The Darcy Rice Center for the Arts is continuously buzzing with campus activity throughout the school year. Within the Arts at St. Margaret’s, there are classes throughout the day in theater, choral, band, orchestra, dance and technical arts. After school brings rehearsals, the extended day dance conservatory, private practices, and performances and productions throughout the year including musicals, plays, concerts, film festivals and more.

 

Even outside of the arts, the building is always in demand. Class meetings, convocation, special events, PTF gatherings and more keep the calendar full while requiring the facility be flexible for a wide range of uses.

 

After 12 years as a campus centerpiece, the Darcy Rice Center for the Arts received its first major upgrade this summer. After the early June completion of Innovation Stage, a Summer at St. Margaret’s program, the Center was closed for the next six weeks as a significant upgrade to the audio-visual system throughout the entire building was implemented ahead of the 2024-2025 school year.

 

The project was led by the enterprise technology department, including Director of Enterprise Technology Nikki Imai and AV/Tech Support Specialist Eleury Sanchez, working in collaboration with the performing arts department led by Director of Performing Arts Dan Pacheco.

 

“The Darcy Rice Center for the Arts is extraordinary, and more than a decade after its opening it remains a best-in-class facility for arts education and performing arts productions,” Head of School Dr. Jeneen Graham said. “The building still feels new, yet we also recognize that technology has rapidly advanced and the needs of our school community have evolved as well. This investment in the Center’s audio and visual capabilities will ensure that it remains second-to-none as a learning environment for our students well into the future. We could not be more excited.”

 

What most students and visitors will notice first is a major improvement in the building’s sound quality. The facility was upgraded with a brand new high-quality Meyer Sound system powered by a Galaxy processor, allowing for a top-notch audio experience from anywhere in the facility with user-friendly controls.

 

Both Hurlbut Theater and McGregor Family Theater were upgraded, as well as the Cloobeck Family Atrium and each of the classroom spaces dedicated to band, orchestra, choral and dance.

 

In addition, the classrooms and all of the spaces in the Darcy Rice Center for the Arts had their high-definition television screens upgraded in quality and connectivity—30 screens in all. Teachers can seamlessly connect and control the screens via laptops or through touch-screen panels installed in each classroom. The building’s video system was upgraded to a network-based matrix system by QSC. Now video can be broadcast to locations elsewhere within the Center in real time, such as a view from inside Hurlbut Theater to a dressing room--which will help performers off stage better follow the productions and their cues, for example. 

 

The project took nearly two years of planning, and an ambitious installation schedule ensured that the Darcy Rice Center for the Arts was open and ready for the first day of school in August.

 

“So many people on campus put time and energy into this project,” Ms. Imai said. “The IT department set aside hours and hours to make sure everything was compatible and worked well with existing systems. Our arts department dedicated time to make sure that we knew what they needed in the classroom and in the theaters. We also want to thank the rest of the community for adjusting to an entire summer of installation so that we could start the school year off right.”

 

The 45,000-square-foot facility includes Hurlbut Theater, McGregor Family Theater, the Cloobeck Family Atrium, three music teaching rooms, a dance studio, 11 private practice rooms and more. It opened in 2012 as the Performing Arts Center with significant input from the arts department in the building’s design, acoustics, classroom specifications and more. The Nicholas family, who provided the foundational gift for project, named the building in honor of former Director of the Arts Darcy Rice after his retirement in 2022. 

 

With the upgraded audio and visual systems, the Darcy Rice Center for the Arts is poised to continue being a leading educational arts facility well into the future.

 

“We are so excited for students and audiences to experience this upgrade,” Mr. Pacheco said. “You’re going to hear it, and you’re going to feel it.”