In the heart of Indianapolis is a home for passion, creativity, innovation, and the highest caliber of professional and student performances – the Butler Arts Center.
The Butler Arts Center (BAC) is Central Indiana’s premier home for diverse performing arts programming and education. Through professional presentation, artist collaborations, commissioning, public and school outreach and community engagement we encourage the creation, appreciation, and understanding of the arts. The BAC brings people together for shared experiences that inspire and sustain our current and next generation of arts participants and patrons.
The Butler Arts Center has a unique role amongst University managed Performing Arts Centers. The BAC serves the Butler University, Indianapolis and larger Central Indiana communities and hosts over 250,000 patrons annually for a variety of presentations that provide shared experiences in the performing and visual arts.
Consolidating four arts venues on the campus of Butler University under one umbrella organization, The Butler Arts Center is anchored by Clowes Memorial Hall, which seats 2,123 and after 53 years remains Indiana’s most versatile and professional venue, having welcomed the world’s greatest talent and personalities—a star-studded list that includes Maya Angelou and Jimmy Fallon, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis and Sir Elton John.
The Schrott Center for the Arts, completed in 2013, adds a one-of-a-kind, student- and community-focused facility to the Butler Arts Center. At just 454 seats, but with a full-size proscenium stage, the venue is designed to optimize acoustics and sightlines, and is equally well-suited for music, dance, and theatre.
Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall seats 138 in a space ideal for intimate recitals, concerts, talks, and lectures.
Lilly Hall Studio Theatre is home to the renowned Butler Theatre who produce a wide range of classics, world premieres, and devised works.
Together, Clowes Memorial Hall, the Schrott Center for the Arts, Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall, and Lilly Hall Studio Theatre form Central Indiana’s premier destination for the performing arts, the Butler Arts Center. We invite you to join us this year for exciting programming that intertwine knowledge and creativity to activate your curiosity.
