Encompassing an entire city block in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Shaw Center for the Arts operates as a vibrant microcommunity. The center opened in 2005 as a multiuse facility and has grown into a hub for artists, scholars, students, groups and visitors to come and immerse themselves in a world of artistic endeavors.
Dedicated to exposing the community to visual and performing arts on a national level, the Shaw Center is a repository for many art forms. It’s here that both visual and performing arts collide in an animated and diverse way to offer visitors an entertaining and educational experience.
“The Shaw Center for the Arts offers an open, urban setting that fosters creativity,” said Priscilla Simpson, event and marketing coordinator for the Shaw Center for the Arts. “It is a creative catalyst for Baton Rouge and Louisiana and is a visually stunning venue for those looking to deviate from a standard meeting space.”
Along with a series of dining, retail and nonprofit organizations operating within the compound, the main buildings that make up the Shaw Center for the Arts include the Manship Theatre, the Hartley/Vey Theatres, the River Terrace, the LSU Museum of Art, and the LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery. Almost every venue within the center offers a sweeping view of the Mississippi River and downtown Baton Rouge, giving visitors and event guests the sense that they’re truly in the heart of all the action.
“The impact of the Shaw Center for the Arts extends to every facet of the visitor experience,” Simpson said. “Upon arrival, guests encounter a towering contemporary structure with interactive outdoor fountains. Then, once inside, the glass-enclosed atrium is a breathtaking greeting for patrons attending public or private events.”
The modern, industrial-style spaces offered within each of the venues at the Shaw Center offer meeting planners a clean canvas for crafting inspired events, but it’s the center’s atmosphere of creativity that helps make events become art in action.
Meeting Spaces
The Shaw Center for the Arts is home to more than 13 meeting and event spaces, among them the public Lafayette Plaza located outdoors on the first level, which is available for nonexclusive use. Other spaces with their capacities are the the LSU Museum of Art, 400; the Manship Theatre, 325; the Gallery at Manship, 225; the Hartley/Vey Studio Theatre, 200; the Bert and Sue Turner Gallery, 150; the Hartley/Vey Workshop Theatre, 125; the LSU School of Art Alfred Glassell Jr. Gallery, 50; the Josef Sternberg Conference Room, 30; the Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Board Room, 40; the River Terrace, 400; the Irene Pennington Rooftop Terrace and Sculpture Garden at Tsunami, 300; and the Jones-Walker Foyer and Bar, public area, nonexclusive use.
