On an early Saturday morning, the Eugene Ballet Academy was full of young dancers waiting for rehearsals or trying on elaborate costumes for the upcoming performance of the Nutcracker at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. Sofia Kavash took a brief break in the library of the Academy from her Nutcracker rehearsal of the Waltz of the Snow Flakes.

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like without the Hult Center,” Kavash, a 16-year-old member of the Eugene Ballet Academy, said. 

On September 24th, the Hult Center celebrated 40 years of rich history in Eugene.

Over the decades, the city-owned facility has come to rely on several resident companies, like the Eugene Ballet and the Eugene Symphony, to fill the calendar with performances.

The companies rely on the Hult Center just as much as it relies on these companies.

“The Eugene Symphony is what it is today because the Hult Center was built,” Scott Freck, Executive Director of the Eugene Symphony, said.

But 40 years ago, the Hult Center was not a center that Eugene was sure it wanted.

During the early 1900s, Eugene was mainly a logging town. As more families moved to Eugene to follow the timber industry, the desire for a place for the arts increased. In the 1900s, the Heilig Theatre was built to satisfy this desire and became a home for performances in this region. But, it soon closed.

A group founded in 1963 called the Lane County Auditorium Association dreamed of a grand performing arts center. After nine years of planning for the Hult Center, it introduced a $5.5 million bond issue proposal for the performing arts center to be voted on by the city.

Voters said, “No.”

Not giving up hope, the LCAA came back to the ballot with a second proposal of $5.5 million, on a separate ballot. They were confident it would pass and their dream would become reality.

Again, voters said, “No.”

That looked like the end of the LCAA’s vision for a magnificent performing arts center.

According to the book “The Hult Center - From Dreams To Reality,” written by Marvin and Dana Tims, the Oregon Arts Commission surveyed Eugene and found 75% of respondents supported a new arts center. 

Five years after the second failed bond measure, a bond proposal of $18.5 million was on the ballot for a new arts center. It passed. That was the start of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. 

The Hult Center has a unique relationship with the City of Eugene. It is publicly owned and operated by the city, meaning that it is also paid for by the citizens of Eugene. However, the Hult Center sits on a multi-million-dollar endowment bestowed by a local logging family, the Hult family. The family agreed to endow money to the Hult Center, but only if the building was under its name. 

“This agreement happened behind a closed-door meeting at a City Council meeting. They took the money, and they agreed to it. They told everyone in Eugene, ‘this is now the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.’ Everyone in Eugene said, ‘But we paid for it too.’ Instant controversy,” Rich Hobby, Marketing Director at the Hult Center, said.

The past 40 years of the Hult Center since its doors opened in 1982 have been a success, now reaching around 250 events a season, according to Hobby.

“The reason [the Hult Center is] so busy is because it's multi-use. It's not built for a single thing but it can do lots of different things,” Freck said.

The Hult Center is almost always busy, catering to the different interests of the Eugene community. In one week at the Hult Center, there is the potential to see a comedy show, a local band, a ballet showcase or a famous Broadway performance. 

“It’s really fun when I am performing the Nutcracker with a lot of older students who go on pointe and are the Sugar Plum Fairy and other principal dancers,” Pascal Roy, a 9 year old who will be performing as a Bon Bon in the Eugene Ballet Academy’s performance of the Nutcracker, said. “It feels really nice to perform with them.” 

Giving young children the opportunity to perform on a stage that has been graced by famous artists and performers is one unique part of the Hult Center.

As young dancers twirled through the Pine Forest and The Land of Sweets in the Nutcracker, the Eugene Symphony honored the beauty of Oregon’s seasons.

In 2018, the Eugene Symphony presented The Four Seasons of the McKenzie River. The orchestra performed Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” as images of the McKenzie River floated overhead.

“A great synthesis of two things that are so great about this area, art and nature coming together like never before,” Freck said.

Architects built a connection between the Hult Center and the natural environment into the structure itself. The average concert-goer may not recognize the history built into its walls.

In the main lobby, the design was built to represent aspects of the local environment. The custom carpet represents the forest floor of Oregon, while tall pillars of local lumber represent Eugene’s history with the lumber industry. The Cascade Mountains are represented through the peaks of the glass windows of the center.

Generations of performers have also left their mark.

Backstage in the hallway leading up to stage right of the Silva Concert Hall, signatures are scrawled in every open space in the hallway.

 “There is a tradition here of having performers, especially traveling groups coming through, sign the walls,” Freck said. 

Many of the signatures come from Broadway touring groups. Tucked behind signatures, a message from the creator of “Star Trek,” Gene Roddenberry, said, “Hello Eugene from Eugene Roddenberry.”A signature from the Grateful Dead can also be spotted.

“That’s something that the average concert-goer at the Hult Center doesn’t know, that they've kept a lot of that history,” Freck said. “It’s pretty amazing.” 

And now a new generation of performers like Eugene Ballet Academy dancers Pascal and Kavash have the chance to write a new chapter on the community’s center stage.

“Everyone wants to see the show succeed and the dancers succeed. The stage crew, everyone is trying to make it all come together,” Kavash said. “Everyone is just there to support each other.”