The proposed Downtown Arts Campus feasibility study will explore how UMKC students would gain by living and studying in KC’s downtown cultural district. Following are some of the current challenges facing Conservatory and Theatre students:
- The Conservatory is currently housed on the UMKC Volker campus in three different buildings that all require extensive renovation. The Conservatory also shares space with the Kansas City Rep, and UMKC Theatre Department.
- At present, theatre students travel from Grant Hall to Olson Center to rented off-campus facilities on any given day.
- In 1996 and in 2011, the National Association of Schools of Music found in their accreditation site visits that UMKC’s facilities do not meet standards for the Conservatory’s mission, size and scope.
- In 2010, the National Association of Schools of Dance expressed similar concerns about our dance facilities, noting that the two studios’ insufficient size limits UMKC’s ability to grow its dance enrollments.
