MGCCC opens new performing arts center at Harrison County campus

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - South Mississippi has a new state-of-the-art performing arts center at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, and it will be the new home of the Gulf Coast Symphony.

The Steinway Concert Grand piano is the binding force between MGCCC’s new theater and the Gulf Coast Symphony. When the college was building the 54,000-square foot facility, they knew they wanted to have the best piano available, but it wasn’t affordable.

The Symphony needed a new home while the Saenger Theater was being renovated. $185,000 later, both had met their needs.

“Many members of the symphony contributed to that, and we raised enough money in a very short time to have the piano, the piano’s here, it’s beautiful,” said Peggy Schloegel, Gulf Coast Symphony past board member. “It will be played at the first concert which will be in this building March 13.”

The Immersive Media Performing Arts Center at the college’s Harrison County Campus will be much more than a 1,200 seat auditorium. It will be the home of the school’s newest curriculum, Live Entertainment Technology.

With a recording studio and classrooms for Simulation and Game Design Technology, it will be serving multiple purposes for the community.

“This is state-of-the-art, probably the most state-of-the-art of anything on the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” said Schloegel. “And it’s a teaching and a learning facility. They will be teaching anything from staging to lighting to sound systems, preparing the young people to go out in the world and get a job.”

Dr. Mary Graham Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College President also added “And so we wanted to make sure that we are training the students on the newest technology, not dated technology so they can get these good experiences and go get these jobs that are in such high demand right now.”

And that first performance by the Gulf Coast Symphony at the iMPAC center will be March 13 at 7:30 p.m.

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