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March 2019 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \ 73 D riving north out of Colorado Springs, the mountains have competition. The sleek glimmer of metal panels and eye-catching curves of the Ent Center nearly de- mand your attention. The building’s exterior is a show- piece, it too has competition – the interior. Performing Arts In its first year, the performance center really performed: “There is nothing like the Ent Center for the Arts in our region,” said Drew Martorella, executive director for UCCS Presents. “This building was not only going to showcase the arts and make arts cen- tral to the campus, but what we also thought would be true – and has proven since it was opened – is that the building would serve an im- mediate need that the community had for performance spaces, which hadn’t existed in the city previously.” Since its opening in January 2018, the Ent Center for the Arts has hosted more than 1,500 events. One-third of them performances that drew more than 180,000 visitors in its first year. Community The University of Colorado Colorado Springs didn’t go it alone. The college part- nered with regional and cultural organizations that otherwise may have struggled to fill the seats or raise the funds to rent the Pikes Peak Center. They wanted to host quality programming in an exceptional acoustic performance space, too. “A lot of local performing arts nonprofits were hosting their programs in church- es and high schools,” Martorella said. “The Ent Center has allowed them to have a first-class performing arts facility that is scaled to their needs. “This has enabled them to up their game.” The Ent Center also has supported the delivery of neighboring developments, in- cluding an adjacent shopping center with restaurants and retail stores to accommo- date increasing area demand. In the last year, UCCS has opened an athletics complex to the north of the Ent Center and recently broke ground on the William J. Hybl Sports Medicine Performance Center. Academia The seed of this dream was planted by TheaterWorks founder Murray Ross in 1975 when he joined the UCCS team to teach English and run the theater program. The previous facility was simply an unused classroom without proper lighting or tech- nology and inadequate acoustics. Now, the Visual and Performing Arts program at UCCS has a state-of-the-art facil- ity that includes a black-box theater that was modeled after the Dorfman Theater in London. It contains supporting spaces for the Academic Theater and Dance Depart- ments. A 250-seat recital hall is a nod to the Music Department with its impeccable acoustics that can complement a quartet or a full orchestra. And there’s the 786-seat flexible performance space/theater and the Gallery of Contemporary Art with its museum-quality humidity control. “There is not another program in the state with a similar facility,” said Jared Vern- Ent Center for the Arts: A Cool Collision of Performing Arts, Community and Academia Samuel Leuck Marketing Specialist, JE Dunn Con- struction