UIS Performing Arts Center - Sangamon Auditorium selected as best live music large venue

 The University of Illinois Springfield's Performing Arts Center was selected by Illinois Times readers as the best live large music venue in Springfield for 2020. Runners up in the process were the State Fair Grandstand, Boondocks, Hoogland Center for the Arts and the BOS Center.

Read the entire list of 2020 Best Of winners online at the Illinois Times.

Springfield Arts Organizations Come Together With One Message

The non-profit arts organizations in Springfield have come together with one message - "The show will go on...but not without your help."

Eleven major performing arts organizations in the Springfield area are combining their communication efforts to reassure the local community that performances will resume and to provide information on how you can support local arts organizations in the interim.

A single unified message is being distributed this week to over 75,000 email addresses representing almost every performing arts ticket buyer in the region. The email includes links to each participating organization, as well as a unique link to each organization's secure online donation site.

This campaign is organized by the University of Illinois Springfield Performing Arts Center. Bryan Rives, Director of the Performing Arts Center, said "One mission of UIS is 'Leadership Lived.' We are always searching for ways to help our community. During this COVID-19 crisis, we realized our own patron email list, of over 42,000 addresses, could be used to spread the word about how to support local performing arts organizations in our area. We then reached out to The Hoogland Center for the Arts to see if they would like to partner with us on this effort. They quickly came on board, as did many others. Everyone we approached agreed to send the email to their individual mailing lists, even though it contains a fundraising appeal for other organizations in addition to their own. We are very lucky that our arts community can come together to support one another during this extremely trying time."

This story appeared on Broadway World Chicago on April 22, 2020.

Read the entire story online.

UIS unveils new name, searchlights for performance venues

If you were at Sangamon Auditorium at the University of Illinois Springfield Sunday night for comedian Jay Leno’s show, you noticed some changes in the facility surrounding you.

The university introduced a new name, “UIS Performing Arts Center,” to describe a collection of performing arts entities at the school, including the 2,000-seat Sangamon Auditorium, the smaller Studio Theater and the ticket office.

The names “Sangamon Auditorium” and “Studio Theater” will still be used to describe the specific venues.

Bryan Rives, the director of the now-named UIS Performing Arts Services, made the announcement Sunday night at Leno’s performance.

The changes also comes with a new name — Friends of UIS Performing Arts Center — for the existing donor support group, a new logo, and a new website: www.UISpac.com.

In addition, officials on Sunday unveiled five new bright searchlights, which were installed on the roof of the auditorium building and were ceremoniously activated by Leno at the end of his show. The rotating lights will shine into the sky on show nights.

In a phone interview Monday, Rives said the rebranding campaign accomplishes two things. The first was to make sure more people understand the center’s connection to the university. He said in the past, many people who attended the shows at Sangamon Auditorium didn’t understand that the programming was an arm of UIS. The second was to look ahead toward the celebration of Sangamon Auditorium’s 40th anniversary in 2021.

Several other changes are coming to the newly named UIS Performing Arts Center in the coming months and years, ahead of 2021.

The closest change on the horizon is construction of a new concession stand in the lobby. The project is underway, and it could be open by spring.

This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on September 17, 2018.

Read the entire article online.

Leno Assists With Rebranding Of UIS Performing Arts Center

Comedian Jay Leno has helped to launch a rebranding of the main stage at the University of Illinois Springfield.

The building is being renamed the UIS Performing Arts Center, home of Sangamon Auditorium.

At the conclusion of his show there Sunday night, Leno flipped a symbolic switch to turn on large roof-mounted spotlights, which will illuminate the night sky during major shows at the university.

This story aired on NewsTalk 94.7 and 970 AM, WMAY on September 16, 2018.

Read the entire story online.