Editor’s Note: The Community News Brief and Tri States Public Radio, and special guests, were recently invited on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Goldfarb Performing Arts Center at Western Illinois University. Facilities Management Deputy Director Ted Renner and Center Director Anne Lefter provided an in-depth look at the construction done to date.
The spotlight at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter for the new Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts (GCPA) on the Western Illinois University Macomb campus.
Construction began on the accessible 100,000-square-foot building in September 2022, and now, almost four years later, the building is on track to open in 2026, according to GCPA Director Anne Lefter. In the coming months, it’s all about finishing work, explained Facilities Management Deputy Director Ted Renner, who has been a part of the construction project even before the official groundbreaking took place three years ago. For Renner, the end of the project is bittersweet in more ways than one, as he will not see the final run to completion because he has accepted a job with the Illinois Capital Development Board and is set to begin Dec. 1.
“We’ll have substantial completion done by March, which means maintenance and others will be trained on the building operations, furniture will be moved in and we’ll start seeing some limited activity in the building,” he said. “The final completion will be in June, with the summer spent getting ready for the Fall 2026 semester.”
Lefter said the Capital Development Board, which provided funding for the facility, will host a dedication in Summer 2026 when the building is complete. Lefter, the College of Fine Arts and Communication and center staff are planning a major event when the fall semester begins to celebrate the opening of the Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts.
The contemporary structure includes several classrooms, offices, practice rooms, studios and performance spaces. The Great Hall, an 869-seat Proscenium Theatre, will provide an ultramodern performance space for music, theatre and dance productions as well as regional and national touring performances, while the smaller Black Box theatre will provide a more intimate space for campus productions. It was during the tour that Renner and Lefter saw the Great Hall for the first time without all the scaffolding in place to get a real glimpse at the expanse of the large theatre.
“My heart stopped seeing this space without the scaffolding,” Lefter said. “It’s such an amazing space that was so mindfully put together.”
Renner echoed his colleague’s awe, noting he was at a “loss for words,” and seeing it without the scaffolding really “made it real. It’s amazing to see.”
River City Construction, LLC, of Peoria, IL, has served as the general contractor for the $119 million center, with Cannon Design, Inc. as the architect-of-record overseeing construction and Pelli Clarke Pelli serving as the architectural design firm. The GCPA, which is part of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital plan, has been the number one priority on Western’s capital development list since 2006 and has been in some form of planning and/ or discussion since December 1972.
“For so long, the GCPA felt like a vision for the distant future. Seeing it come to life has been incredibly rewarding,” said COFAC Interim Dean Rick Kurasz. “We are thrilled to share this new space with WIU and the west central Illinois communities, and we hope they are just as excited as we are.”
During the tour, Lefter and Renner pointed out the various spaces, their uses and intentions, the design work and more. The pride and enthusiasm as they shared what has been done thus far was evident, from the drop-off in front of the building, which will be a “cut out” as to not impede traffic on Western Avenue, to the main Epperson Lobby gallery walk to the classrooms and lab spaces to the performance studios and theatres to the behind-the-scenes nooks and crannies. The duo, who have worked together since Lefter was hired as director of the center in May 2024, can tell you exactly what goes where and the purpose of each space within the building. For example, the “intimate” 200-seat “Black Box” theatre, which is almost directly near the front west entrance, is almost like a theatrical Rubik’s Cube.
“This studio theatre is the main ‘academic’ theatre for the theatre program. It can be designed any which way for events, with the stage, the seating, the lighting all designed to be moved around to fit the needs of the class or performance,” Lefter said. “It’s a tremendously tricked-out space that can be set up any way the programs want.”
The Black Box, aka studio theatre, like The Great Hall theatre, has its own dressing rooms, green room and sound booth. To serve all the performance spaces, a doorway will connect the GCPA to Browne Hall and Hainline Theatre, which will continue to house the scene and costume shops. A feature throughout almost the entire building is ramps, along with an elevator in the center, to ensure accessibility.
The building also has traditional classroom spaces throughout, as well as rehearsal and lab spaces for fine arts academic programs and “modest” office spaces, Renner said. The north wing of the building will house most of the theatre program. WIU’s Past Alumni Council Presidents raised the funds to name Lefter’s favorite room: the Theatre Rehearsal room. This particular room is her favorite, she explained, because of the paint color: “mystic grape.”
“The window wall (on the west side of the center overlooking Western Avenue) really invites the community into this space as anyone passing by will be able to see the work going on in this room,” Lefter explained. “The entire building will be in use 12+ hours a day, nearly every day. Art will always be made here.”
The southern-most wing will house music and dance programs, as well as some additional theatre programs. This will be the first time that Western’s dance program, which has been housed in Brophy Hall on the far north side of campus – more than a hop, skip and a leap from Browne Hall and the other fine arts programs – will be a true part of its companion academic programs in the arts, Renner noted. The space will feature three dance studios that will be used for classrooms, rehearsals and performances.
