During 2010, the Hopkins Center put on a symposium on the Arts Center of the 21st Century. Its goal was to generate ideas for the renovation and expansion of the Hop coinciding with the Center’s 50th anniversary in 2012. (The materials include a pdf excerpt from the Campus Guide discussing the Hop.)

Hop Director Jeff James spoke about the challenges and opportunities of the Hop at 50 (video). His talk and others, drawing from the 2001 Rogers Marvel master plan (pdf), suggested some of the moves that the project might eventually make:

• The parking lot alongside the studios is a potential expansion area. It has enough space for two rehearsal theaters, freeing Moore Theatre for performances.
• The Spaulding lobby could expand westward into parking lot.
• Alumni Hall could be converted into performing arts space to serve laboratory needs.
• The studios facing the Courtyard Café will be vacated when the Visual Arts Center opens, and they could be converted into teaching/lab spaces.
• It is not clear what will happen to the Café.
• The Hop’s administrators would like to move the ceramics workshop from its house in Norwich to the Hop.
• If the Hopkins Center offices can be moved (from the east wall of the Moore Theatre?) to a site closer to the heart of the building, the Hood Museum could use the vacated space.

Attendees then broke into five groups for charrettes. Several people expressed their dissatisfaction with the fireplace in the Top of the Hop. It is an odd item (see Dartmouth’s Flickr photo), but it seems perfect for that space: anything less extravagant would dilute the experience.

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[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to symposium replaced; broken links to symposium materials and pdf removed.]