5 things to know about the new $23 million center for the arts at Queens University

The latest performing arts venue in the city sits in the middle of Queens University of Charlotte: the new Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement.

This week, Queens is unveiling the $23 million Gambrell Center, which replaces the 54-year-old E.H. Little Fine Arts Center and puts the university’s seven arts disciplines under one roof.

And with the unveiling, it’s curtain up on the newest theater in Charlotte: the 1,000 seat Sandra Levine Theater, which Broadway and TV actress Sutton Foster will inaugurate on Thursday night with the first in Queens’ new spotlight series of performances.

Here’s what you need to know about the new Gambrell Center, whose perch on the corner of Selwyn Avenue and Wellesley Avenue has long been considered the “front porch” of the campus:

Curves and views

The 1,000-seat Sandra Levine Theater has the same number of seats as the former Dana Auditorium, but has mezzanine and balcony levels in addition to the orchestra level. That way, audiences get a better view of the stage than they did in the long and sloped Dana Auditorium.

The curved walls are made of a wood veneer to enhance acoustics, and the blue cushioned seats are wider and roomier than the ones in the old hall.

The first two rows of seating at the foot of the stage can be hauled away and the floor under them dismantled to create a pit orchestra space that sinks four feet below the audience.

Even the green room has been renovated — it’s also big enough to serve as a 30-student classroom. A tiny performers holding room off the wings has been renovated to include soundproofing panels and a fluffy rug, so performers doing vocal warm-ups won’t be audible to audiences sitting just a few yards away.

More public performances

The theater’s renovation came with a purposeful shift in thinking by Queens leadership: the new theater should be a gathering place for both the university community and the city.

“Instead of just using this space for student and faculty recitals and renting it out to the community for dance recitals and such, we envisioned broader series of programming that we would offer both to the community and our students,” said Sarah Henley, director of the Gambrell Center.

Queens will host a “spotlight series” of four performances a year, as well as two exhibitions each year in the art galleries.

This spring’s schedule includes two major works in the Sandra Levine Theater: Opera Carolina and Queens University are partnering in bringing the one-act American comedy opera Scalia/Ginsburg on March 7 and 10. And in April, Queens Opera will present Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.

Raise the roof

The third floor was previously a giant storage attic (staff called it “the cages”), so contractors lifted the roof to create a usable third level for the school’s visual arts program.

There’s an open air terrace on the third floor with a “word wall” by Queens alum Amy Bagwell and Renee Cloud. The wall was inspired by a poem called “Citizen: An American Lyric,” which was written by Claudia Rankine, a Queens’ MFA faculty member.

Another highlight of the new third floor is a long hallway with windows overlooking the terrace. That sun-drenched hallway has a “crit space” wall that acts as a giant bulletin board, designed to post artwork for students and teachers to critique.

The project’s architects, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting of Charlotte, made use of the upper floor by giving all faculty offices skylights.

There’s local art too

Six free-standing large glass sculptures on loan from the Foundation for the Carolinas are on display as soon as you walk in the newly expanded front atrium of the Gambrell Center.

Look up, and there are two huge works by spray-paint muralist Nick Napoletano, created through discussions with Queens students about Charlotte’s struggles with upward mobility and racial inequality. Walk a little further into the lobby, and there are two works by renown North Carolina artist Ben Long, gifts of Betty and Walker Wells.

The back wall of the main lobby is the show-stopper, by Queens assistant professor of design Ivan Depeña: a lighted, multi-colored interactive wall that changes colors as you walk past.

The colors also change with loud sounds, which should be interesting during some of the more booming moments in stage productions. (The other side of that wall is the back side of the Sandra Levine Theater.)

2 new galleries

Just to the right and left of the main entrance are two new art galleries, which will display the works of professional artists and students.

The works currently on display are artist Molly Springfield’s exhibit called “The Marginalia Archive,” a look at the relationship between readers and texts through a collection of readers’ notes in the margins of books.

This fall, Bank of America will have pieces of its photography and portraiture collections on display.

This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 5:30 AM.