The Sawyer Fine Arts Center was formally dedicated in honor of President Emeritus, H. Leslie Sawyer, on October 1st, 1960. Built during President Austin’s tenure, the center was named for Sawyer to recognize his many contributions to the campus and to the College itself; as the College’s longest serving president (1928-1955), President Sawyer oversaw the construction of more campus buildings than any other president and spearheaded the institution’s transition from an academy to a junior college for women.
The Sawyer Center was intended to be a modern learning center for the arts. When it opened its doors, the center included a costume shop, dressing rooms, a green room for performers, practice rooms, a dedicated music wing, and a lecture/rehearsal hall with seating for 150 people. Special features of the building include the Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery, which was designed to provide the maximum amount of natural light without sacrificing wall space, and the Sawyer auditorium, which seats 701 people and remains one of the largest collegiate auditoriums in New Hampshire to this day.
The exterior design of Sawyer Center was the first radical shift away from the Georgian Colonial style that had traditionally been used for campus buildings. Designed by E.H. & M.K. Hunter, Sawyer Center was intended to fit the unique landscape of the building site, by taking advantage of its sloping hillside location to create an auditorium that did not tower over the rest of the campus buildings.
The lobby of Sawyer Center was designed as a recreational space for students, and was referred to by various names over the years, including “The Center,” “The Student Lounge,” and, the most popular, “The Curb.” Originally, the student space was outfitted with a snack bar, plush furnishings, and a feature wall of Philippine mahogany. It served as a location for formal and informal meetings and as a social facility for hosting dates and guests. At some point around the 1980s, the student center became part of an expanded gallery for artwork to accommodate a growing art exhibition program.
More recent additions to the Sawyer Center include the Frances Lockwood Bailey Graphic Design Studio which opened in 1991. This studio created a dedicated space for graphic design majors and features a computer laboratory with Mac computers, the tool of choice for many graphic designers.
Fine and Performing Arts 