Living Arts Centre

The Living Arts Centre is a 225,000 square foot multi-use facility which opened in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada in 1997. The Centre is visited by over 300,000 visitors annually, who come to view performing and visual arts programs, attend corporate meetings/conventions, or participate in a variety of community events. The Living Arts Centre houses performance theatres , an exhibition gallery, seven professional art studios and corporate meeting facilities.The term living arts centre is often used as a synonym for gallery, especially for those venues which also hold multi-media presentations or teaching courses.The Centre has seven art and craft studios. Presently there is a glass studio, a furniture or wood studio, a textiles studio, a ceramics studio, a drawing studio, a metal studio and a photography studio. When the Centre first opened there was also a digital arts studio.The Centre opened in October 1997, and is divided into two buildings that appear as one, the art and craft building and the performing arts building. The architect for the project was the Zeidler Partnership.There are three theatres the biggest a 1,350-seat concert theatre called Hammerson Hall; a 382-seat recital theatre called the RBC Theatre; and a small 110 seat space named the Rogers Theatre.The Living Arts Centre offers one of two studios that offer subsidized space to artists working in the studio materials in Ontario, the other being the Harbourfront Craft Centre in Toronto.Architecture and DesignThe Living Arts Centre was designed by a famous Canadian architect named Eberhard Zeidler of Zeidler Roderts Partnership. He is also known for designing the Eaton Centre, Queen's Quay Terminal, the National Trade Centre, Toronto Centre for the Arts, Premiere Dance Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, and the Young People's Theatre. Zeidler led a team of 40 architects and engineers to complete the Living Arts Centre project.