Transforming the Center for the Living Arts
The skills developed through the arts are essential to education, and critical to success and fulfillment throughout a well-lived life of impact. Westtown’s Visual and Performing Arts program cultivates a new generation of artists who lead with creativity, empathy, and collaboration. Through music, drama, visual arts, and dance, our students are encouraged to explore the world through creative expression, fostering skills in innovation and risk-taking. With the completion of the Center for the Living Arts, we will create a state-of-the-art, inspiring environment that nurtures the creative process and celebrates student artistic exploration and growth in the arts.
The CLA is a hub of energy at the center of our campus. It is a place where students from all three divisions come together to learn, celebrate, and explore. The renovation of spaces— well-loved by generations of Westtonians—and the creation of new areas to gather and share, will shine new light onto this program and make the arts more accessible to all.
Thanks to early leadership giving, Phase One of the renovation was completed in 2019 and includes revitalized rehearsal spaces for instrumental and choral music, renewed bright and airy visual arts classrooms, a new digital music and studio production lab, vibrant green room and dressing rooms, as well as state-of-the-art soundproof music practice pods for individual and small group instrument study.
Phase Two focused on the Barton-Test Theater and includes acoustic remediation in the theater, aesthetic upgrades to the proscenium and surround, HVAC installation to allow for proper instrument tuning and maintained relative humidity, modernized and spacious restrooms that also address accessibility challenges, new lighting and sound board equipment, as well as safe catwalk that allows students to participate in technical aspects of theater work.
Phase Three will tie together the entire Center—performing and visual arts—by means of an exciting addition comprising an exhibition gallery, flexible gathering space with views to the South Woods, a visual arts wing in which students may collaborate on their creative process, and an inviting outdoor commons. Phase Three will also include critical modifications for accessibility, an aesthetic upgrade of the building’s façade, and landscaping that takes advantage of one of the most beautiful vistas on the Westtown campus.
For general inquiries, please contact Dean of Advancement Ellen Urbanski at ellen.urbanski@westtown.edu
