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Updated 7/29/2024

Prior Performing Arts Center

  • Massachusetts

    MA

Institution/Business Type: 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.

Find Me

Kyle Frisina
Job Title: Interim Director
Phone: 508-793-3690
Address:
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610

Social Media:

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Arts Center

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Embedded in non-cultural private organization

Parent Organization:

College of the Holy Cross

Year Founded:

2022

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Arts Center

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Embedded in non-cultural private organization

Parent Organization:

College of the Holy Cross

Year Founded:

2022

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Multi-Disciplinary

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Residency - In School
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
  • Residency - Production / Development
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Exhibitions
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 150

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • Adults
  • Artists
  • General Public
  • School Groups

Languages Available:

  • English

Geographic Reach:

  • Town / City
  • County
  • Multi-County Region
  • State
  • Multi-State Region

Accessibility of Services

Accessibility of Services:

  • Access accommodations for people who use a wheelchair and have limited mobility
  • Access accommodations for people who are blind, partially sighted, and have low vision
  • Access accommodations for people who are Deaf and hard-of-hearing

Media Gallery

Musicians playing Balinese instruments in the central space of the Prior with audience members looking on from the two levels of balconies above
11 student dancers, barefoot with arms outstretched, performing in the Spring Dance Concert
Members of the orchestra rehearsing on stage with the conductor in the Luth Concert Hall
Student artwork hanging on a wall in the Prior, including four large black and white self-portrait drawings
Audience members seated in the central space of the Prior listen to violinist Vijay Gupta and percussionist Chester Englander during a co-production between Music Worcester and the Prior Performing Arts Center
16 student actors on a two-level stage in the production of “Company” in the Luth Concert Hall
Several colorful pieces from the exhibition “Always Be Around” at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

I Have Worked With

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • New England Presenters
  • Association of Performing Arts Professionals

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • New England Presenters
  • Association of Performing Arts Professionals

Special Designations

Special Designations:

  • NEFA Grant Recipient
  • New England Presenters (NEP) Member