The Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta has undergone significant renovations, including the creation of the Goizueta Stage for Youth & Families. This new stage is designed to be flexible and accessible, with the goal of making the arts more welcoming to everyone.
The Renovation Process
The renovation process involved careful dismantling of the existing Rich Theatre and constructing a new, acoustically contained structure within the existing building. The new design includes a visible and welcoming entrance, as well as a network of spaces that reveal the production process, including a sensory room, sound porch, control room, and accessible catwalks.
The Goizueta Stage is built for flexibility, with every element being purposeful and some doing double duty. The theater can transform with ease, shifting from an end-stage performance to an in-the-round configuration and a flat-floor gala. An integrated electroacoustic system supports each of these arrangements, delivering optimal sound in every configuration.
Radical Love and the Arts
The new design is centered around the concept of radical love, which is described as a fierce commitment to making the arts a vital, shared inheritance for everyone. The Woodruff Arts Center is doubling down on this commitment through research, leadership in the Arts + Health Laboratory: Georgia’s NeuroArts Coalition, and sustained advocacy, including helping to advance legislation that leverages the arts to address mental health.
The impact of the renovations is not just in the structures created, but in what those structures make possible. The Goizueta Stage for Youth & Families is now home to thoughtfully curated programming by the Alliance Theatre and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, with the goal of improving lives through exposure to the arts, building a pipeline of talent, and cultivating future audiences.
Original reporting: SaportaReport — read the source article.