Forman School opens performing arts center

LITCHFIELD » A dream 10 years in the making came true on the campus of Forman School with the opening of the $11 million Visual and Performing Arts Center.

Students, parents, faculty, staff, and trustees, as well as people from various companies involved in the construction of the building, gathered for a ribboncutting ceremony on Sept. 9 under sunny, blue skies

The Visual and Performing Arts Center is a 24,000foot state-of-the-art facility. In addition to the 300-seat Jake Cloobeck ’16 Theater, the center offers enhancements for every field of artistic study offered at Forman.

Headmaster Adam K. Man noted that plans for development and expansion of the Forman campus began in 2007. The school sought to identify both its “needs and aspirations” Man said. The Science Center opened in 2013 and other practical renovations and improvements came along the way. “But the Visual and Performing Arts Center was always the dream.”

Designed by architect Maryann Thompson of Watertown, MA, the center is nestled on a hill and completes an organic academic quad with the nearby Science Center and the Williams Academic Building.

Featuring a roof of standing seam metal and siding of Western red cedar, the center will greatly heighten Forman’s educational experience for students, Man said.

“The Forman School Art Department is thrilled to have the Visual and Performing Arts Center, a large, new space with updated equipment in every medium,” said department chair Austin Zimmer. “We will expand offerings in our digital film and video course as well as our popular jewelry-making classes.”

The Visual and Performing Arts Center will have 11 wheels in the ceramics studio, both an indoor and outdoor kiln, a drawing studio, and a dedicated painting studio.

“The wonderful dance space will allow us to expand our after school program to accommodate more students,” said Zimmer. “The green screen room will allow our aspiring filmmakers to dream up a whole new range of special effects.”

The scope and size of the center will also allow Forman to offer three nights of supervised activity for students to work on and perfect their projects.

“Forman is filled with talented, creative students with artistic aspirations and inspired ideas,” said Man in his remarks at the ceremony. “The Visual and Performing Arts Center will allow Forman students to dream big and to execute those big dreams.”

“The Visual and Performing Arts Center will also provide a formal space for us to display three-dimensional works, such as ceramics and jewelry, in the main foyer, providing a real spotlight on our students’ creations,” said Zimmer. “We hope to use the whole facility as a showcase for all of the art created in the

building.”

An independent, college preparatory school founded in 1930 that educates students with learning differences, Forman School is located on 125 acres, and hosts 221 students from 27 states and 12 countries.