Capital Campaign

Service to the Community | Service to Artists

The Palladium fosters artistically and culturally diverse performing arts, and educational and community programs that bring artists and audiences together in a first-class professional, affordable setting.

Our goal is to transform our 98-year-old historic building into a world-class venue for local artists and our community and guarantee our future as the region’s cultural and educational anchor for decades to come. We will make the Palladium experience more intense, more emotionally satisfying, and more connected to the life of our city.

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MEETING THE FUTURE – Our Campaign for Growth

Our campaign is raising funds to guarantee the future of our community’s cultural and educational anchor for decades to come.

Our mid-size hall is the only one of its size in our region, supporting affordable professional and community performances. Yet to survive and thrive in an industry that is ever evolving, we must transform our historic building into a dynamic performing arts center. Twenty-first century industry-standard staging, technology and acoustics improvements will enable us to remain economically and artistically viable and meet the expectations of our performers and audiences.

The $10 million makeover will incorporate our historic features with visual and acoustical improvements.

Improvements include:

Complete makeover of the stage
New stage apron extending into audience
Retractable proscenium
All new seating and sightlines
Architectural improvements include an “acoustical throat”
Sound deadening to improve acoustics
New lighting grid and grid management systems
Repurposed organ loft for more performance space

How we will do it

The Palladium will be reimagined in consultation with Earl Swensson Associates and Akustiks, word-renowned architects and acousticians. ESa designed Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center among hundreds of others performing arts centers. Akustiks recently completed the state-of-the-art home for the New York Philharmonic in the David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center.

Acousticians will conduct extensive, scientific studies and develop a plan for both performance spaces that alter the volume of space to optimal acoustic proportions for an orchestra, or a folk, jazz, or rock group, creating optimal sound diffusion and eliminating most ambient noise. Architecture improvements designed hand in hand with acoustics will ensure that performances will be experienced as they were intended to be.

The main hall’s makeover will highlight its historic features while incorporating visual and acoustical Improvements that will tune the room to the group and the audience. And of course, all new seating with improved sightlines will replace our nearly 100-year-old seats. The Side Door will receive a complete refresh yet maintain the intimate listening room atmosphere that makes it feel like home for artists and guests.

Why the Palladium is unique in Tampa Bay

We are the only mid-size arts center in the region that offers a main stage and an intimate cabaret that showcases local talent at affordable rates.
We are the only theater to invest in artists by funding the creation and performances of their works though our Palladium Creative Fellows program.
We are the only theater to host three professional artist-in-residence groups.
We are the only theater to serve as the professional “lab” for SPC’s music production and engineering students, providing internships that serve as job training and entry into the global music business.
We are the only theater to provide performing artists and groups with essential wraparound services, including staging, lighting, sound, box office, marketing, and media support.
Our ticket revenue directly supports performing local artists and arts groups.

Some 200 performances annually. Presenting 2,000 artists.

We strive to provide audience access to our performances. We are the affordable center for dozens of Pinellas school events, community dialogues, political and environment convenings, and special events every year. The large performing arts centers in our area are prohibitively expensive for local arts and community organizations.

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Our Plan & Challenge

Capital Renovation is the key to our programming growth

To survive and thrive in an industry that is ever evolving, we will transform our church building into a dynamic performing arts center to remain economically and artistically viable. Twenty-first century industry-standard staging and technology improvements will enable us to meet the expectations of our marketplace, performers, and audiences.

Renovation will expand our business model, enabling us to earn additional income from recording sessions, streaming, video recording, mixed media, and other projects; and capture bookings that now pass us by.
Renovation will ensure that the Palladium can maintain affordable booking rates and ticket prices and continue our role in developing and presenting local performers. Our size is our unique asset as we are the only mid-size venue in the area.

Watching music performed in person in the transformed Palladium will have so much more added meaning, especially when shared as part of our larger world than one can ever experience alone. Every part of the psychoacoustics; the mood, color, and sense of place will be in service of our goal to provide an immersive experience that will be so much more satisfying to the artists and the audience

Our Defining Moment

With your support we will build upon our founders’ vision and continue our mission as the professional, yet affordable, performing arts center in Tampa Bay. A successful campaign will extend beyond the Palladium by providing a positive economic impact for the city, county, and region. It will strengthen and elevate our performance capabilities so that the performers and the crews backstage can inspire our audiences.

Your support will help ensure that the Palladium continues to create and produce exceptional performances and serve our community in years to come.

We ask you to consider a meaningful leadership gift. We have significant naming opportunities to recognize individual or business commitments to the performing arts.

Contact Us

Paul Wilborn, Executive Director, Wilborn.Paul@spcollege.edu

Naming Opportunities

Naming opportunities are offered in grateful appreciation for leadership pledges to our campaign.

Named gifts visibly encourage others to contribute to our future. It will be our privilege to reserve your name, or business, or someone you would like to commemorate with this unique honor acknowledging your leadership contribution.

Palladium Theater	Committed
Main Hall	Committed
Side Door Cabaret	$ 1,000,000
Lobby	$ 500,000
Main Stage	$ 250,000
Breezeway Promenade	$ 100,000
Public Art over Mainstage	$ 100,000
Side Door Stage	$ 100,000
Balcony	$ 100,000
Palladium Annex	$ 100,000
Parking Lot	$ 100,000
Palladium Courtyard	$ 100,000
Grand Staircase	$ 75,000
Lobby Concessions	$ 50,000
Side Door Concessions	$ 50,000
Director’s Office	$ 50,000
Green Room	$ 50,000
Lobby Bar	$ 50,000
Box Office	$ 50,000
Dressing Room 1 w/bath	$ 50,000
Dressing Room 2 w/bath	$ 50,000
Dressing Room 3 w/bath	$ 50,000

Performance Loft	$ 50,000

Director’s Office	$ 25,000
Administration Office	$ 25,000
Elevator Lobby Downstairs	$ 25,000
Elevator Lobby Upstairs	$ 25,000
Elevator	$ 25,000
Operations Office	$ 25,000
Donor Recognition Wall	$ 25,000
Side Door Kitchen	$ 20,000
Technical Workshop	Committed
Ushers Office	$ 15,000
Sound Station	Committed
Lighting Station	$ 15,000
Palladium Workshop	$ 15,000
Admin Restrooms (2)	$ 10,000
Disabled Rest Room	$ 10,000
Bathroom – Green Room	$ 10,000
Lobby Men’s Room	Committed
Lobby Women’s Room	Committed

The St. Petersburg College Board of Trustees authorizes key naming opportunities to express the Palladium and the St. Petersburg College Foundation’s gratitude for your generous philanthropic support. Donors are encouraged to choose one naming gift at their gift level. Family gifts may be combined for naming purposes. Naming plaques will be displayed for as long as St. Petersburg College operates the building as an education and performing arts center.

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