{"id":10488,"date":"2019-02-28T20:56:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T01:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=10488"},"modified":"2019-02-28T20:56:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T01:56:05","slug":"american-repertory-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/02\/28\/american-repertory-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Harvard\u2019s American Repertory Theater Leaving Cambridge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A $100 million donation “will enable Harvard to imagine a 21st-century research and performance center in Allston,\u201d the Cambridge university announced<\/a> today, making it \u201cpossible to reimagine the university\u2019s arts campus and envision a future home for the American Repertory Theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ART was founded in 1980 and has been programming the Loeb Drama Center, built in 1960 at 64 Brattle St. in Harvard Square. \u201cThe ART will continue to produce work at the Loeb for several years while plans develop,\u201d the university\u2019s announcement said. The announcement makes no mention of Oberon, ART’s second stage and “destination for theater and nightlife” at 2 Arrow St.<\/p>\n

The donation comes from David and Stacey Goel. <\/p>\n

Harvard officials were unavailable to answer questions about their announcement today. “We\u2019ll respond tomorrow as soon as we\u2019re able,” school spokesperson Chris Hennessy wrote via email.<\/p>\n

The facility proposed for Boston’s Allston neighborhood would be adjacent to the athletic facilities on North Harvard Street, the university said. It will be \u201ca center for the arts at the nucleus of Harvard\u2019s expanding campus,\u201d Mr. Goel, co-founder and managing general partner of Waltham-based Matrix Capital Management Company LP, said in the announcement. He described it as \u201ca versatile theater space that can be reshaped as appropriate to express and share the abundant ideas originated by the college, the American Repertory Theater, and Harvard\u2019s community already at home in Allston.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding on the ART\u2019s reputation as a world-class producing theater, a new center in Allston will also expand the opportunities for collaboration with Harvard undergraduates and artists from our surrounding community and around the world,\u201d Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay said in a prepared statement. <\/p>\n

The Goels\u2019 donation signals the school\u2019s \u201ceffort to fund a state-of-the-art research and performance center in Allston,\u201d the announcement said. \u201cAllston will be home to one of the nation\u2019s great incubators of creativity,\u201d Harvard President Larry Bacow said in the announcement. \u201cThe university will continue to assess its design, fundraising, and planning needs in the coming months,\u201d the announcement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vision for a new research and performance center will reflect the ART\u2019s core commitments to artistic excellence, rigorous pedagogy, civic leadership, global engagement, inquiry, and inclusion,\u201d ART artistic director Diane Paulus said in a prepared statement. \u201cWe are excited by the transformative possibilities that come with the Goels\u2019 astoundingly generous gift. It will allow us to envision a sustainably designed center that encourages creative risk-taking in open, democratic spaces that will feel welcoming and porous to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Goels\u2019 gift, the university said, “also will support arts programs throughout the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, including new university uses for the Loeb Drama Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A $100 million donation “will enable Harvard to imagine a 21st-century research and performance center in Allston,\u201d the Cambridge university announced today, making it \u201cpossible to reimagine the university\u2019s arts campus and envision a future home for the American Repertory Theater.\u201d The ART was founded in 1980 and has been programming the Loeb Drama Center, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[455,42,525,68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10488"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10501,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488\/revisions\/10501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}