Fox Cities Performing Arts Center

Money for this theatre came largely from its own valley. More than 2,700 local residents and businesses gave to the building campaign, and the insurer then called Aid Association for Lutherans — now Thrivent — added ten million dollars, the largest corporate gift the Fox Cities had seen. Designed by the Toronto practice Zeidler Partnership Architects, the Center opened in November 2002. Its main room, Thrivent Financial Hall, seats 2,100 and is planned so that no listener sits much more than a hundred feet from the stage; the Fox Valley Symphony plays there, alongside a touring Broadway series and a substantial programme for schools.