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Overture Center
Madison, Wisconsin
Developer: Overture Development Corporation

Completed in April 2006, the 400,000-square-foot (37,161-m2) Overture Center for the Arts project includes Overture Hall, a new world-class performance-arts facility; the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, an expanded art museum; and a variety of renovated performance and visual arts spaces. Set on an urban infill site just one block from the Wisconsin state capitol building, the center was made possible by a gift of $210 million—one of the largest gifts for an arts center in the United States—from W. Jerome Frautschi, a retired local businessman.

The Overture Center occupies the 2.5-acre (one-ha) site of the former Madison Civic Center in downtown Madison. The new civic facility fronts State Street, one of the four main axes originating from the State Capitol of Wisconsin. In addition to satisfying some of the community’s unmet cultural needs, Overture Center for the Arts has accelerated the revitalization of central Madison. More . . .