> Backgrounder: School for the Contemporary Arts: A cultural legacy
Backgrounder: School for the Contemporary Arts: A cultural legacy
Contacts:
Visual fly-through tour
- Michael Stevenson, President, 778.782.4641
- Warren Gill, Vice President, University Relations, 778.782.5005
- Chris Arnet, Senior Director, School for the Contemporary Arts Campaign, 778.782.5304
Visual fly-through tour
November 13, 2007
Funding announced today by the B.C. government will enable Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts to move into a new home in the former Woodward’s site in late 2009. Construction is well under way on the historic site (100-block West Hastings) in downtown Vancouver.
• The School for the Contemporary Arts has a 30-year track record as a national training school for interdisciplinary arts and offers degree programs in Art and Culture Studies, Dance, Film, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree.
• The School will be at the centre of Vancouver's lively art and cultural scene and a magnet for visitors from across the country and around the world.
• The presence of the School has helped create a housing market confidence that sold out the residential component of the Woodward’s development in one day.
• The School is designed to welcome more than 5,000 arts enthusiasts to music, film, theatre, dance and visual arts events throughout a year.
The facility of 125,000 sq. ft. (over 11,000 sq. metres) will include:
• An experimental performance theatre which can accommodate staging configurations ranging from proscenium to arena and which can house audiences up to a maximum of 350 depending upon the size of performance area and the seating arrangement chosen. This space can be subdivided to create a separate 125-seat performance space or to allow building or rehearsals without interfering with the mainstage space. The full area of the floor will be sprung for dance or physical theatre.
• Two studio theatres capable of seating an audience of 125, one of which is optimized for dance, the other for theatre performance, but both of which could serve well for either form or for a variety of alternate performance forms.
• The World Art Performance Studio will house the School's Indonesian gamelan orchestra and have a décor to match - somewhat warmer and less neutral than the studio theatres. This space will be the home of several public performance series such as music, world music, world dance, and shadow puppet theatre.
• A 350-seat cinema/lecture hall equipped to screen feature films and house lectures, panel discussions and large classes at SFU Vancouver.
• A teaching gallery on the ground floor to accommodate contemporary visual arts exhibitions, either in the street windows or in all or part of the room. There are six moving wall panels that can be arranged as display walls or which can be used to partition the gallery into three parts.
The facility will house the majority of the teaching and administrative functions of the School for the Contemporary Arts. Other teaching and research facilities include:
• A film soundstage with acoustic isolation for the shooting of interior sequences, a film classroom and two 25-seat screening rooms.
• Three additional dance studios, each slightly different in character and optimized for different dance forms.
• Two additional theatre studios with sprung floors for movement training.
• A principal music teaching studio to complement the World Art Studio as well as smaller studios and practice rooms for teaching and studio work in acoustic and electronic music.
• Two visual art and interdisciplinary studios.
• A two-level multidisciplinary complex incorporating two computer teaching labs and numerous smaller computer-based editing and composing suites for film, video, graphics and design, electro-acoustic music as well as several traditional film editing suites.
Interaction with students and the community:
• The School for the Contemporary Arts produces approximately 100 performances, exhibitions and public events each year.
• People entering the building on a given day:
Experimental Theatre – 350
Cinema - 350
World Art - 150
Studio T - 100
Studio D - 100
Total 1050
• Students attending classes – 1500+ per day
• In addition to School for the Contemporary Arts and SFU productions/events, the venues will offer other programming, both produced in co-operation with SFU and on a rental basis.
This sustainable building has high environmental standards including:
• Extensive Green roofs throughout the site
• Significant recycled content and local sourcing for material selection
• Entire site is utilizing the existing Beatty Steam plant, converting steam to hot water radiant heating
• The structure is built to last for more than 100 years (most buildings now have a 30-50 year life expectancy)
See the visual fly-through video:
http://cgi.sfu.ca/~scahome/?q=woodwards_gallery
• The School for the Contemporary Arts has a 30-year track record as a national training school for interdisciplinary arts and offers degree programs in Art and Culture Studies, Dance, Film, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree.
• The School will be at the centre of Vancouver's lively art and cultural scene and a magnet for visitors from across the country and around the world.
• The presence of the School has helped create a housing market confidence that sold out the residential component of the Woodward’s development in one day.
• The School is designed to welcome more than 5,000 arts enthusiasts to music, film, theatre, dance and visual arts events throughout a year.
The facility of 125,000 sq. ft. (over 11,000 sq. metres) will include:
• An experimental performance theatre which can accommodate staging configurations ranging from proscenium to arena and which can house audiences up to a maximum of 350 depending upon the size of performance area and the seating arrangement chosen. This space can be subdivided to create a separate 125-seat performance space or to allow building or rehearsals without interfering with the mainstage space. The full area of the floor will be sprung for dance or physical theatre.
• Two studio theatres capable of seating an audience of 125, one of which is optimized for dance, the other for theatre performance, but both of which could serve well for either form or for a variety of alternate performance forms.
• The World Art Performance Studio will house the School's Indonesian gamelan orchestra and have a décor to match - somewhat warmer and less neutral than the studio theatres. This space will be the home of several public performance series such as music, world music, world dance, and shadow puppet theatre.
• A 350-seat cinema/lecture hall equipped to screen feature films and house lectures, panel discussions and large classes at SFU Vancouver.
• A teaching gallery on the ground floor to accommodate contemporary visual arts exhibitions, either in the street windows or in all or part of the room. There are six moving wall panels that can be arranged as display walls or which can be used to partition the gallery into three parts.
The facility will house the majority of the teaching and administrative functions of the School for the Contemporary Arts. Other teaching and research facilities include:
• A film soundstage with acoustic isolation for the shooting of interior sequences, a film classroom and two 25-seat screening rooms.
• Three additional dance studios, each slightly different in character and optimized for different dance forms.
• Two additional theatre studios with sprung floors for movement training.
• A principal music teaching studio to complement the World Art Studio as well as smaller studios and practice rooms for teaching and studio work in acoustic and electronic music.
• Two visual art and interdisciplinary studios.
• A two-level multidisciplinary complex incorporating two computer teaching labs and numerous smaller computer-based editing and composing suites for film, video, graphics and design, electro-acoustic music as well as several traditional film editing suites.
Interaction with students and the community:
• The School for the Contemporary Arts produces approximately 100 performances, exhibitions and public events each year.
• People entering the building on a given day:
Experimental Theatre – 350
Cinema - 350
World Art - 150
Studio T - 100
Studio D - 100
Total 1050
• Students attending classes – 1500+ per day
• In addition to School for the Contemporary Arts and SFU productions/events, the venues will offer other programming, both produced in co-operation with SFU and on a rental basis.
This sustainable building has high environmental standards including:
• Extensive Green roofs throughout the site
• Significant recycled content and local sourcing for material selection
• Entire site is utilizing the existing Beatty Steam plant, converting steam to hot water radiant heating
• The structure is built to last for more than 100 years (most buildings now have a 30-50 year life expectancy)
See the visual fly-through video:
http://cgi.sfu.ca/~scahome/?q=woodwards_gallery