The Spencer Theatre for the Performing Arts

The Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts near Alto, New Mexico, opened on 3 October 1997 with a programme featuring violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Dave Brubeck and the New Mexico Symphony. Antoine Predock designed the building on a seventy-four-acre site, using pale stone quarried in Spain for its exterior. The theatre contains a stage of approximately 4,770 square feet and technical facilities for visiting companies. Glass installations by Dale Chihuly decorate the public spaces. Its programme encompasses music, dance and theatrical productions. Educational activities include performances for school groups and masterclasses associated with visiting artists. The combination of a purpose-built touring stage and arts education extends the theatre's work beyond its regular evening performances. Antoine Predock set this theatre on high ground in the mountains north of Ruidoso and clad it in pale limestone, so that the building reads as geology before it reads as architecture. It was paid for by Jackie and A. N. Spencer and opened in 1997; glass by Dale Chihuly hangs inside. Programming for a scattered mountain community is deliberately wide — touring musicals, country, dance, classical — and guided tours run twice a week for visitors who come simply to see the building.