Since its opening 10 years ago, the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts has changed the cultural, economic, educational and social landscape of JMU and the Harrisonburg community—and beyond.
“I look to book shows that audiences may not have ever seen—even in Charlottesville, Richmond or Washington, D.C.,” Executive Director Regan Byrne said.
The Forbes Center has developed a reputation for having extraordinary audiences and venues. Twenty-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist Pat Metheny said the Concert Hall was one of the top five performance venues he had played in, rivaling the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore.
Ross Neal (’13), a music theatre graduate and equity actor at Walt Disney World, honed his acting chops at the Forbes Center. Neal acted in the center’s first theater performance, Metamorphoses, which featured a pool filled with 4,000 gallons of water on the Mainstage Theatre.
Anna-Lee Craig (’11), a theatre alumna and assistant audio engineer with the Broadway production of Hamilton, spent her junior and senior years at the Forbes Center as a production intern.
The Forbes Center is helping to attract businesses, tourists, retirees and job seekers to Harrisonburg as well. In 2001, the city established the first Arts and Cultural District in Virginia, which includes the downtown core and extends to JMU’s campus.
“The arts are a huge economic driver to Harrisonburg,” Jennifer Bell, city tourism manager, said. “It’s a big draw for local spending as well as for tourism spending,” which in 2018 totaled $131 million, $4.8 million in local tax receipts and 1,200 jobs.
“Over the past 10 years, the Forbes Center has become one of the gems of the Shenandoah Valley where people of all walks of life are welcomed to experience the world through a new and different lens,” said JMU President Jonathan R. Alger. “We’ve listened together, learned together, laughed together and cried together.”
