Mission
Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is a not-for-profit performing and visual arts complex that supports working artists to create, perform and exhibit new works, develops new audiences, and connects the arts to community.
The Complex
The BCA’s 190,000 square foot campus consists of:
• Four theatres. These include the BCA Plaza Theatre with 142 seats; the BCA Plaza Black Box with up to 90 seats, as well as the new, state-of-the-art Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, which houses the Roberts Studio Theatre with up to 209 seats and the Wimberly Theatre with up to 370 seats.
• Rehearsal and education space. Rehearsal Hall A and Deane Rehearsal Hall in the Calderwood Pavilion are the main rehearsal spaces for larger companies and are also used for performances, events, and meetings.
• The Mills Gallery. The premier, independent non-profit gallery in Boston, showing the work of local and national, established and emerging artists
• The Tremont Estates Building. The Artists Studio Building is the working home for over 50 artists.
• The Cyclorama. Opened in 1865, the Cyclorama is on the National Register of Historic Places. Featuring a copper skylight dome atop a round brick-lined 23,000 square foot space, the Cyclorama can host up to 1,200 visitors.
• The Boston Ballet Building. This Graham Gund-designed building has been home to the Boston Ballet for 16 years.
• The Community Music Center of Boston (CMCB). Now in its 99th year, CMCB has positively impacted the lives of thousands of children and adults each year, many of them underserved, through lessons and classes on site, in the Boston Public Schools, through social service agencies and at community centers.
• Beehive Jazz Café, is nestled in the BCA complex in space that was once occupied by a black-box theatre at street level and a basement. Now, a dining room on the upper level overlooks the lower level café and stage where live jazz is featured nightly.