Hockaday Unveils New Arts Center
By Hannah Kirkpatrick & Selby Lopez
The Hockaday School opened the doors to its newest building, the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Center for the Arts, on Aug. 24.
The arts building, named after the co-owners of NorthPark Center, will feature 10 private-lesson teaching studios, a new set-design area, and a black-box theatre.
“We have brand new facilities for an entire litany of activities,” Dean of the Upper School Ed Long said. “There is quite a bit to the new facility.”
In order to create the ideal space for the curriculum and the students, the school involved faculty members closely in the design of the arts center.
“It was really about supporting the curriculum,” Susan Sanders-Rosenberg, Hockaday’s visual arts chair, said. “We now have a facility that meets the minds of our girls.”
Students are now attending classes in the arts center, after being relegated to portable classrooms since construction began in February 2015.
The first time the community can see the new facility in action will be at a community open house from 3-5 p.m. Oct. 16, which will feature student performers, classes, and a DJ.
Sanders-Rosenberg said the reception will allow the community to see how students use the new facility on a daily basis.
“It’s really a community space and people have been contributing to it for many years,” Sanders-Rosenberg said. “We wanted to open it up and invite everybody to come and experience it.”
She said faculty members are thankful for those who donated money for the construction of the new facility.
“We’re very excited. It’s a great gift that the donors and our supporters have given the school and the children,” Sanders-Rosenberg said. “It’s a game changer for us, it’s a really wonderful thing.”
