Tennessee Performing Arts Center

History[edit]

In the early 1800s, the site was where the fourth mayor of Nashville, Joseph T. Elliston, lived with his wife Louisa and their son William R. Elliston until they moved to Burlington, their plantation in mid-town Nashville.^[1]


The idea for a large-scale performing arts facility developed in 1972 when Martha Rivers Ingram was appointed to the advisory board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. She proposed a similar center for her home city of Nashville. Ingram's proposal involved a public-private partnership that would operate within a state-owned facility. Her idea met with considerable resistance, but she persevered, for eight years and throughout the terms of three governors. The result is the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, a three-theater facility located beneath a state office building across the street from the Tennessee State Capitol.^[2] In 1980, TPAC opened as the state's premier theater venue.


Among its operations, TPAC presents a series of touring Broadway shows and special engagements, and administers a comprehensive education program.


Martha Rivers Ingram and her supporters also raised an endowment to defray operating losses and to fund a program that grooms future audiences for TPAC performances. The endowment goal was $3.5 million, and they surpassed it, raising $5 million. Today, the endowment has grown to $20 million. Each year, more than 100,000 students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, are brought to Nashville for performances by the Nashville Ballet, the Nashville Opera, and the Nashville Repertory Theatre, which are all resident performing arts groups of TPAC and provide year-round programming. Other companies also use TPAC's facilities for plays, dance performances, concerts and other cultural programs.


The Tennessee Performing Arts Center Management Corporation is governed by a 27-member Board of Directors. Directors serve for a term of three years.^[3]