Where We Create - Brooks School: Coeducational Private School in North Andover, MA

Brooks' Center for the Arts bonds musical, theater and visual arts together and places them on display in the center of campus.

Designed with the goal of providing a space where the whole Brooks community could gather share and express themselves, the building invites creativity across disciplines and elevates the arts within our curriculum.

center for the arts areas

Connected & Collaborative

Theater

Performances, teaching and community gatherings have a spacious, comfortable home in the theater, designed to fit the entire student body with 387 seats.

Music

In the music area of the Center for the Arts, ensemble and individual rehearsal spaces for music give Brooks' chorus, orchestra and bands space to rock out.

Student sings into a microphone on stage while performing with pink light in the background.

Visual Arts

Four studios and a digital media lab — plus a darkroom — give all of Brooks School's artists a place to make, share and celebrate the varied styles of visual art they love.

A hand with a ring is drawing a portrait of a young woman with long hair on a canvas, with the background being a plain wall.

The Center for the Arts consists of three structures: one each for performance, music and visual arts.

Connecting all three is a shared indoor "arts street" and outdoor courtyard. The two-level interior street offers gathering and seating areas for small groups, providing space for informal exchange, collaboration, discussion, exhibitions and receptions before and after events.

The walls serve as a gallery, highlighting the arts as every member of the Brooks community passes through the building.

Four smiling young people stand in front of a wall with %22Center for the Arts%22 inscribed on it, while a black balloon floats behind them.

theater

The Center for the Arts' main stage connects to a scene shop and a 1,200-square-foot Black Box theater, which provides a flexible teaching space and an additional performance venue. A costume shop, changing room and green room are included, as well.

Students in paint-splattered smocks work on a project at a table in the foreground, while shelves filled with art supplies line the walls of the studio in the background.

A group of performers in costumes are on a stage with a colorful, cartoon-inspired backdrop.

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Music

Musicians and performers sing the praises of this portion of the building. It includes ensemble and individual rehearsal spaces for music:

two large ensemble spaces
two medium-sized ensemble spaces
a choir section
four music practice rooms
a recording studio

Three young musicians play brass instruments on a dark stage, with a microphone stand in the foreground and a black backdrop behind them.

A young man smiles while playing a keyboard in the foreground, with blurred chairs and cabinets in the background.

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Visual Arts

Three studios on the upper level feature a dedicated advanced studio, a 2D studio offering northern light and expansive windows, and a darkroom photography lab equipped with 10 enlargers and a full trough sink.

On the lower level, features include three additional studios for 3D art, ceramics and a digital media lab.

A young woman leans over a light table in a dimly lit room, examining film strips.

Students in an art class listen to a teacher presenting at the front of the room, with art supplies and displays visible in the background.

In the Center for the Arts' Black Box theater Brooks hosts concerts, dance events and acting classes.

Learn all about the arts at Brooks