Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center
Mort and Irma Handel
Overview:
The University of Hartford's Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center provides new performance spaces, rehearsal halls, teaching rooms, and studios for the internationally renowned Hartt School, alleviating significant space shortages in the school's existing building and providing state-of-the-art facilities for Hartt students and the community alike.
Dramatic Growth of an Outstanding School:
When the Fuller Music Center opened its doors in 1962, The Hartt School enrolled 250 college students and 1,000 Community Division students. Today, these figures have risen to 700 and 2,500, respectively, with added faculty and greatly expanded academic offerings. Hartt also hosts a schedule of more than 400 concerts, recitals, dance performances, plays, master classes, and musical theatre productions in the aging Fuller Center. The continued growth of the student body had forced the school to rent off-campus space.
The New Facility:
The University launched the first phase of its performing arts complex project on June 18, 2007, during a festive construction kickoff ceremony attended by more than 200 people. It was at the ceremony that President Walter Harrison announced that the main building would be named the Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center.
"Mort and Irma Handel have shared our vision for this project from the beginning. Their $1.5 million commitment -- the largest gift from individual donors to the performing arts center -- is just the latest chapter in their long history of support for the University of Hartford, The Hartt School, and the Hartford arts community," Harrison said. Mort Handel, chairman of the board of Marvel Entertainment, has been a trustee of The Hartt School and a regent of the University of Hartford since 1990. Irma Handel is a trustee of the Hartford Art School, Inc.
The Handel Performing Arts Center project has transformed the former Thomas Cadillac distributorship at the corner of Albany Avenue and Westbourne Parkway in Hartford into a vibrant center for performing arts education. The complex provides much-needed additional space for The Hartt School, while at the same time serving as an economic catalyst and cultural resource for Hartford's Upper Albany and Blue Hills neighborhoods. The full project will preserve the unique exterior character of the three buildings on the site, which were designed in 1929 by pioneering industrial architect Albert Kahn.
The main building -- the 55,000-square-foot Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center -- houses The Hartt School's Theatre and Dance Divisions as well as some additional community programs. It includes two black-box theatres, dance studios, classrooms, faculty offices, and space for community functions.
A Community Resource:
The Handel Performing Arts Center makes the Community Division more accessible to children and adults in Hartford. It draws people to the neighborhood and serves as an important catalyst for economic development. Hartford's Upper Albany Avenue is a richer cultural corridor, flanked on one end by the performing arts complex and on the other by The Artists Collective and its acclaimed community arts programs.
The Architects:
The nationally recognized firm of Smith Edwards Architects of Hartford is the lead architect for the project. Smith Edwards is collaborating with Howard Performance Architecture, LLC of New Orleans, designers of some of American's top performing arts facilities.
For More Information:
Contact Grant Smith at 860.768.2436 or gsmith@hartford.edu.
Mort and Irma Handel
The University of Hartford's Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center provides new performance spaces, rehearsal halls, teaching rooms, and studios for the internationally renowned Hartt School, alleviating significant space shortages in the school's existing building and providing state-of-the-art facilities for Hartt students and the community alike.
Dramatic Growth of an Outstanding School:
When the Fuller Music Center opened its doors in 1962, The Hartt School enrolled 250 college students and 1,000 Community Division students. Today, these figures have risen to 700 and 2,500, respectively, with added faculty and greatly expanded academic offerings. Hartt also hosts a schedule of more than 400 concerts, recitals, dance performances, plays, master classes, and musical theatre productions in the aging Fuller Center. The continued growth of the student body had forced the school to rent off-campus space.
The New Facility:
The University launched the first phase of its performing arts complex project on June 18, 2007, during a festive construction kickoff ceremony attended by more than 200 people. It was at the ceremony that President Walter Harrison announced that the main building would be named the Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center.
"Mort and Irma Handel have shared our vision for this project from the beginning. Their $1.5 million commitment -- the largest gift from individual donors to the performing arts center -- is just the latest chapter in their long history of support for the University of Hartford, The Hartt School, and the Hartford arts community," Harrison said. Mort Handel, chairman of the board of Marvel Entertainment, has been a trustee of The Hartt School and a regent of the University of Hartford since 1990. Irma Handel is a trustee of the Hartford Art School, Inc.
The Handel Performing Arts Center project has transformed the former Thomas Cadillac distributorship at the corner of Albany Avenue and Westbourne Parkway in Hartford into a vibrant center for performing arts education. The complex provides much-needed additional space for The Hartt School, while at the same time serving as an economic catalyst and cultural resource for Hartford's Upper Albany and Blue Hills neighborhoods. The full project will preserve the unique exterior character of the three buildings on the site, which were designed in 1929 by pioneering industrial architect Albert Kahn.
The main building -- the 55,000-square-foot Mort and Irma Handel Performing Arts Center -- houses The Hartt School's Theatre and Dance Divisions as well as some additional community programs. It includes two black-box theatres, dance studios, classrooms, faculty offices, and space for community functions.
A Community Resource:
The Handel Performing Arts Center makes the Community Division more accessible to children and adults in Hartford. It draws people to the neighborhood and serves as an important catalyst for economic development. Hartford's Upper Albany Avenue is a richer cultural corridor, flanked on one end by the performing arts complex and on the other by The Artists Collective and its acclaimed community arts programs.
The Architects:
The nationally recognized firm of Smith Edwards Architects of Hartford is the lead architect for the project. Smith Edwards is collaborating with Howard Performance Architecture, LLC of New Orleans, designers of some of American's top performing arts facilities.
For More Information:
Contact Grant Smith at 860.768.2436 or gsmith@hartford.edu.