Tennessee Performing Arts Center

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) is located in the James K. Polk Cultural Center of downtown Nashville, TN, and occupies an entire city block. The cultural center adjoins the 18-story James K. Polk State Office Building.

The idea for a large-scale performing arts facility developed in 1972 when Martha Rivers Ingram was appointed to the advisory board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. She proposed a similar center for her home city of Nashville. Ingram’s proposal involved a public-private partnership that would operate within a state-owned facility. Her idea met with considerable resistance, but she persevered for eight years during the terms of three governors. The result was the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, a three-theater facility located beneath a state office building across the street from the Tennessee State Capitol. In 1980, TPAC opened as the state’s premier theater venue.

Among its operations, TPAC presents a series of touring Broadway shows and special engagements, and administers a comprehensive education program. Each year, more than 100,000 students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, are brought to Nashville for performances by Nashville Ballet, the Nashville Opera, and the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, which are all resident performing arts groups of TPAC and provide year-round programming. Other companies also use TPAC’s facilities for plays, dance performances, concerts and other cultural programs.

Andrew Jackson Hall is the largest of TPAC’s multi-purpose theaters with a seating capacity of 2,472 seats, including 47 pit seats. The stage is more than 130 feet wide by 53 feet deep. The stage has a proscenium opening of more than 57 feet by 36 feet. Up to 112 performers can be accommodated in 14 dressing rooms, including a star suite, two onstage quick change rooms, and high-capacity choral spaces. Expansive wings, fly space, rigging and catwalks provide for productions of every size.