School district is ‘excited’ for the new 1,000 seat performing space
After about 10 months of construction, the Gilmer County Schools (GCS) Performing Arts Center is nearing completion, Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley said.
“We’re hoping it’s going to be a really good impact.”
The main shell of the building will likely be done sometime in October, he said.
When it’s done, the new building will be a major upgrade to the community’s stage productions.
It will have a 1,000-seat auditorium capable of hosting a number of large productions, along with “state-of-the-art facilities,” said Ridley.
Band, chorus and drama groups will all be able to use the center’s facilities for performances.
It will also have a nutrition and wellness lab that will host a kitchen.
The center will have 55,000 square feet of performing arts space, with 5,000 for the band.
These dimensions represent a major upgrade on the previous school spaces for performing arts, Ridley said.
“It’s all part of the Gilmer College and Career Academy.”
The old band room will be partially converted into a certified nursing assistant lab, and the old choir room will be converted into an audio-visual technology lab, he said.
For the community, the Performing Arts Center will offer a venue for large events.
“There just aren’t a lot of places around here where you can host events that accommodate 1,000 people,” Ridley said.
The center is set up to connect with GCS’s sports broadcasting systems so the district can broadcast theater events.
The construction has gone well enough so far that the district expects the building will be at or under budget.
Although the Performing Arts Center has taken a long time to build, architects and school leaders have used the time to plan something lasting.
“The board really challenged me and our architects to do some incredible things with it,” Ridley said.
The center is budgeted to cost a little over $24 million.
“It’s going to have a lot of different uses. It’s going to be a real net gain for the community,” he said.