Hoover High breaks ground for $15.4 million performing arts center

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Hoover school and city officials on Thursday participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new $15.4 million performing arts center at Hoover High School.

Dozens of people gathered for the groundbreaking of the 36,000-square-foot facility, which will be constructed right next to the new band room at Hoover High, near Buccaneer Stadium.

A hallway will connect the band room to the performing arts center, which will include a 940-seat auditorium, a full theatrical lighting and sound package and an on-site scene construction workshop, among other features.

The current theater at Hoover High seats 270 people, which theater supporters say is much smaller than theaters at other large schools in Alabama and not big enough to accommodate the crowds that Hoover fine arts performances draw.

School officials say that 47% of the students at Hoover High are involved in some kind of fine arts.

Also, school officials have said they would like to have an auditorium that seats a full grade level at Hoover High, which currently has an enrollment of about 2,900 students.

“The community is excited about it, and our students are excited,” Hoover High Principal John Montgomery said in a press release. “This is something they’ve needed for a long time. Our kids are great performers. They win national and state competitions, but they don’t have a place here to perform, so for us to have a first-class facility for them to perform in for the community is going to be such a blessing.”

Dalton Dismukes, a performing arts student, said having this performing arts center to show off students’ hard work will be such a gift.

“We’ve had to perform our band concerts in gyms. We’ve had to find churches that would allow us to use their space to perform concerts, and now to have a center specifically for these performances will be such a wonderful opportunity,” Dismukes said.

Blalock Building Co, which won the contract to build the center on Aug. 1, anticipates it will take 16 to 17 months to complete the project.