Facilities

Bowdoin has a deep and historic commitment to the role of the arts in a liberal education, which is supported by state-of-the-art facilities and numerous opportunities for participation.

Studio in Edwards Center for Art and Dance

The Department of Theater and Dance manages Pickard and Wish Theaters, five rehearsal and dance studios, a performance lab, and seminar rooms.

Virtual Tour: Arts at Bowdoin

A 600-seat proscenium theater in Memorial Hall.

Picard from stage

Wish Theater is an experimental black box performance space.

Two story glass lobby connecting Memorial Hall and Wish Theater used for post-show talks and receptions and occasionally performance.

Above: Troika Ranch performing in the Drake Lobby in April 2011 - The collaborative vision of artists Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello. Established in 1994, and maintaining a troika of home bases in Portland, Oregon, New York City and Berlin, Germany, Troika Ranch produces live performances, interactive installations, and digital films, all of which combine traditional aspects of these forms with advanced technologies. The artists’ mission in producing this wide range of art experiences is to create artwork that best reflects and engages contemporary society.

The Robert H. and Blythe Bickel Edwards Center for Art and Dance, named for Bowdoin’s 13th president and his wife, opened in late August 2013 as the new home for visual art and dance at the College.

Located at the site of the former Longfellow Elementary School, the Edwards Center will provide space for modern art studios, classrooms, critique space, and student exhibitions in the visual arts and dance, including a state-of-the art digital media lab. The single location will, for the first time, enable faculty and students engaged in dance, painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, architecture, printmaking, woodworking, and digital media and design to work together under a single roof, creating a cohesive arts community and numerous new opportunities for artistic synergy.

Until now, the visual arts and dance have been scattered across campus and throughout the town of Brunswick. A $6.5 million renovation and an interior expansion of the 38,129 square foot school building (by creating a two-story space in the former gymnasium) will result in a facility of nearly 45,000 square feet that will consolidate in one location visual arts and dance programs now housed in six different locations.

Sargent Dance Studio (located in Sargent Gymnasium) contains a sprung marley floor, high ceilings, and natural light. It is available for all students to sign out for use.