PHOTO BY DAVID BLANCHETTE
The foyer of the UIS Performing Arts Heart, which can shut for 15 months starting in June 2025.
Sangamon Auditorium and the UIS Studio Theatre, housed inside College of Illinois Springfield’s Public Affairs Heart constructing, will quickly shut beginning in June 2025 for an intensive, state-funded, 15-month plumbing enchancment mission that can tackle ongoing points with the ability’s 50-year-old infrastructure. Plans name for the auditorium and theatre to reopen following the completion of the mission in September 2026.
The UIS Performing Arts Heart will stay totally operational between now and June, and scheduled occasions and performances by way of Could 2025 will proceed as deliberate. Most of the native arts and teaching programs by way of the Performing Arts Heart will proceed whereas the Sangamon Auditorium and UIS Studio Theatre are closed for the mission.
“We perceive the numerous position these venues play in our group’s cultural and leisure life,” stated Bryan Rives, director of the UIS Performing Arts Heart. “This choice was not made calmly, however it’s a essential funding. We’re dedicated to making sure that when Sangamon Auditorium and the UIS Studio Theatre reopen, we could have an excellent season of high quality occasions for our group to take pleasure in.”
The Illinois Capital Improvement Board, which manages all state-funded, non-road development initiatives, will consider bids for the estimated $5.7 million mission, with a profitable bidder to be introduced in early 2025. Bob Mitchell, the UIS director of development, stated the intensive nature of the mission is what prompted the 15-month closure of the auditorium and theater.
“The scope of the mission is to interchange each line to and from each consuming fountain, sink, bathroom and drain,” Mitchell stated. “That’s 5 tales of loos, together with the plumbing backstage and within the auditorium dressing rooms, plus the outdated restaurant areas. Quite a lot of the concrete slab flooring might be jackhammered to entry the pipes. In an effort to set the contractors up for achievement, we have to give them a piece house the place they’re not anxious about most of the people coming by way of.”
Mitchell stated the unique 50-year-old pipes within the constructing have just lately been displaying their age.
“The forged iron pipes are previous their service life and we’ve had a number of vital failures, leaks and blockages,” Mitchell stated. “This mission will be sure that the Performing Arts Heart can proceed to function safely for an additional 50 years.”
A recently-completed, $435,000 development mission changed the getting older roof system on the Public Affairs Heart. Henson Robinson Firm of Springfield was the profitable bidder, and that work took care of a roof that “was previous its service life and leaked each time it rained, plus it flopped up and down within the wind,” Mitchell stated. He added that extra, unspecified initiatives could also be requested sooner or later to handle the constructing’s infrastructure wants.
Sarah Brewer, the UIS director of improvement, assured Mates of UIS Performing Arts Heart in a latest communication that “whereas this work is underway, we’re exploring the distinctive alternative this pause in operations creates to discover different potential initiatives that would considerably improve Sangamon Auditorium,” she stated. “Moreover, we’re exploring alternatives to create distinctive and memorable experiences only for our donors… Throughout this time, our focus will shift extra to our schooling and outreach applications and far wanted facility cleansing/upkeep.”
Brewer assured donors that the college is “getting ready for a robust reopening for the 2026–2027 season. Within the meantime, we now have a full and thrilling lineup of occasions deliberate for this winter and spring,” she stated.
The Illinois Symphony Orchestra, which often presents its concert events within the Performing Arts Heart, is planning to adapt its schedule as a result of mission.
“We’re presently figuring out a efficiency venue in Springfield that can accommodate our audiences, inventive wants and schedule for the upcoming 2025-2026 season,” stated ISO govt director Trevor Orthmann. “Music director Taichi Fukumura and I’ve visited a number of venues into account, and we goal to announce all our venues for our 2025-2026 season inside the subsequent two months.”
The UIS Performing Arts Heart web site’s house request part advises potential customers that “Brookens Auditorium and the third-floor atrium will nonetheless be open, although noise ranges could also be unpredictable because of development. We perceive that this may occasionally trigger inconvenience and disruption to your plans, and we sincerely apologize for any influence this may occasionally have in your scheduling.”
Rives, the Performing Arts Heart director, stated how the college will take up the lack of occasion ticket gross sales income throughout development “remains to be being sorted out.” In the meantime, UIS Chancellor Janet Gooch inspired the general public to be understanding and affected person in the course of the mission.
“We acknowledge that the closure of those two main venues could have a big influence on the native organizations that decision it house,” Gooch stated. “We wish to thank our group, patrons and companions for his or her understanding and assist in the course of the development.”
The UIS Performing Arts Heart hosts Broadway productions, concert events, comedy, performs, lectures and group occasions.
