Theater-goers to a production Saturday at Belmont Abbey College learned the state budget passed last month includes $9 million for construction of a performing arts center on campus. The 200-some audience members gave the unveiling of the ceremonial check a standing ovation before the college’s theatrical group, The Abbey Players, performed “The Three Musketeers” as part of its 140th season.
Depending upon future donations, Belmont Abbey wants to build a $15 million, 1,000-plus seat theater adjacent to its current Haid Theater, says Abbey President Bill Thierfelder. The Haid was built in 1929 and used as a gymnasium before becoming the college’s permanent theater in 1987. Thierfelder, in his 20th year as college president, has talked with out-of-state donors connected to the college’s theater department who may make future significant gifts.
“Pray for us that we can continue to raise even more money, so it can be everything we want it to be,” Thierfielder told the audience. The college will decide by next spring how grand a theater it can afford to build. It will then have the theater constructed in time for the Abbey’s the 150th anniversary of its founding by Benedictine monks from Pennsylvania in 1876.
Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, attended Saturday’s performance and talked about how Belmont Abbey was Gaston County’s four-year university. Providing funding for the cultural project, he says, will help the county’s recovery from decades of economic downturn resulting from a declining textile industry.
“It will expand our cultural access in Gaston County and can do nothing but good for those who practice in the arts and those like me who come to enjoy them,” says Torbett.
The state money will strengthen a partnership between the only four-year college in the county and its arts community, says freshman Sen. Brad Overcash, R-Gaston, who also attended the event.
Thierfelder praised Torbett and Overcash’s efforts in securing money in the $30 billion state spending plan. “Things don’t just happen,” says Thierfelder. “Our delegation —Brad and John especially — went to bat for Belmont Abbey College.”
The monks at Belmont Abbey own large swaths of land around Belmont and have long been a part of the town’s economic development. More recently, in 2019, CaroMont Health announced it would build a 66-bed hospital in Belmont on about 28 acres of land adjacent to the Abbey campus and partner with the college in creating a nursing program there. The five-story, 265,000-square-foot hospital is expected to open next fall.
The idea of a new performance arts center at Belmont Abbey and its potential economic benefit to the community was endorsed by other community leaders, including CaroMont Health CEO Chris Peek and Gaston County Manager Kim Eagle.
“The Gaston Business Association recognizes Gaston County’s artistic and cultural assets, such as the proposed performing arts center on the campus of Belmont Abbey College, are essential to sustaining economic growth. We are encouraged by the recognition of this facility’s ability to address arts events and performance needs of not only BAC, but also those of the broader Gaston arts community,” says Gaston Business Association CEO Patrick Mumford in a statement released by the college.
Belmont Abbey College, located 10 miles west of Charlotte, has about 1,500 students this year. Earlier this year, Belmont Abbey made public a $100 million “Made True” capital campaign to coincide with its 150th anniversary. In addition to the new performing arts center and monastery for the monks on campus, the college expects to spend $30 million to fund new academic programs in nursing, public policy, and finance and have $55 million to boost its endowment and reduce — and eventually eliminate — federal student aid and provide better benefits to employees.
Earlier this year, Belmont Abbey says it had raised more than $73 million during a Charlotte gala featuring an alumnus, Rep. Patrick McHenry. The Gastonia native’s national profile was raised last week when the 10-term Republican congressman became acting House speaker, following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy.
Theater-goers gave a standing ovation following The Abbey Players performance of “The Three Musketeers.”