Taché Arts Project

We are eagerly anticipating the opening of our new facilities in 2014. The Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music will soon be home to a new state-of-the-art facility that will give our faculty and students a larger, more artistic environment in which to learn, rehearse, perform and create.

New facilities will include:

• The 500-seat Marcel A. Desautels Auditorium, an acoustically superior concert hall designed to accommodate a full range of performances from solo recitals to opera productions
• Large state-of-the-art rehearsal spaces for choir/opera, symphony orchestra/wind ensemble/concert band, and jazz ensembles
• 40 practice rooms
• An electro-acoustic studio
• A multimedia studio
• Keyboard labs
• Eckhardt Gramatté Music Library
• Large and medium classrooms, seminar rooms
• Faculty studios

About the Taché Arts Project

Originally conceived as a renovation of the historic Taché Hall residence, the Taché Arts Project will see the former Taché Hall take on a new life as the heart of a new visual and performing arts hub for the University's innovators, creators, and visionaries.

The Taché Arts Project will confirm the University of Manitoba’s position as a key contributor to the cultural life of the city of Winnipeg. The vibrancy of the cultural life of a city is a key indicator of the overall attractiveness and liveability of a city.

With our original Music building (opened in 1966) initially designed for only 60 students, the Faculty is now bursting with nearly 300 students, currently housed in eight buildings across campus.

The redevelopment of 68,000 square feet of Taché Hall for Music, along with 90,000 square feet of new construction, will create state-of-the-art facilities in an exciting juxtaposition of old and new buildings that reflect on the artistic traditions of the past while acting as a pathway to innovations for the future.

Filled with light, our new inviting spaces will include an atrium that will run the length of the addition and will link various levels of the complex, including a lobby area for the Marcel A. Desautels Auditorium, and providing access to new rehearsal rooms and multimedia teaching spaces. Students will have a multitude of areas in which to gather and study; administration and faculty will have expanded office and teaching spaces. The Taché Oak Room (former dining hall) will be developed into a music library.

Altogether, the Music portion of the Taché Arts Project encompasses 158,000 square feet of renovation and development – truly creating and enhancing a learning environment for our most valuable asset – our students.

Taché Hall Redevelopment, Music Addition and Concert Hall

• 140,000 square foot, four storey Taché renovation (68,000 for Music)
• 90,000 square foot, two storey new construction for Music (158,000 total square feet for Music)
• LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design): Silver targeted for new construction
• Design by award-winning Patkau Architects and LM Architectural Group
• Occupancy Date: Fall 2014

Taché Hall Program Components:

Music Library; Conklin Hall Theatre, backstage, technical and support facilities; music practice and teaching studios; faculty and graduate student offices; art studios and wet photography labs and darkrooms.

Music Addition Program Components:

Marcel A. Desautel Auditorium, music rehearsal and teaching spaces for jazz, opera, ensembles, percussion and electro acoustic and multimedia composition.

Phase One – ART Lab (Completed)

Components:

School of Art Gallery; collection vaults; painting and drawing studios; digital media labs; photography studio; video soundstage; print media studios; workshops, classrooms and seminar rooms; 140 seat lecture theatre and the Director’s administration suite.

ARTLab     Photo: Kristina Nordstrom