A day that was decades in the making finally arrived at Western Illinois University.
WIU cut the ribbon to mark the opening of the Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts. A new state-funded academic facility had not been built on the Macomb campus since Malpass Library opened its doors in Sept. 1978.
“Just ask anybody with a little of gray hair in town, and they will gladly tell you, depending on who you talk to, it’s somewhere between 40 and 50 years this has been in discussion,” Mick Cumbie, the center’s interim director, told TSPR.
The Tuesday afternoon ceremony in the building’s Great Hall drew hundreds of people, who celebrated outside the hall before the ceremony started.
The celebration was also kind of a community-wide sigh of relief. People thought — or at least hoped — the project would get done a number of years ago.
“Everybody in town jokes about the number of groundbreakings we have had, and I do as well,” Cumbie said.
There were at least three groundbreakings. But after the first two, the state failed to come through with the funding. Then, Governor JB Pritzker came to campus for one, final groundbreaking ceremony in Oct. 2022, where he announced the state was funding the $119 million building.
WIU initially hoped construction would take three years. But Cumbie said supply chain issues slowed the project. Now, four years after that final groundbreaking ceremony, he’s thrilled the 100,000 square foot building finally opened for classes a few weeks ago.
“To see the students come into the new spaces and just their reactions. Faculty as well. It’s just been incredible,” Cumbie said.
Touring acts are booked for the Great Hall’s inaugural season. Season tickets and tickets for individual shows are available online.
However, work continues on finishing touches.
“As somebody remarked to me, we’re flying this plane while we’re building it,” Cumbie said.
But with the Goldfarb Center mostly completed, he said it’s an amazing space.
“This building is a work of art,” he said.
Cumbie pointed to the Ken and Lorraine Epperson Gallery as a standout feature in the building.
“Most folks would call it a lobby. It’s far grander than that. The gallery bisects the building from east to west with a studio theater on the north side and the Great Hall Theater on the south side,” Cumbie said.
“It’s a magnificent space with its wooden, slanted ceiling, full windows facing north, the terrazzo floor which is a piece of art onto itself. It’s just a great place for people to be in.”
After the ribbon cutting ceremony, WIU President Kristi Mindrup said the GCPA will provide many opportunities for students.
“It’s just really incredible to think about the hands-on experiences that students are going to have in the studios and performance spaces throughout the building,” she said.
Mindrup said students were “literally singing with joy” as they walked through the building’s hallways to their classrooms during the first week of the school year.
The building is the result of years and years of blood, sweat, and tears from many people, perhaps none more so than Billy Clow.
Clow came to Western in 2012 to serve as dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication. He made it his mission to get the center built and he secured the state funding to finally make it a reality.
But he did not live to see his dream come true.
Clow died in April 2025 after a three-year battle with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
His widow, Tammy Killian, said the grand opening event was a bittersweet moment for her.
“I really wanted him to be able to be a part of the festivities and the celebration because I know this was his driving force in his life other than his family,” she said. “But at the same time, it’s a great day because we are here. We finally made it, and it’s because, in my opinion, it’s because of him.”
Killian, Director of Visual and Performing Arts at WIU, said Billy would have especially liked the center’s smaller theater, which is now named in his honor.
“I think he would be super proud of it, and I hope we make him proud with our productions that we do in there,” Killian said.
That theater can seat up to 200, depending on how it’s configured for a particular performance. Killian said Billy was instrumental in how the theater turned out, and as a designer, he would have loved the space.
As for the building’s name — the Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts — Al Goldfarb was WIU’s tenth president and is professor emeritus of theater at the university.
But he said the building is not named just for him.
“I think it’s named after the Goldfarbs. I like to think of it that way. Actually, when I look at the name, I actually see my father’ name up there. My father was the only survivor of the Holocaust in his family. And so for me, seeing that name, goes beyond seeing my name,” he said.
Al Goldfarb was one of Billy Clow’s professors when Clow was a graduate student at Illinois State University, where Goldfarb taught theater.
Goldfarb said Clow deserves all the credit for turning all those years of talk about the center into a completed project.
“This building really is because of him. He lobbied intensely. He argued that it needed to be a building for students as well as for road shows as well as for other kinds of performance activities,” he said.
Goldfarb said Clow was a remarkable student, designer, and teacher.
The Goldfarb Center ensures Billy Clow won’t be forgotten.
In addition to the theater that bears his name, two signs in the building display a quote from Clow. It serves as a reminder of the building’s purpose:
“The Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts is more than just a building. It is our art. It is our learning. It is our soul.”
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