While all the rooms will be decked out with the latest technology and accoutrements to make the most of the learning and performance spaces, the star of the show is the nearly 870-seat Great Hall. Lefter and Renner both pointed out the “amazing acoustics” of the main performance theatre, which includes a hydraulic-lift orchestra pit that is like an “Elevator Transformer” in that it can go from an orchestra pit to additional seating to a larger stage; “starlight” LED lighting; a state-of-the-art sound booth and more. Kirkegaard, headquartered in Chicago and considered to be the best acoustics firm in the country according to Lefter, was hired by the CBD to provide the acoustics in the Great Hall and throughout the center.
“Kirkegaard has engineered the entire building to ensure the sound does not travel to other spaces, so when we have a performance in the Great Hall and a performance in the Black Box Theatre, the sound will not interfere with what else is taking place in the building,” she explained. “There are so many little details within these walls that we can’t see but that make a huge difference in these spaces.”
While the Past Alumni Council’s room on the west side is Lefter’s favorite, Renner’s is what’s known as the Jazz 1 room on the building’s east side. The room has another window wall, which faces the Arts Quad (Simpkins and the COFAC Recital Hall), as well as other parts of the campus’ southeast side.
“All of our contractors and the firms we’ve worked with to make this happen have been incredible, to every last detail,” Renner noted. “We just cannot say enough about River City Construction, LLC, and how awesome they have been. We couldn’t have asked for a better general contractor.”
While Browne Hall and Hainline Theatre within Browne have served COFAC well for many, many years, the building and its theatre will continue to provide vital space for the college, its faculty, staff and students. Space will be renovated in Browne’s basement, which has been funded by a donor, for continued practice spaces for students, and performances will still take place in Hainline, Lefter stressed. In addition, the Simpkins Hall Theatre will also be available for small theatrical performances.
“Every week we come in, something else is done. It’s so cool to see everything,” Renner and Lefter concluded. “All the work we’ve done, to see it now, it’s a true realization of the space. We’ve had so many great surprises today on this tour. It’s like Christmas morning.”
The Men Behind the Center
When the official groundbreaking was held in Fall 2022, the building was known as the Center for Performing Arts; however, almost two years after construction began, the building got a new name to honor the man who brought the center back to life and whose career has been dedicated to theatre. In June 2024, the WIU Board of Trustees voted unanimously to rename the CPA as the Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts (GCPA) in honor of WIU President Emeritus Al Goldfarb. He began his career as a theatre professor, and even when he moved into administration, he continued to teach theatre classes, including during his tenure as president at WIU.
According to the late COFAC Dean Billy Clow, who was instrumental (and persistent) in getting the project off the ground (literally), the Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts finally came to be during Goldfarb’s tenure as WIU’s president after a decades-long hiatus. Through his leadership, the Illinois Board of Higher Education first recommended funding for the construction of the Center for Performing Arts in 2002, and two groundbreakings were actually held, yet the construction stalled again until Fall 2022.
Goldfarb and his wife, Elaine, also made a major gift commitment: the Alvin Goldfarb Endowment for Performing Arts Excellence, which supports the new Master of Fine Arts in Arts Leadership graduate program, as well as artistic programming for the Goldfarb Center through scholarships, artist fees and other direct expenses. He has also established a planned gift with the WIU Foundation, furthering the future success of the Goldfarb Center by donating 50 percent of the royalties from the sales of three theatre history textbooks. Goldfarb retired in June 2011, after serving 10 years as president.
“As the building has taken physical shape, it clearly shows what an impressive monument the Goldfarb Center really will be. It embodies hope and the future and the importance of the arts in a community like Macomb and the hope of our region, as we move to integrate professional entertainment with the best of the best in academic programs,” Clow said in a March 2025 interview with The Community News Brief. “ Music and theatre and dance provide academic, life, and career training opportunities for our students now and future. The arts matter and make a difference in the quality of our lives. Offering a dynamic space where artists, students and community intersect, this will be a transformative space, ensuring that now more than ever, our students will go forth, workforce-ready, with degrees in their chosen fields, having trained in the Goldfarb Center. As for the first performance in the new center … we have some great ideas. Stay tuned.”
Tammy Killian, Clow’s widow, chair of the WIU Department of Theatre and Dance and interim associate dean in the College of Fine Arts and Communication, said as the opening draws closer, the energy and anticipation on campus have become increasingly palpable. She added students are not only enthusiastic, but also deeply curious about the creative possibilities that await them in the Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts.
“One of the aspects I value most in recruitment is the opportunity to highlight the strong community and culture our program has cultivated; however, even these defining features are now eclipsed by my excitement surrounding the Goldfarb’s debut,” Killian shared. “I am mindful, too, of Billy’s enduring influence on this milestone. It is easy to imagine him smiling down on us. He is delighted and, I hope, proud of the immense effort he invested to bring this vision to fruition. Quite simply, without his commitment and perseverance, we would still be gazing out at a parking lot rather than preparing to open the doors to a transformative new space.”
Bookmark wiu.edu/cofac/ gcpa for continued construction progress, photos, announcements and more.
