EMPAC

Introduction[edit]

Completed in 2008, EMPAC is RPI’s newest building and one of its most controversial. The building’s full name is the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, named after Curtis R. Priem, an alumnus who donated $40 million to RPI in 2004. It boasts performances by up-and-coming artists just breaking onto the scene, but some argue that the building was too expensive and exclusive enough that it doesn’t justify the amount of money spent on it.

Construction[edit]

Around 2000, when President Jackson had just been elected, RPI received what was then the largest donation given to an American university: a gift of $360,000,000 from an anonymous donor. From that donation, RPI decided to further its efforts to foster interdisciplinary studies and research, and expand from its purely technical reputation by building the Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center, renamed later as the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. Originally, EMPAC was slated for $50,000,000 and the council invited four architects to submit designs in a competition of sorts. A London-based company called Grimshaw Architects won the competition, and many others contributed. For acoustics, Kirkegaard Associates, for the theater, Fisher Dachs Associates, and many other people for the variety of perspectives needed to create such a building. The design of the building was recalibrated to take $141,000,000 and about 5 or 6 years, and construction began. Over its construction, EMPAC was funded by many donations from alumni, such as Curtis R. Priem, who donated $40,000,000 in 2004 and who the building was named for, and David Jaffe, who donated $1,000,000 in 2006. Finally, the building opened its doors in October of 2008 for an inaugural 3-week party.

Sentiments[edit]

Even while it was being built, EMPAC drew criticism from students and faculty alike who complained that the building was too grandiose and the money spent on it wasn’t worth such an effort. Today, students complain about not being granted access to go inside and use the space as much as they would like. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of EMPAC’s programming, as artists preferred to hone their craft inside where it was safe. Recently, EMPAC has started opening its doors to students on Wednesdays and restarted its programming. The general feeling among the student body was that EMPAC was a very large expense that had very little benefit to the students themselves. However, in Fall of 2023, EMPAC began to become more open to the students as a meeting, collaboration, and study space that is tucked away from most of the business that is on campus.

Uses[edit]

One of the defining uses of EMPAC is its curatorial program. The curatorial program has hosted many artists over the decade since its construction, across a wide range of disciplines. The public is open to coming to any of the curated events put on by the program. These programs are a collaboration between many different organizations and the hope is to push these artists and their work to a greater audience. The lifeblood of EMPAC’s curatorial program is the artist's residencies. EMPAC uses its recourses and state-of-the-art technology to bolster projects that are created by its residents. Residencies are planned out years in advance and the structure of the residence is individual to each artist. True to its name, EMPAC events traditionally focus on the experimental, making some students feel that the events are too weird or extraneous to be of any real value.

Outside of the curatorial program, EMPAC is also used for many student events. Prior to the pandemic, the Rensselaer Music Association (RMA) would hold up to 5 concerts a year in EMPAC’s main concert hall. These concerts include the NRB Fanfare, Family Weekend Concert, Winter Concert, Pops Concert, and Spring Concert. Since the pandemic, the RMA has had trouble securing the concert hall multiple times a semester. However, with the start of the Fall 2023 semester, it seems as if the concert schedule will go back to normal. As well as the RMA, the RPI Players have used EMPAC this season for their production of Heathers. In the Spring 2023 semester, a pipe burst in the RPI Playhouse making it unusable for students. As a substitute the players put on their musical in both EMPAC and the Russell Sage College Little Theater.