By Ashley Brown Aldine ISD
Music, dance, art and student voices took center stage Monday, Oct. 5, as Aldine ISD celebrated the groundbreaking of its new Education and Performing Arts Center, a space that will give students more opportunities to create, perform and showcase their talents.
Students were at the heart of the celebration, serving as emcees and taking the stage throughout the program with performances representing fine arts programs across the district.
Superintendent Dr. LaTonya M. Goffney said the groundbreaking represented more than the start of construction. “We are not simply breaking ground on a building,” Goffney said.
“We are breaking ground on possibility. We are breaking ground on hope.”
The new center will provide dedicated spaces for music, theater, dance and visual arts while creating new opportunities for students to develop their talents and share their work with the community.
Aldine students have already demonstrated what is possible through the district’s fine arts programs. In recent years, students have earned state and national recognition across visual and performing arts, including honors in visual art, band and theater.
Visual Arts Director Kaileigh Newman spoke about what having a professional space to create, curate and exhibit their work will mean for students.
“When students see their artwork displayed in a professional space, they see more than their artwork,” Newman said. “They see themselves.”
The center will also provide a dedicated home for the district’s performing arts programs.Performing Arts Director Refugio Rodriguez, an Aldine ISD graduate, reflected on how fine arts shaped his own education and the opportunities the new center will create for generations of students.
“That building, that home, is on the horizon,” Rodriguez said. “We’re building the building, the home, to match the heart of our fine arts.”
Student Allen Hampton said hearing from district leaders during the groundbreaking reinforced the support students have as they pursue their goals.
“We all knew Aldine was behind us, but this shows that Aldine is with us,” Hampton said. “It just motivates me to keep showing up, keep doing what I need to do, because it’s the students’ dedication that led to this building.”
Hampton, a high school junior, said the new center gives him additional motivation as he continues pursing his own goals. After graduation, Hampton plans to audition for Bachelor of Fine Arts programs to study acting, with hopes of eventually pursuing an acting career in New York.
When completed, the Education and Performing Arts Center will include a 1,200-seat main auditorium, a 400-seat theater, a flexible 200-seat black box theater, dance and ensemble studios, galleries and other spaces designed to support student learning and performances.
Executive Director of Facilities Planning and Construction Perla Lane said the center’s most important feature will not be found on a floor plan.
“It will be the students who walk through its doors,” Lane said.
The Education and Performing Arts Center is expected to open in 2028 and is one of the projects included in Aldine ISD’s Bond 2023 program.
The groundbreaking represents another step in the district’s continued work to deliver on the projects approved by voters while creating spaces that support students and the opportunities available to them.
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