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Spelman College Graduates

Campaign Capital Projects

Spelman is forging ties between the arts, liberal arts and technology. The College’s demonstrated strength in STEM, coupled with its extraordinary assets in the arts— music, theater, dance, visual arts, art history, curatorial studies, and digital media— positions the College for STEAM, an initiative that encourages innovation, risk- taking, invention and collaborative interdisciplinary work.

Center for Innovation & the Arts


The new Center for Innovation & the Arts will be the home for Spelman’s Innovation Lab; will house all of Spelman’s arts disciplines; and provide a “front porch” for the community. The Center will cluster together numerous arts departments now scattered across the Spelman campus into a vibrant community of innovators, collaborators, artists, musicians and scientists.

The Porch contains community-facing spaces such as a second gallery for the College’s Museum of Fine Art, a dance performance studio, a high-tech digital black box theatre and a small café/retail outlet that faces a public plaza.

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The interactive Forum houses the interdisciplinary Innovation Lab, a collection of maker spaces, several digital media and gaming labs, and a multi-purpose classroom/event space.

On the upper two levels is The Hive, a double-height atrium envisioned as a multi-zoned area to enhance learning, teaching, practice and rehearsal, performance and the exchange of ideas across disciplines. The Hive will house offices, a conference and event center and a roof terrace.

The Plan for the Center:

  • challenges Spelman students to use technology inspired solutions for urban problems
  • creates an entrepreneurship incubator for high performing students
  • establishes high level partnerships with innovation partners in academia and industry
  • creates a front porch linking Spelman to its Westside community

Renovation of the Rockefeller Fine Arts Building

The Rockefeller Fine Arts building houses the Baldwin Burroughs Theater, famous for the early performances and work of actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, C'71, author and playwright Pearl Cleage, C'71, and recording artist and writer Kathleen Bertrand, C'73. Spelman has raised $17 million in verbal and documented commitments to fund the renovation of the theatre, lobby and surrounding areas in the Rockefeller Fine Arts Building.

Rockefeller Fine Arts

Baldwin Burroughs Theater



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Contact Us

Keisha Leverette, C'2002
Campaign Director
kleveret@spelman.edu





Pearl Cleage

Large Blue Quote LeftFor me, as an African-American woman writer, Spelman was a dream come true. Black women — both the subject of my work and my target audience — were everywhere! Students, faculty, staff, administrators, there they were, talking, teaching, learning, laughing, crying, growing, stretching our ideas of who we were and who we could become. All around me were the voices of Black women articulating their dreams and demonstrating their fierce determination to overcome any obstacle placed in our path. If I had ever doubted the richness, complexity and absolute beauty of our stories, Spelman put those doubts to rest forever." — Pearl Cleage, C’71, Mellon Playwright In Residence, Alliance Theatre



Alice Walker
Large Blue Quote LeftIt was during my Spelman years that I became friends with two students and two teachers who have remained my friends to this very moment. Nothing could have prepared me for the richness of these relationships, so unexpected, so rich, and so, apparently, eternal.”  — Alice Walker, alumna, writer, poet and activist