Fine Arts Complex - Stage, Studio and Song

A stop on College of San Mateo Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You've reached the Fine Arts Complex, three of the original 1963 buildings grouped around a courtyard: Music, Building 2, the Theatre, Building 3, and Art, Building 4, with the Sculpture and Ceramics studios in 4A nearby.

The Theatre is the big one, with seven tall glass bays across its front. It hosts concerts, plays, dance performances, lectures and film screenings, as well as formal events such as graduation ceremonies. A two-story covered walkway links the Music and Art buildings, so students can move between them out of the wind and rain.

This courtyard once had an outdoor amphitheater, removed during later work to make the campus accessible, which also added elevators, ramps and regraded terraces. The courtyard is still used for outdoor concerts and gatherings. If you hear a piano or a rehearsal drifting out of Building 2, you're in the right place: classes in music, theatre, art and ceramics all meet here.

Getting here: From the gym, walk west past the Health and Wellness Building and continue toward the Theatre's tall glass front, about four minutes.

Did you know?: Musicians Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead are both counted among CSM's former students.

Photo op: Frame the Theatre's row of tall glass bays from across the courtyard, with the covered walkway at the edge of the shot.

More on Wikipedia: College of San Mateo · Lindsey Buckingham · Phil Lesh

Fine Arts Complex - Stage, Studio and Song

Stops on this tour