The UB Center for the Arts, now in its 30th season, is the heartbeat for arts and culture for over 30,000 students enrolled at the University at Buffalo.
The center’s three floors frequently hum with students performing dance and theater, and creating art in the building’s four theaters, classroom, studio and gallery spaces and the light-infused atrium that can double as a performance space.
But the center is also home to a variety of professional shows. They range over the first four months of this year from Elvis Costello, who played the Mainstage Theatre in early March, to the upcoming dance performance of “Momix: Alice” (April 22), “Dog Man: The Musical" (April 5), a kids show based on the hit book series, and recent talks by ballet dancer Misty Copeland and Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin in the UB Distinguished Speakers Series.
UBCFA Zodiaque Dance Company (copy)
The University at Buffalo Department of Theatre and Dance's Zodiaque Dance Company has performed in multiple spaces inside the UB Center for the Arts including the atrium. Credit: Douglas Levere
Over the years, performers have included ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, musicians Buddy Guy and Ray Charles, comedienne Carol Burnett and entertainer Liza Minnelli.
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“We are the arts hub on campus and aspire to be the arts hub of Western New York,” said Jamie Enser, only the fourth executive director since the center’s inaugural 1994-1995 season. A veteran of TV production, including the Nickelodeon channel, she leads a team of 16 industry professionals, artists and administrators.
“We are the largest multidisciplinary arts center in Buffalo – a place where everyone is welcome,” Enser said.
Slee Hall, adjacent to the Center for the Arts with a 700-seat performance hall, two rehearsal rooms and a recording studio, as well as home to the Department of Music, is not part of the arts center but they work closely together.
The center’s Nov. 4, 1994, ribbon-cutting featured a student production of Bertold Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera,” amid high expectations for what the center would mean to the university and larger community.
“The Center for the Arts can and will be a new kind of cultural resource for Western New York, fostering fuller, more effective cooperation between communities, among talents, and across artistic boundaries,” President William Greiner said in the opening day program. “As we formally open the center’s doors, we welcome neighbors everywhere to come and share in the possibilities that open with them.”
“For many years, the university’s arts department had been scattered at different locations,” Philip Wels, chairman of the University at Buffalo Council, said that day. “The Center for the Arts brings most of these departments together under one roof for the first time in UB’s history.”
The center’s first director was Robert Chumbley, who was succeeded two years later by Tom Burrows. His 20-year tenure established the center as an important part of Western New York’s entertainment mix.
“The work that got done when Tom was here was incredible,” said Enser, a Williamsville native who started there in February 2002 as director of production operations. She succeeded interim director Michael Detty, who followed Burrows, in July 2019.
“We did a huge variety of shows in those years that we try to carry through today,” Enser said. “Tom was very supportive and just a really powerful influence here.”
Elvis Costello UB Center for the Arts (copy)
Elvis Costello performed on the Mainstage Theatre at the University at Buffalo's Center for the Arts on March 7. Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
The 1,748-seat Mainstage Theatre is the largest of the theaters. It is also used for UB commencement exercises and high school graduations.
“It’s a beautiful theater with a great staff,” said Dennis Drew, drummer for 10,000 Maniacs, which has played the UBCFA three times, most recently in November 2024. “What really stands out is it’s a learning environment. When you’re backstage, it’s just humming with activity with young people who are going back and forth to the prop shops and costume shop. It’s wonderful to know you are part of someone’s education.”
The UBCFA also has the 378-seat Drama Theatre, used by the Department of Theater and Dance, the 210-seat Screening Room for film festivals, digital screenings and speakers, and the Black Box Theatre for experimental and multimedia productions that can seat 120 people.
UB Art Galleries is also home to professional exhibitions, including “Fitting Room,” the current show by Maria Guzman Capron. Two pre-professional galleries are run by the Department of Art.
Off the building’s hallways, where murals reflect the art department’s public art classes, are classrooms, sculpture, painting and dance studios, editing suites and a foundry for casting bronze.
“The students are involved in everything we do, including behind the scenes,” Enser said of the student productions. “It’s very hands-on. It’s very much part of our DNA.”
Students operate the box office and front of the house for all shows, work with tech staff on sound and lighting and in the video production unit that functions as UB’s in-house production company.
University at Buffalo Center for the Arts programming (copy)
During the Art in the Open event in October 2024, visitors had the chance to meet University at Buffalo MFA student Teju Abiola inside her studio. Credit: Douglas Levere
“When you take a lab course, and the students are going to design lights for the show or mix the sound or design the video, the staff will interact with them in a practical way on how to actually operate a show, and what is needed to make the show successful,” said John Saunders, the center’s technical director.
All staff interact with the students, he said, noting that six are UB graduates and “were on the other side of that.”
Julie Miskenes, a recent graduate of the arts management graduate program with a background in performing arts, said the center was the perfect place to expand her knowledge of different art forms.
“Everyone gathers under one roof, and there are always collaborations happening between the departments,” Miskenes said. “I knew performing arts was where my background was, but I also wanted to branch out and open myself up to other possibilities, whether working in galleries or museums, and this is just a hub for that. Everyone is so willing to collaborate and work together.”
“Momix: Alice” is one of the upcoming shows Enser is particularly excited about.
“It’s modern dance but based on ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ ” Enser said. “I think it’s a good way for people who haven’t seen dance to connect with it because it’s a story you can understand. It’s visually stunning, whimsical and fun.”
UB Center for the Arts Spring into Art (copy)
Spring Into Art," an annual showcase spotlighting the various visual and performing arts created in the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts, returns on April 29. The UB Department of Art's Jeff Sherven, a print media technician, presented a unique printmaking experience at the 2024 event. Credit: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
An increased demand for comedy, Enser said, led to three bookings this spring – Nate Jackson on March 28, “Nurse John: The Short Staffed Tour” on April 3 and “Killers of Kill Tony” on April 11.
The annual family-friendly “Spring into Art” concludes UBCFA's 30th season on April 29.
“It’s a giant open house with performances in the atrium and open studios,” Enser said. “The idea is to open up the center’s doors to see work in progress, on stage and talk to an artist.”
Mark Sommer covers culture, preservation, the waterfront, transportation, nonprofits and more. He's a former arts editor at The News.
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