The View From Here: A Place to Gather

We all get a little emotional when we have the opportunity to gather in larger groups in our return to campus. Whether it be the wonderful group of parents who participated in the SAPA retreat this morning or those in attendance for “Back the Pack” last week or for the four nights of performances in the Jackson Banke Amphitheater to watch A Midsummer Night’s Dream this weekend. I know that last night those feelings of joy and excitement were present as we experienced this classic Shakespearean tale together under the stars. The events that we collectively experience — our theater productions, musical performances, weekly Community Meetings and PS, sporting events, and other special assemblies and gatherings — strengthen the bonds of our community and our collective identity as a school. 

As we celebrated the opening of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last night, the richness of the arts at SA was on full display and the show is yet another example of the many ways we deeply value the arts in all of their forms and all of their magic. While we have relished the opportunity to utilize our outdoor amphitheater in new and exciting ways — and we have a vision to further enhance that space — we are incredibly excited about the next phase of both our performing arts program and our approach to community engagement as we imagine our future with a new Performing Arts Center.

Throughout our history, we have envisioned a performing arts center as a central hub for artistic performances, symposia, lectures, Community Meeting, storytelling, film series, and a place to gather in creativity and common humanity. This space will allow us to partner with other Sonoma County organizations and nonprofits to host socially engaged performances and conversations exploring the intersection of culture, identity, diversity, and creativity throughout our broader community. The PAC, as we like to call it now, will be a place where we will live a critical aspect of our mission statement — engaging with the surrounding community — and we will manifest those values and that vision in new and meaningful ways. 

Our campus will soon be active with construction this fall and winter. Later this month we will begin construction of a solar carport system that will encompass much of our existing parking area. These additional solar panels will designate our entire campus (including the new Performing Arts Center) as “net zero” in terms of energy status (which means we produce more energy than we consume as an entire campus). Once the solar carport is completed, we will begin site preparation work for the Performing Arts Center to the north of the Guild and Commons building. We expect to officially break ground with an official ceremony on March 17, 2022, and we plan to have the building finished in time for our Convocation ceremony which will launch the 2023-2024 school year. 

We are building more than just a theater with this project. With our bold vision leading this endeavor, we have convened a staffulty task force dedicated to envisioning all of the ways in which this building can empower our students and our staffulty to think big about what is possible at SA. This space will go beyond what we think of a school theater; it will be a home for that collective audience magic we missed so much last year, and a place where we exchange ideas and experience creativity in a way that makes us all more human and more connected as a thriving community, both at SA and throughout the surrounding region. 

For more information on the PAC,  you can visit our webpage, which will also include future updates and renderings, and you can watch a video that shows 3D renderings of the building here.