New facility to house MCC arts
Roman Chacon
Sometime ago, MCC purchased the Harkins Theater on Longmore just north of U.S. 60. Plans are now in the works to transform it into the school’s new performing arts center.Sue Anne Lucius, music department chair, said that the new facility will be called “The Performing Arts District at MCC.”
She said the center will predominately be used for musical performances along with dance and theatre. There will be lab spaces for performing arts courses to utilize. It is a possibility that some art humanities courses will be located there as well.
The music department currently has to go through the burden of renting all the facilities they use for performances. “We have wonderful faculty and that’s why students come here… (yet) we have no place to play,” Lucius said.
“We’re one of the largest music departments at a community college in the nation, yet we don’t have our own place to play,” she said. “We’re like a football team without a stadium.”
Lucius stated that she feels the new center will shine more light on music and performing arts programs at MCC. She said, “It will give us a home; if we do a concert it’s either at Mesa Arts Center or some church.if we have musical performances on this campus it will give the music program more of a face.”
She stated that the music department has been waiting a long time for the first steps of this project to come into fruition. “We’re so excited and it is a long time coming,” she said.
With the construction of this new facility, she feels it will cultivate a stronger learning community among musical arts students.
Kurt Conover, vice president of administrative services, said, “the budget that’s been set for the renovation of the building is approximately $7.21 million.” He explained that the funds for this project came from a voter approved 2004 bond given to the Maricopa district.
Lucius stated that the budget set was hard to work with, but with the market down, it will be much easier for MCC to get the performance center it wants. “Theatres are very expensive beasts,” she said.
Lucius stated that around $5 million is left to spend on the renovations needed to transform the old Harkins into a performance center for the arts.
She stated that the largest theater in the building will likely become the main hall for symphonic and orchestral performances.
Rodney Holmes, dean of instruction, stated that the projected completion date is fall 2012 and that MCC along with the district are settling on their final contractor.
