Veterans Memorial Auditorium

The Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, commonly known as the VETS, opened in 1950. Situated on the Avenue of the Arts opposite the Rhode Island State House, it accommodates just over 2,000 spectators. The proscenium auditorium includes a decorated ceiling bearing the shields of Rhode Island's thirty-nine cities and towns. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building hosts the Rhode Island Philharmonic and has also served organisations including FirstWorks and Festival Ballet Providence. Its programme ranges from orchestral concerts and ballet to popular music and other touring performances, with artists such as Wynton Marsalis and Mavis Staples appearing on its stage. Built in 1950 as Rhode Island's memorial to its war dead, the auditorium has served ever since as the state's largest room for concert music. Just over two thousand seats, arranged with a closeness unusual at that scale, make it a hall that flatters an orchestra; the Rhode Island Philharmonic is based there, alongside other performing companies, and a substantial renovation completed in 2015 brought the building's technical fabric up to date. Providence knows it simply as the VETS.