Performing arts center/centre (see

spelling differences Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and Americ ...

), often abbreviated as PAC, is usually a complex housing performance spaces for various

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

, including dance, music, and theatre. In some cases it refers to a single multi-use space, or alternatively, to a performing arts college.

History

The origin of the world's oldest performing art, Noh, dates back to the 6th and 7th centuries when performing arts came to Japan from mainland China. Starting in the 6th century BC, the Classical period of performing art began in Greece, ushered in by the tragic poets such as

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

. These poets wrote plays which, in some cases, incorporated dance (see

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

). The

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

began the widespread use of comedy. Much of which was performed live in a center-point of the community. In 1576, Britain's first playhouse, "The Theatre", was built in Finsbury Fields, London. It was constructed by Leicester's Men – an acting company formed in 1559 from members of the Earl of Leicester's household. New performing arts centers emerged in the latter part of the 20th century as a means of generating new investment and increased economic activity and thus, a means for revitalizing neighborhoods as patrons are drawn to local restaurants and other businesses. PACs became a draw for touring shows and eventually included visual art in their facilities. Today, these centers are valuable civic resources that provide education, access, exchange of creative discourse, opportunities for cultural expression and awareness.

Description

Multi-use performance spaces

A multi-use performance space is a single space intended for use by various types of performing arts, including dance, music and theatre. The intended multiple use of performing arts centers in this sense differentiates them from single-purpose concert halls, opera houses, or theatres, although the actual use of single-purpose spaces for other than their intended use is widespread. This sort of space has a long history, extending to the Roman Colosseum and Greek amphitheatres.

Performance space complexes

A cluster of performance spaces, either separate buildings or under one roof, each space designed for a specific purpose such as symphonic music or

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

or theatre, but multipurpose as a whole, are also described as performing arts centers. The modern version of this came into being only in the 1960s.

Colleges

In Australia, the Centre for the Performing in Adelaide was the predecessor college of the Adelaide College of the Arts. The Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts is a college for

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Governance

Some performing arts center organizations act as sole presenters for events using the venues within the center, but most also frequently rent their performance spaces to other performing arts presenters or self-presenting performing arts groups. An example of this practice is the Celebrity Series of Boston renting venues in Boston's Boch Center.

Specific venues

Examples of performance arts complexes include the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

in Washington, D.C., the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

, and the Lincoln Center in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. For a selection of venues with these terms in their titles, see: * Centre for Performing Arts (disambiguation) * National Centre for the Performing Arts (disambiguation) * Performing Arts Center (disambiguation)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Performing Arts Center Educational buildings