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The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts offers Brooklyn College and New York City a space for learning, gathering, production, and presentation. Through collaboration and conviviality, the Tow Center proposes art as a catalyst for reimagining how we understand value on a personal and cultural level.
In both its programming and operations, the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts holds itself accountable to its priorities through transparency and revision. This praxis is essential to how we situate ourselves in relationship to art and the agreements we make to empower creative work in an increasingly bureaucratic and economically driven society. We imagine sustainable, joyous ways of being in the world together alongside the Canarsie and Munsee Lenape people, the original caretakers of this land, and the Black, Afro/Latino/a/x, Caribbean, Jewish, Asian, Middle Eastern, Slavic, ethnic immigrant, and disabled communities of the Midwood-Flatbush neighborhood. These disparate knowledges are essential to our collective well-being.
The Tow Center’s 128,000-square-foot facility and staff support Brooklyn College’s School of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts, producing 120 public events each year with the Conservatory of Music and the Department of Theater; 60 additional events created by and for Brooklyn College students, staff, and faculty; and its own curated programs.
The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts reopened its doors in 2018 after undergoing a significant seven-year capital improvement project. Built alongside the existing 2,400-seat Whitman Theater (now the Claire Tow Theater), the new state-of-the-art facility includes the 190-seat Don Buchwald Theater, the 120-seat New Workshop Theater, and more than 100 music rehearsal spaces, recital halls, practice rooms, recording studios, and theater workshops.
Established in 1951 as College Community Services—but known city-wide as Brooklyn Center at Brooklyn College (BCBC)—the former performing arts center was composed of Whitman Hall, the George Gershwin Theater, and the Sam Levenson Recital Hall. These entities were dissolved in 2018 to make way for the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts.
For more than 70 years, some of the world’s beloved and most accomplished artists have presented work at the center, from classic legends such as Leontyne Price (who opened the inaugural season), Zubin Mehta, The Joffrey Ballet, Marilyn Horne, Itzhak Perlman, Luciano Pavarotti, Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Acting Company, Peter Martins, Dame Joan Sutherland, and Edward Villella, to popular headliners like Tony Bennett, Pearl Bailey, Alan King, Patti LuPone, Linda Ronstadt, Arlo Guthrie, Ray Charles, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, The Beach Boys, the Ramones, Santana, Jerry Seinfeld, the Grateful Dead, and Angelique Kidjo, to innovators like Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, Gregory Hines, and the Dance Theater of Harlem.
The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts Brooklyn College 2900 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11210 718.951.4500 mail@boxoffice.brooklyn.edu
Box Office is open Tuesday–Thursday 1–6 p.m. and one hour before each ticketed performance. Please call 718.951.4500 to check hours or purchase tickets.
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View the general travel directions to Brooklyn College.
To access the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts, enter through Hillel Gate. Let the onsite security officers know the reason for your visit and they will help with navigation.
The Tow Center Atrium, the Don Buchwald Theater, Topfer Recital Hall, 093, and the music practice rooms are through the glass doors on the left after entering Hillel Gate.
To access the Claire Tow Theater, the Mezzanine Lounge, and the New Workshop Theater, follow the path from Hillel Gate about 200 feet (the brick façade of the Tow Center will be to your left). Enter through the Claire Tow Theater’s silver lobby doors and Tow Center staff will assist with navigation from there.
Metered parking runs along Bedford Avenue, Campus Road, and Nostrand Avenue. An indoor parking garage is available at Nostrand Avenue and Avenue H. The Tow Center does not provide on-site parking.
School buses can drop students off at Campus Road and East 27th Street. Enter via Whitehead Hall, then up the path to the Claire Tow Theater.
The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts is working to improve accessibility in all areas, but we acknowledge that improvements still need to be made. If you’d like to attend an event and have questions about accessibility, e-mail us or call 718.951.4500.
The north wing of the Tow Center is ADA compliant with a no-step entry. Our front doors are push-button operated. There is level access from the sidewalk through the atrium. The atrium elevator leads to the basement of both the north and south wings, north-wing mezzanine, and the second- and third-floor spaces of the north wing. Accessible restrooms are located on every level.
The lobby doors of the Tow Center Atrium are push-button operated. The Buchwald Theater can accommodate four to six wheelchairs and four to six companion seats, depending on the size of the mobility device being used. E-mail us to reserve parking and two-for-one tickets for wheelchair users and companions. Accessible restrooms are located on the lobby level.
There are 12 wheelchair seats and 12 companion seats at the orchestra level. There are also several transfer seats on the aisles for patrons with wheelchairs. E-mail us to reserve parking and two-for-one tickets for wheelchair users and companions. Accessible restrooms on located on the lobby level.
Visitors using wheelchairs will need to be accompanied by a staff member to navigate access from the north- to the south-wing basement level (we are working on installing an elevator in our south wing and apologize for this inconvenience). We can arrange parking and two-for-one tickets for wheelchair users and companions. Let us know as soon as you plan to attend by e-mailing us or calling 718.951.4500, ext. 3334.
Dena Beard, Director Chet Green, Production Manager Lucanus Hotaling, Production Andrew Kerr-Thompson, Production Hasan Ozcan, Director, Preparatory Center Marcus Richardson, Executive Director Thomas Selsey, Production Gerard Vaccarello, House Manager / Patron Services John Vetter, Box Office Manager / Ticketing Services Steven Wizior, Box Office Staff
Advance tickets are sold through Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts website. When a show has not sold out, we offer limited tickets for sale at the door. The box office will open two hours before the published start time of any ticketed event.
Yes! E-mail us to explore options.
Events usually start 30 minutes to one hour after doors open. Click through the event links to find specific start times, especially when programs occur on multiple days. Latecomers arriving after a performance has started will be admitted only as specified by Tow Center staff.
We release unoccupied seats five minutes before start time. If there are cancellations or no shows, there is a chance that a few seats will become available. If you are interested in those seats, arrive early, form a queue, and wait for the will-call line to finish taking their seats before requesting tickets.
All sales are final. Tickets are nonrefundable.
Masking is not required, but the use of masks is always welcome. For the health and safety of our entire community, we strongly recommend staying home if you are feeling sick.
We ask that you power down your phone completely during performances as unexpected light, sound, and vibration can be distracting to both the artists onstage as well as your fellow audience members.
If you would like to take a quick video or photo during the performance, check with us first—artists need to make a living off their work. We will be able to let you know artist preferences regarding documentation.
No food or drinks are allowed into the theaters. We do not offer concessions at the Tow Center.
We do not provide a coat check in any of our theaters. Note that coats, parcels, and bags may be subject to search as a condition of entry.
Smoking or vaping is not permitted anywhere on the Brooklyn College campus.
