.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The greatest part of each day, each year, each lifetime is made up of small, seemingly insignificant moments. Those moments may be cooking dinner...relaxing on the porch with your own thoughts after the kids are in bed, playing catch with a child before dinner, speaking out against a distasteful joke, driving to the recycling center with a week’s newspapers. But they are not insignificant, especially when these moments are models for kids.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)