The Galleries
The Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries consist of two adjoined galleries which together showcase about 20 different international, national and regional exhibitions each year. The galleries also host workshops and lectures related to the exhibitions.
McIlroy Gallery
The beautiful and expansive McIlroy Gallery features an 18-foot ceiling constructed with screened windows, allowing in defused natural light. This gallery was a gift from the McIlroy family through the NWF State College Foundation. The family's contribution, when matched by the Florida Academic Imporvement Trust fund, created a $150,000 endowment to underwrite exhibitions, lectures or presentations by guest artists.
Holzhauer Gallery
The second exhibit area is the Holzhauer Gallery, which was named after famed artist Emil Holzhauer, who donated a multimillion dollar permanent collection of his works to NWF State College. When not displaying other works, the Holzhauer Gallery displays parts of this collection, as well as the college's Sublette Collection of New Guinea Sculpture and Masks of the L.R. Davis Flint Glass Collection.
MKAC Seating Chart MKAC Seating Chart
The Music Wing features a 24-track digital recording studio, classrooms, individual music instruction rooms, and the acoustically flawless Eva and Donald Tyler Recital Hall.
The music wing also holds a large rehearsal hall, the Dewitt and Else Hardmant Orchestra Hall, where musical ensembles rehearse and perform.
Students enrolled in the Dance program practice their art in a 2,000-square-foot dance studio. Theater students learn all aspects of theater production including lighting, sound, costuming and set design in addition to performance and entertainment.
The 195-seat Sprint Theater is a flexible, "black box" theater for smaller performances that can accommodate several different styles of theater: for a two- to three-sized audience, or theater in the round.
The Sprint Theater features square dimensions (50 feet by 50 feet) and all sections are movable.
The crown jewel of the complex is the two-tiered, 1,650-seat Mainstage Theater which accommodates large-scale Broadway shows. Walls of both lobbies are covered with fossilized Mexican limestone and an Art Deco motif is carried out in the trim, the large chandelier and the grand staircase. The décor is enhanced by an antique piano and organ, both gifts from art patrons.
The theater literally towers over the surrounding area with a ten-story fly tower that stores numerous stage backdrops, lights, riggings and curtains. State-of-the-art lighting and acoustics provide a superb theater experience for patrons. Despite its size, no seat is more than 95 feet from the stage. The main theater stage is 46 feet deep, 100 feet tall, and 65 feet in length.
The Mainstage also features: a computerized main curtain, 400 lighting units including six computer controlled 'Intellabeams,' a 32-channel sound booth, and twin elevators. The orchestra pit at the front apron of the stage can be lowered for an orchestra, raised for additional audience seating or raised to stage level for larger performances.
Mattie Kelly Arts Center Amphitheater
When commissioned to create an artistic centerpiece for the Mattie Kelly Arts Center, internationally famous sculptor Esther Wertheimer worked in the small Italian community of Pietrasanta for 18 months to produce this inspiring sculpture.
Entitled the Seven Dancers, this nine-foot, bronze sculpture graces the central courtyard of the Mattie Kelly Arts Center, known as the circus.
The sculpture depicts seven dancers - three men, three women and a child - who hold hands to form a circle as they dance, floating above a gently overflowing pool of water. The circle they form is a symbol of never-ending camaraderie and a new hope for peace and harmony. Since the sculpture was installed in 1997, Wertheimer's work has become an icon of the complex.
The Mattie Kelly Arts Center Venue
