Fox Cities Performing Arts Center


The Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, also called the PAC, is a performing arts center in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin, USA. The Center is the home of the Broadway Across America – Fox Cities series, the Boldt Arts Alive! series, the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Education Series, and the Fox Valley Symphony. The Center has hosted the Wisconsin premieres of the Broadway blockbusters Disney’s The Lion King, The Producers, Wicked, and Jersey Boys, Billy Elliot, Les Misérables, and Kinky Boots. President George W. Bush delivered a speech at the Center during a campaign stop on March 30, 2004.
In 1999, Aid Association for Lutherans, now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, contributed $10 million – the largest philanthropic corporate gift in the history of the Fox Cities – towards the building of the Center. The Center’s board of directors and volunteer fundraisers raised $45 million in private contributions from over 2,700 local residents and businesses. The Toronto-based Zeidler Partnership Architects was hired to design the Center and in May 2000, the O.J. Boldt Construction Company began construction on the Center. Artec, Inc. provided acoustical and theatrical consulting for the Center. The Center opened on November 25, 2002, 31 months after breaking ground.
The Center is composed of: