Calvin and Janet High Center for Worship and Performing Arts
The construction of a worship and performing arts center has been a long-awaited dream of campus leaders and faculty members. The exponential growth experienced by Messiah College’s School of the Arts, coupled with lack of appropriate space for chapels and worship opportunities for our students, transform this project from a dream to a necessity.
A new performing arts center will provide much needed and dedicated space for both our theatre and musical arts programming, including an expanded performing arts venue with seating for 825, along with a choir loft seating 140-160, to be used for concerts, public lectures, and chapels. Students of the arts will benefit from having acoustically sound space in which to practice and perform in front of fellow students, faculty, parents, and community members. The facility will augment an already strong campus worship experience and will expose students, faculty, and the greater community to an array of performances by gifted artists.
Messiah seeks to fully embrace the ideals of hospitality and community by using this new performing arts expansion to enhance both on-campus and off-campus connections with the arts. Moreover, the College will invite the greater Harrisburg community to interact with the campus through the integration of learning and the arts that is core to a rigorous academic experience.
"The privilege and honor of being able to worship the Lord and to share with other students my passion for worship is what I love about Messiah. My first year was a bit difficult, but I learned God can transform me through the talents he has given me and the people who surround me. Now, I love my major. I love the worship community and the other organizations I'm involved with. I feel I hve found my passion and I'm accomplishing what the Lord brought me here to do."
—Ruth Lopez '12
Spanish/Education Major, ESL and Psychology minor
Convergencia Spanish Theatre Group