New UTPA Performing Arts Complex Gets Finishing Touches

The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) prepared for the grand opening of their new performing arts center while the construction crew continued to add the finishing touches. The $32 million, 60,000-square-foot project includes an auditorium with 1,000 seats, and the UTPA officials hoped to fill each one for the ceremony.

The facility contains strategically placed wood slats stretched across the walls and specific seat cushions and curtains for acoustics. The Valley Morning Star news quoted Marta Salinas-Hovar, associate vice president for facilities, planning and operations at UT-Rio Grande Valley “Nearly every consideration was to amplify and control sound.”

The features were put to good use when more than two dozen trumpeters, the UTPA choir, and a symphony orchestra took to the stage at the new performing arts center, along with the UTPA Folklorico dancers and award-winning Mariachi Aztlán. The new complex will have the capability to reach an even larger audience after UTPA combines with UT-Brownsville to form UT Rio Grande Valley. UTPA Dean of College of Arts and Humanities Dahlia Guerra said “It will be the heart of the performing and fine arts in the Rio Grande Valley.”

The Page-designed complex was part of a $42.7 million project approved by the UT System Board of Regents in 2011, which included renovations to two fine arts buildings, faculty offices, classrooms, dressing rooms, and four rehearsal halls. You can read more information on the UTPA Performing Arts Center project page.

The full article can be read on the Valley Morning Star website. A similar article was also written by Your Valley Voice.

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