Nelson: Expanded Cooper Center will allow STC’s Performing Arts programs to flourish

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming out for this ceremonial groundbreaking of what should be the final phase in the structural evolution of South Texas College’s Cooper Center for the Performing Arts.

Originally built in 2008, with a generous donation of $3 million from Mrs. Edwynne Cooper, the Cooper Center is named in memory of her son, the late Lieutenant Junior Grade Edwin “Ned” Cooper. 

Shortly after its construction, and as departments and programs continued to grow at rapid rates, the Music Department began dreaming of a substantial expansion to the Cooper Center to accommodate the entirety of its program and faculty. Several years later, with the addition of the Associate of Arts in Dance program, we gained another good reason to think about expanding the Cooper Center to occur to accommodate that program and its faculty as well. 

At present, the Cooper Center houses most of the Theater program and some of the Music program. Much of the Music program and faculty are currently housed at the Pecan Plaza, over to the east of campus. The Dance program is borrowing space from our STC Ballet Folklorico, also at the Pecan Plaza, and its faculty is housed in the Humanities building up to the north, as is one of our Theater faculty. Our Percussion faculty and programming are housed in two portables on the south side of the campus. So today we mark a momentous step forward in the realization of the dream we’ve been dreaming: finally bringing all of our Performing Arts programs and faculty together into their one ‘forever home’. 

The project consists of three parts. Off to the northwest portion of the current Cooper Center, we’re building an enormous expansion, which will include a 3,200 square foot rehearsal space, built to accommodate anything from a large ensemble up to and including a full 80-person orchestra, another smaller rehearsal space for smaller ensembles, nine faculty studios for individual applied music instruction, seven practice rooms for students and multiple storage and locker spaces. Off to the northeast portion of the Cooper Center, we’re building another expansion, around half the size of the first, which will house the entirety of our Percussion activities, including a large rehearsal space, a slightly smaller rehearsal space, a drum line room, a faculty studio and more storage space. Once these two wings are completed, the classes, practices and rehearsals currently being held in the large conference rooms in the Cooper Center can be moved to their new spaces, clearing the way to convert that space into a large studio for our Dance program. 

But that’s just part of the dream being realized here. The rest of the dream consists in the recognition, by all involved, that what we’re after here are not just facilities where our Performing Arts programs can function, but facilities where they can flourish. In these new expanded faculties, we will be better able to serve and recruit our performing arts students, educating them in facilities that will better prepare them for what comes next in their artistic and educational journeys – the kind of facilities that performing arts majors deserve to practice and perform in at a world class institution of higher education. We will see increased opportunities for more and better collaboration, both within departments and between departments. And, in sum, we will become an even more visible and even more impactful site for the performing arts in this region – and not just for our students, but for our communities. 

Christopher A. Nelson, dean of liberal arts at South Texas College, speaks at a groundbreaking ceremony for a project to expand the Cooper Center. (Photo: Ron Whitlock/Ron Whitlock Reports)

Now, a project like this doesn’t make it this far without the glad workings of many hands, and I would be remiss if I neglected to acknowledge as many of them as I can. I and we owe an expression of gratitude to our Board of Trustees, who approved the project after asking us, repeatedly, as they reviewed plan after revised plan, “are you getting everything that you need?” To our College President, Dr Solis, who, when presented with the original plan of running these two expansions in successive phases, retorted, “no, no, no, we’ll do it all now, and we’ll do it right… Mary, find them the money.” To VP Del Paz, for finding the money. To the whole team in Facilities, Planning and Construction, all of whom were and continue to be great to work with, especially into and out of a COVID-recovery, supply chain break-down, runaway inflation economy. To Andreas Vela of BRW Architects, a true pleasure to work with, willing to mold his esthetic sensibilities to our functional needs and to mold his functional expertise to our esthetics sensibilities. To our VP and Provost, Dr Petrosian, who’s been nothing short of supportive at any moment along the way, openly trusting her Dean and Chairs to not over ask, but not to under ask either. To Jason Rodriguez, Chair of the Theater & Dance Department, and co-resident in the Cooper Center, for his expertise in performance, and performance spaces, and performance-adjacent spaces, that got us thinking of everything the first time. To Dr Dan Cather, who became Chair of the Music Department in the Fall of 2022, just as this project had finally landed on the official “to-do” list, and has steadily helped guide and inform the project so that the entirety of the needs of the Music program will be met. And to the Music Faculty, some of whom are able to be here today: Billy Buhidar (Upper String), Joe Diehl (Voice), Lindsay Gamble (Upper strings), Jaime Garcia (Guitar), Sharon O’Leary (Voice), Ron Schermerhorn (Percussion), Melissa Vaughn (Woodwinds) Kevin Weng-Lin (Brass), and hopefully a soon-to-be-hired lower Strings faculty member. Thank you all.

Editor’s Note: The above commentary comprises the prepared remarks of Christopher A. Nelson, dean of liberal arts at South Texas College, for a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate plans for the expansion of STC’s Cooper Center at the Pecan Campus in McAllen.

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