Performing Arts Centers are not “nice-to-have” facilities. When planned and designed right, they drive workforce skills, increase student and staff engagement, and create real economic impact in the local community.
At this year’s A4LE Southeast Regional Conference, a panel comprised of Matt Warren, Deputy Superintendent, Lexington School District 2; Will Anderson, COO, Richland School District 2; Ben Thompson, K-12 Practice Leader, McMillan Pazdan Smith; and Todd Sease, K-12 Architect, McMillan Pazdan Smith presented a session called “Beyond the Stage: How Performing Arts Facilities Drive Innovative Education, Student Opportunity, and Economic Growth.”
For educators who were unable to attend this session in person, here are some of the highlights:
PACs Deliver Workforce-Ready Skills
The session opened by discussing the attributes that a student today needs coming out of high school. TransformSC, launched in 2013, is a group of business leaders, educators, parents, and policy makers that help ensure students graduate prepared for college, careers, and citizenship.
It turns out, Performing Arts Centers (PACs) are delivery systems for the exact skills that TransformSC prioritizes. This is because PACs are dynamic, project-based ecosystems that replicate modern work environments.
A performing arts education offers numerous benefits. For one, it enhances creativity and problem-solving. According to a report by The Conference Board, 72% of business leaders focus on creativity as a top skill.
PACs (when planned and designed right) can be incubators for valuable 21st-century skills.
“These are major careers that are happening,” Anderson says. “It’s about creating the space, creating an environment, and then giving students those engaging experiences.”
Creating the right environment can carry a high price tag.
“For school districts, these are usually the most expensive buildings to contemplate,” Thompson says. “[There is] even more of a reason to make sure you got it right, that it’s done well and flexibly over time.”
“We need a roof; we need HVAC; we need new schools; we need capacity; so, this building kept getting pushed, but it shouldn’t have,” Anderson says.
What’s so critical about arts and even career technology is helping kids find their passion earlier. Whether that’s a four-year college or a technical skill, that’s so important.”
– Mike Warren / Deputy Superintendent, Lexington 2
“What’s interesting about these facilities too is they can level set a lot of concerns we might have out there about the outcomes of students,” says Anderson. “We really need to make sure we have children who can imagine and be creative and the arts has always been that avenue.”
The Richland 2 PAC Story
In the early ’90s, Richland 2 started an arts magnet program to embed the arts in the district, but they didn’t have a true facility to support the program.
In 2018, the district passed a bond referendum and was ready to design and build the Richland 2 PAC. Working with McMillan Pazdan Smith, the district involved many stakeholders in their design process who were all guided by their arts education mission statement.
The R2 PAC includes a 1,175-seat auditorium complete with a full-height stage, raised orchestra pit, and balcony level seating. Multi-use educational spaces include dressing rooms that double as dance studios and a versatile rehearsal space suitable for black box productions. The lobby showcases visual arts projects, highlighting student creativity.
The PAC serves the district’s 27,000 students, in addition to hosting local and professional performances for the entire community.
“It’s phenomenal — what we’ve been able to do in 18 months!” says Will Anderson, COO Richland 2.
The Lexington 2 PAC Story
“We completed our arts center and district office facility in March of 2024,” deputy superintendent Matt Warren says. [It was] the crown jewel of the 2014 referendum.”
“Early on, we did a number of case studies,” says architect Todd Sease. “We looked at the DPAC in Durham, the Wilmington Arts facility, an auditorium down in Augusta and gathered ideas.”
“Folks from all across the community as well as the school district shared thoughts, shared their vision for what this facility could be,” Warren says.
What came from those visioning sessions was that this facility should not only showcase the students in band and drama and the performing arts — but also serve as a workforce development type space too.
Kids learn set design and hand-on carpentry skills while building the sets; some learn lighting and audio production. Even kids interested in management or how to run a theater are provided opportunities to shadow directors and learn by doing.
“That was a conscious decision, part of the education process is to make sure that those backstage areas can be used by students.”
Another consideration at Lexington 2 was to have the ability to host traveling road shows and off-Broadway productions. “That’s part of the educational process for kids to be able to see these performers come in and how these [professional] productions take place,” Warren says.
The Lexington 2 Performing Arts Center is in the heart of the communities the district serves, though it attracts interest from South Carolina’s capital city of Columbia, neighboring Lexington and the communities around Lake Murray and far beyond.
Flexibility Increases ROI
The best PACs can serve multiple functions in a flexible way. The Richland 2 PAC was designed to have multiple styles and types of performances within the facility. “We really did take STEAM education as not only the philosophical and educational focus,” says Thompson. “We wanted that to be a part of the design aspect too.”
The rehearsal room in the R2 PAC was intentionally built as a shell, with the idea that lighting and rigging could be added to serve a variety of purposes later.
For both Performing Arts Centers, one of the most valuable areas is the main lobby.
“The connecting link is the lobby,” Sease says. “[The Lexington PAC] lobby space is used by the community so many times. It’s a wonderful way for the district to build goodwill with the community.”
“We’ve had large galas, we’ve had weddings, we’ve had the state department utilize it several times for large trainings,” says Warren.
Another benefit of bringing outside groups in is that it helps offset operational costs.
“We’ve had convocation in here. We bring our whole district into one facility now to kick off the year,” Warren says.
Lexington 2 further increased use by moving their district office into the PAC building.
“It’s just been a great value for us as a system,” Warren says.
The panel closed their session by reminding attendees that PACs should be run like a business.
“Communities need to understand that PACs generate tax base. They generate revenue. They lead to actual impacts to the economy,” Thompson says. “And they lead to the experiences that students have in their careers.”
