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New theatre and studio arts building named in honor of lifelong donors

By Kaitlin McCabe '16

After months of planning and construction, Hamilton College has finally announced that its new theatre and studio arts building will be named in honor of lifelong donors Kevin and Karen Kennedy, who have given the College $10 million for the $46.8 million project.

The Kevin and Karen Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts, which began construction in June 2013, will officially open this summer with the formal dedication scheduled for Friday, Oct. 10.

Kevin Kennedy ’70, who graduated with a degree in art, is a life trustee of the College.  As part of his ongoing devotion to the school, he served as chairman of Hamilton’s board of trustees from 1994 to 2002, during which time the College began discussions about creating new arts facilities. Though Kennedy retired in 2011 after three decades with Goldman Sachs’ management committee, he maintains his active patronage in the arts by serving as the president and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Opera. His wife, Karen, a graduate of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, is known for building a thriving pediatric practice in New York City. She currently serves as founding chair of the Children’s Board of Columbia at the Columbia University Medical Center.  Like her husband, Karen devotes her time and passion to the arts in her role as co-chair of the American Fellows group of the Whitney Museum.

Although the College has proudly built a reputation for its programs in writing and speaking and its emphasis on collaborative research and scholarship, visual literacy has recently become as important a part of the academic curriculum as these more traditional styles of education. With the opening of the Wellin Museum in 2012, Hamilton’s interest in developing students’ appreciation for and commitment to the cultivating the arts has greatly increased. In fact, student interest has increased to the extent that many studio arts courses have developed waitlists, while the College’s theatre productions have drawn audiences that fill performance spaces to their capacity.

The Kevin and Karen Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts will further promote this attention to the arts on campus. Designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates, the same architectural firm that designed the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, the addition to the College was created to benefit not only majors in the arts but all members of the Hamilton community.  Its opening will emphasize the inclusive nature of the arts at Hamilton and will encourage all students to explore the variety of outlets the center offers.

The center’s resources are numerous. Spaces specifically designated for senior projects will provide a variety of lighting conditions to address the needs of individual students. Senior art students will also have their own studio space within one central area, rather than working in spaces that are currently spread over campus. In addition to a wood shop, a casting studio and a hot shop for welding and encaustic painting, will include ceramic and sculpture studios. The theatre areas of the center will directly impact the development of students’ education.  There will be a scene and costume design classroom, a seminar room connected to the acting studio for playwriting and other disciplines and two theatres for hosting performances, including a smaller lab theatre for workshops and senior projects. The building will also house a costume shop, dressing rooms, a fully equipped green room and storage space.

With the final production in Minor Theatre—Hamilton’s main performance space for student productions since 1962—this weekend and the approaching completion of the Kevin and Karen Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts, Hamilton enters a new era in its mission of educating generations of students in the rich philosophy of the liberal arts.  The center will be opened this coming July.

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