Prior Performing Arts Center

A catalyst for creativity and learning, the Prior Performing Arts Center amplifies the arts at Holy Cross and provides the College, the greater Worcester community, and visiting creative thinkers with an inspiring environment to pursue diverse questions of the human experience.

The opening of the Prior Performing Arts Center signals a new era in a longstanding tradition, grounded in our mission as a Jesuit liberal arts college, of using the arts to create dialogue, challenge perspectives, and encourage innovation and creative thinking. In recent years, this tradition was embodied by programs such as Arts Transcending Borders (ATB), an initiative which offered conceptual and programmatic inspiration for the Prior during the period the performing arts center was being planned and constructed; with the opening of the new center, the ATB series has been renamed “Prior Presents.” 

The 84,000-square-foot Prior Performing Arts Center is designed by architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro and consists of a 400-seat proscenium concert hall, a 200-seat flexible theater, and various cutting-edge design studios and multi-use flexible spaces.