Last year, city council approved a $31 million project for a Performing Arts Center that will serve as an expansion of the Aurora Theater and provide classrooms and educational spaces for Georgia Gwinnett College.
“This new facility is a collision of ideas, education, entertainment and culture, all within a civic space that is focused on the arts. This destination will continue the mayor and council’s vision of creating a space for a downtown area for all of that to happen,” Lawrenceville’s City Manager Chuck Warbington said.
The vision for downtown Lawrenceville was passed down from the late Mayor Bobby Sikes who worked with developer Emory Morsberger to revitalize the city. It was in 2005, during the time of revitalization that the Aurora first took home in historic downtown Lawrenceville after relocating from Duluth.
Partners from Aurora, Georgia Gwinnett College and those from the city and county broke ground for the new Performing Arts Center on June 13, 2019. If all goes according to plan, the center will open fall 2020.“The seeds of the original project for the Aurora in Lawrenceville were planted in 2004,” said Aurora’s Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director Anthony Rodriguez. “We had outgrown our space in Duluth and were searching for a facility in Gwinnett where we could truly shine.”
People like Morsberger and former Mayor Sikes were instrumental in securing a unique partnership between the city, private developers and with the Aurora Theater, a nonprofit entity. With this partnership underway, they purchased the First Methodist Church on East Pike St., and that location has been the theater’s home since it opened in May of 2007.
Like Morsberger, Rodriguez held the belief that the theater would become a “catalyst for the economic development and community gathering”. Currently seating 250 at its mainstage, the new performing arts center will include a 500-seat mainstage theater, a cabaret theater with seating for up to 300 and will feature numerous indoor and outdoor civic spaces including a courtyard connecting the existing building with the new.
Additional highlights include rehearsal spaces, an orchestra pit and a fly tower. Continuing Aurora’s tradition of showcasing local talent, the extended center will feature a strategically located art gallery, and there will also be multiple classrooms and educational spaces and a new civic space called “Art Alley” that will connect to a parking deck and a “South Lawn” residential area being developed on the far side of the City Park.
At the Groundbreaking for Lawrenceville’s new Performing Arts Center, Mayor Judy Jordan Johnson shared the city’s plans to make the downtown area a place where residents can live in walking distance of arts and entertainment and local restaurants.Mayor Judy Jordan Johnson shared the city’s plans to make downtown Lawrenceville a place where residents can live in walking distance of arts and entertainment and local restaurants.
“Lawrenceville with our partners, Aurora and all of you in the community, are working together for a new arts ‘sense of place’, and we’re very excited about this new chapter in our beginning,” Mayor Johnson said.
Partners from the College, Aurora and those from the city and county broke ground for the new center on June 13, 2019. If all goes according to plan, the center will open fall 2020.
City Manager Chuck Warbington shared the City of Lawrenceville’s vision for the downtown area at the Performing Arts Center Groundbreaking held on June 13, 2019, at 11 a.m.Chairwoman Nash shared a sense of pride in seeing the downtown area become an evening and weekend hub of activity and expressed that Georgia Gwinnett college would play a growing role in the city’s downtown development.
“And all you legislators have the chance to see Georgia Gwinnett College and the Aurora Theater in a very robust partnership. It is going to be a delight to watch and see the outcome there,” Nash said.
Funding for the project comes from local sponsors including but not limited to Peach State Credit Union, the City of Lawrenceville, and Aurora has pledged $7.5 million towards the project.
Looking to the future of the town and theater, Rodriguez recalled his goals set in 2006 that the Aurora would become recognized for its unique community partnerships and as ‘the cultural center of Gwinnett and the North Georgia region.’
“Check plus,” Rodriguez said. “I believe we are on the path to doing that and much, much more.”
Breaking ground for the new Performing Arts Center in Lawrenceville.
