Executive director of new Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center presenting at Nov. 17 This is Auburn Speaker Series event

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The Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center at Auburn University, a new 85,000-square-foot venue slated for completion by August 2019, is the focus of the This is Auburn Speaker Series event set for Friday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m. at the Auburn Alumni Center. Chris Heacox, inaugural executive director of the Performing Arts Center, will present “The Future of the Performing Arts at Auburn University” and discuss the impact that the center will have on the performances and educational experiences available to students at Auburn.

The Gogue Center will provide a space for touring Broadway productions; opera, dance, orchestra and symphony performances; and student and faculty music and theater performances. There will be seating for 1,200 guests in the main multipurpose venue, a box office, a catering kitchen, wardrobe and dressing rooms and office spaces. A second small performance venue will be connected to an outdoor amphitheater.

The world-class performing space is in close proximity to the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and will create a cultural arts district for the university and Auburn community. The construction of the center is made possible through a $25 million donation from John and Rosemary Brown ’57 as part of the Because This is Auburn—A Campaign for Auburn University. The university held a groundbreaking ceremony April 1 to mark the start of construction.

Heacox will lead the Gogue Center in artistic and administrative functions. Prior to his appointment, he served as the executive director of Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State University. He is the immediate past president of the Florida Professional Presenters Consortium and has served on a number of arts boards, including the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Statewide Consortium Leadership Council; South Arts Southern Presenters Consortium; and State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs Strategic Planning.

Heacox holds a master’s degree in jazz studies and contemporary media, performance, from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester and a bachelor’s degree in music from Florida State University.

Heacox’s talk will be held this Friday before Auburn’s Saturday football game versus University of Louisiana Monroe. More information on the This is Auburn Speaker Series.

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