The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts is a performance venue in downtown

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring ...

. Opened in 1988, it hosts over 200,000 patrons annually, and consists of three theaters: * Evangeline Atwood Concert Hall, with 2,000 seats, is designed for opera, symphonic, chamber and popular music presentations, as well as dance and Broadway musicals. * Discovery Theatre, with 700 seats, is suited for theatre, smaller-scale operas, dance, film and musical presentations. * Sydney Laurence Theatre (named for painter

Sydney Laurence Sydney Mortimer Laurence (1865–1940) was an American Romantic landscape painter and is widely considered one of Alaska's most important historical artists. Early life Sydney Mortimer Laurence was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied at th ...

), with 340 seats, is suited for theatre, film and chamber music. Resident companies include the

Anchorage Symphony Orchestra The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a professional symphony orchestra located in Anchorage, Alaska. Randall Craig Fleischer was the Music Director until his passing in 2020. Elizabeth Schulze is the current Artistic Advisor and Chief Conductor ...

, the

Anchorage Opera Anchorage Opera (AO) is a professional opera company located in Anchorage, Alaska and is a member of OPERA America. History Anchorage Opera was one of the first major performing arts institutions established by Americans in the Circumpolar North. ...

(Alaska's only professional opera company), the Alaska Dance Theatre, the Alaska Junior Theater, the Anchorage Concert Association (Alaska's largest Arts Promoter), Perseverance Theatre and the Anchorage Concert Chorus.

History

The block on which the AlaskaPAC sits was designated in the Anchorage townsite as the location of the city's public schools. When schools were built away from the townsite boundaries starting in the 1950s, largely through the creation of the Anchorage Independent School District and later the Greater Anchorage Area Borough, the existing school building on that block eventually became the City Hall annex and a community gymnasium. The

Auditorium, the ACPA's direct forerunner, was also on this block. The Laurence Auditorium was perhaps best known as the site of the

Prudhoe Bay Prudhoe Bay is a census-designated place (CDP) located in North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population of the CDP was 2,174 people, up from just five residents in the 2000 census; however, at any give ...

oil-lease sale in 1969, conducted by Alaska's state government under then-Governor

Keith Miller Keith Ross Miller (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent m ...

. Project 80s, started under Mayor George Sullivan and largely spearheaded by his successor, Tony Knowles, saw the replacement of those two buildings with the ACPA. Building the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts was perhaps the most controversial undertaking of Knowles's six-year tenure as mayor, largely due to the doubling of the original $35 million cost estimate before construction completed. Mayor Tom Fink, Knowles' successor, threatened to defund the center over cost overruns. The design of the building was criticized for lacking a drop-off area, and for entrances on the wrong side of one-way streets. Even the proposed name of the center invited controversy as voters overturned the Anchorage Assembly's decision to name the center after Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

References

External links

Alaska Center for the Performing Arts official website
{{coord, 61.21707, -149.894393, region:US_type:landmark, display=title Music venues completed in 1989 Buildings and structures in Anchorage, Alaska Concert halls in the United States Performing arts centers in Alaska Event venues established in 1989 Tourist attractions in Anchorage, Alaska 1989 establishments in Alaska

History

See also

References

External links