Our Mission
The mission of the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts is to enhance the local community and support Binghamton University’s educational vision through the presentation of multiculturally significant national and international performances, and varied regional and state events.
Our Facilities
The Anderson Center is home to the 1170 seat Osterhout Concert Theater, the 408 seat Chamber Hall and the 558 seat Watters Theater. Click here to learn more.
About Us
The Anderson Center for the Performing Arts is located on the main campus of Binghamton University, in Vestal, NY. Designed by New York architectural firm Hutchins, Evans, and Lefferts, the world-class arts facility opened to the public in 1985.
The Anderson Center's multiple theaters are designed to meet the needs of every performing group -- soloists, chamber ensembles, symphonies, dance, or large theatrical productions complemented by a full-scale orchestra.
The University's Fine Arts complex, which houses the Anderson Center for the Arts, provides additional spaces for the academic departments in the form of two studio theaters and the Jean Casadesus Recital Hall (used by the Theater and Music Departments, respectively). This combination of small studios and large theaters creates a versatile setting that is both intimate and spectacular, integrating music, dance, drama, and the visual arts, while serving the academic needs of the University as well as the region.
Light from numerous glass panels permeates the Anderson Center's main foyer, where rust and terra cotta colors blend with neutral tones to recapture the warm red of the exterior brick walls. The glass panels form a structure unique to the Anderson Center: a retractable wall at the back of the large Osterhout Concert Theater. To afford a special summer evening experience for hundreds of people, this sliding glass wall opens onto a sloping knoll, a man-made amphitheater extension to the Osterhout Concert Theater, provided with its own sound equipment to enhance open-air listening. When the glass wall is retracted, the interior acoustic wall separating the Osterhout Concert Theater from the lobby area can be moved manually to give the outdoor audience a view of the stage.
The curvilinear structure of the box office, elevator, and lobby stairways are mirrored throughout the design of the house. Great swirls of suspended acoustical clouds sweep across the ceiling, complemented by the grand curve of continental seating below. With a capacity of 1200 (including space for 24 wheelchair patrons), the Theater presents a sophisticated ambiance. The curved walls in increasingly darker shades of gray draw the eye of the audience to the stage and the vivid terra cotta velour of the act curtain.
Programming at the Anderson Center includes performances by the Binghamton University Departments of Music and Theatre and various student groups, as well as a summer concert series, an international performing arts series and special events for the university community and regional arts lovers.
In recent years, the Anderson Center has hosted speaking events by Margaret Atwood, Questlove and David Sedaris; as well as concerts by Diana Ross, Tony Bennett, the Steve Miller Band, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, and many others.
