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The Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL was built to provide a performance home for campus events, academic programs, and regional arts organizations.

Quick Overview

Designed by the renowned architectural firm I.M. Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners, the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center is a landmark performance facility on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL).The spectacular venue contains three performance spaces; the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall with 1600 seats, the flexible E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater with seating for up to 375, and the open-form Whitaker Hall with seating for up to 175. The Touhill hosts an average of 120 events, 200 performances, and 90,000 visitors per year.


The Touhill staff manages several collaborative relationships and programs that, along with campus and community partners, to bring together a diverse season of dance, theatre, music, festivals, and special events.

 

 

Performance Spaces

There are three performance spaces within the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall is a proscenium style road house with 1,600 seats. It is a perfect space for many medium-sized concerts, amplified or acoustic, as well as dance and theater. This hall also creates a unique environment for corporate keynotes, stakeholder meetings, or retreats. The E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater, also known as the Lee Theater, is a flexible space with seating up to 375. The Lee Theater is able to move around in various configurations including open concert hall, proscenium theater, in the round, alley, runway, as well as an open floor ballroom. Lastly, the Whitaker Hall is an open form studio space with up to 175 seats.
With the Touhill Performing Arts Center's 123,000 total square footage, the venue hosts an average of 120 events per year with 200 public performances. Approximately 60% of the Touhill's usage is for academic and UMSL-related events. A third of the Touhill's usage is by non-profit community organizations. This creates, on average, over 90,000 patrons, participants, and artists visits each year!

Mission Statement

The Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis creates opportunities for the people of our region to experience, appreciate and embrace the transformational power of the performing arts. It is a welcoming place, a leading cultural partner in our community and a symbol of this University's commitments to integrate education, innovation and excellence.

 

Customer Focus: We help others perform at their best.

 

 

Fast Facts About the Touhill!

  • The building is named after former UMSL Chancellor Blanche M. Touhill. She served as chancellor from 1990-2002 and was instrumental in obtaining funding and support for the Center.

  • I.M. Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners, the architectural firm that designed the Touhill, also designed the pyramid addition to the Louvre in Paris, Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

  • There are 20 dressing and artist support rooms allowing for 106 performers to be sat at a mirror at one time.

  • Front of House operations are supported by a 60 member volunteer guild. Our dedicated volunteer corps donates an estimated 7,500 hours annually, serving as friendly greeters, ticket takers, and ushers.

  • The Touhill employs over 50 students to assist with administration, ticket sales, front of house, and backstage services.

  • Nearly 40,000 K-12 students experience the performing arts through attending school performances or through academic outreach.

  • In the average year, the Touhill makes over 2,500 deeply discounted tickets to over 50 different productions available to UMSL students. For $20 or less, students with a valid UMSL ID can see the best in international and national artists when they perform on the Touhill stages

  • One million people visited the Touhill in its first decade of operation.

  • The Touhill took three years to build and was completed in 2003 for a cost of $52 million dollars.