Bardo Arts Center

Newly restructured as a collective center for the arts, the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center is home to the Western Carolina University Performance Hall, Studio Theatre, and Fine Art Museum.

Bardo Arts Center serves the campus and community year-round through performing and visual arts programming, educational opportunities, and outreach initiatives.The Performance Hall features an elegant 1,000-seat theatre, with finely-tuned acoustics and state-of-the-art lighting system. The Performance Hall presents professional artists throughout the year in the Bardo Arts Center Performance Series, previously known as Galaxy of Stars. In addition to world-class artists, Bardo Arts Center presents talented students and faculty from the WCU School of Stage and Screen and the School of Music. Bardo Arts Center also houses a more intimate performance setting called The Studio, similar to a traditional Black Box Theatre; The Studio is also utilized for workshops and events. The WCU Fine Art Museum opened in 2005, with the mission of serving as a cultural catalyst to celebrate and preserve the artistic legacy of Western North Carolina with a developing focus to collect, interpret and showcase innovation in contemporary art of high artistic merit. The WCU Fine Art Museum curates a 2,000-object collection of modern and contemporary art. The space encompasses four art galleries, an art preparation room, a secure storage vault, an object study room, a unique and inviting special events space called “The Star Atrium” that doubles as a hang-out-and-eat your-lunch area, and an outdoor courtyard. To highlight the talent found at WCU, Bardo Arts Center presents exhibitions throughout the year featuring artwork from the School of Art and Design faculty, MFA, and BFA students.