THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING! Without your continued support of PACE and our partners, this place couldn't exist. Thank you for volunteering your time to help make our mission a reality. This guide will be your step-by-step playbook on being the best PACE Ambassador Tour Guide you can be. It will provide all the fun tid-bits of information that make the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center such an amazing place. There is a lot of information in this packet. It's important to remember to trust in our amazing facility. It more often than not sells itself. Remember to relax and have fun!
Main Entrance & Lobby Welcome to the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center! This is our main lobby called the Dick Miller Family Atrium. This space serves as a hyphen between the original 1894 McCormick's International Harvesting Company Building and the Polina & Bob Schlott Performing Arts Center. This 95,000 square foot facility is home to 5 non-profit organizations including American Midwest Ballet, Chanticleer Community Theater, Kanesville Symphony Orchestra, Kitchen Council, and PACE. The lobby is also home to our box office. This is where patrons can come to learn more about what is going on here at the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center, purchase tickets for shows, register for classes, buy art, and become a volunteer!
Polina & bob schlott performing arts center This is the Polina & Bob Schlott Performing Arts Center.
This theater seats 281 people and the seats are designed to specifically eliminate obstructed views. Our theater stage sports a large fly system with 30 line sets that provide a wide variety of options for lighting, backdrops, and more things that help set the scene on stage. The 86-ft tall precast cement panels provide sound protection from the outside world. In an area of town where trains and planes are so prominent, we wanted our space to completely cut yourself off from the commotion. Our brand new, state-of-the-art, LED lighting system is the most energy efficient lighting system money can buy. The LEDs provide us richer, more intense colors. The light and sound panels represent the design theme of the building, which is "Movement". You will see this same angular designs repeated through the entire building.
Chanticleer Community Theater After six decades, the Chanticleer Community Theaters is happy to be a part of the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center. This valued community theater has shared its love and passion for music and the arts on stage since 1952. Chanticleer Community Theater performs a wide repertoire of plays and programs to delight and entertain live theater lovers young and old. The mission of Chanticleer is to provide an educational, entertaining, cultural, and historic experience for the greater Council Bluffs and Metro community through the performing arts. Come and join us for shows filled with love, laughter, and fun! Chanticleer Community Theater offers opportunities for elementary, middle and high school students interested in learning about the craft of acting. The acting workshop will touch on the many elements of performance including stage presence, speaking skills, imagination, warming up the body and mind, memorization, rehearsal etiquette and how to audition. Our Children’s Theater offers an inclusive environment for children of all backgrounds, cultures, and lifestyles where they can study many aspects of theater arts, develop valuable life skills, and produce quality plays. Our students learn all the facets of a stage production, including writing, acting, set design, and behind-the-scenes work. Children’s Theater is an informal, classroom-based structure promoting self-expression, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork. All students enrolled in our classes are eligible to audition in plays that are put on for live audiences, but those who are stage shy have plenty of other ways to contribute and participate. Managed by PACE, Chanticleer produces 5 shows annually. Stop by the box office or visit PACEartsiowa.org to purchase tickets!
Kanesville Symphony Orchestra The Kanesville Symphony Orchestra is a volunteer orchestra based in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Founded in 2014, Kanesville Symphony Orchestra was engineered to be open to all musicians regardless of their musical background, experience, age, and even instrument. It is open to all musicians, all ages, and all musical instruments. Membership is free and open to anyone who wishes to join. Managed by PACE, Kanesville Symphony Orchestra presents three concert series annually. Stop by the box office or visit PACEartsiowa.org to purchase tickets.
MCCORMICK's 1894 As we step into the historic portion of the building, we're greeted by McCORMICK'S 1894 restaurant and bar area. The name honors the building's historic beginnings as the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. This space is activated whenever we have theater, ballet, orchestra shows, and our popular Hoff Fourth Fridays. It also is open every Friday evening during our Anne & John P. Nelson Gallery Hours and PACE Studio Artists - Open Studio Hours. PACE has recently started partnering with Kitchen Council entrepreneurs and local restaurants to provide pop ups and food options throughout the year. McCORMICK'S 1894 is meant to follow the angular "movement" theme that you'll find in places like the Polina & Bob Schlott Performing Arts Center. You'll find this in the blue tiles on the walls that are hand crafted by an artist from Texas. McCORMICK'S 1894 also features a luxurious outdoor patio area which provides ample seating for any event we may host.
IOWA WEST FOUNDATION EVENT VENUE This is the Iowa West Foundation Event Venue. This is our main venue space where we host events like weddings, meetings, conferences, proms, art tours, and more. If you need a venue, this is the place to be. As you can see, there is a lot of wall space for art to be hung. We wanted the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center to feel like one big gallery. All of the art you see on these walls and throughout the entire building is for sale through our Box Office. 30% of art sales support the arts and PACE's mission. This building formerly housed farm equipment. They used the rail line behind the building to ship farm equipment out to the US. We have restored one of the vaults here, and even found a permanent home for a good friend - The McCormick's Ghost!
Kitchen Council Headed up to the second floor, we are greeted by the Omaha Greater Chamber Foundation Culinary Arts Kitchen. This kitchen is home to our partner, Kitchen Council. Kitchen Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping entrepreneur chefs get their business up and running. Kitchen Council has three (3) primary areas of expertise including food trucks, brick and mortar restaurants or catering, and packaged goods. Kitchen Council is featured heavily throughout the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center. It provides a truly unique experience to incorporate the culinary arts into the rest of the fine art happening here. Kitchen Council entrepreneurs are often our first choice in terms of serving weddings, meetings, and other rentals. Their location in the building provides a easy and accessible food option for any and all needs.
Community Hub & Teaching Kitchen As we walk down the hall towards our teaching kitchen, we find office spaces that are occupied by PACE and our partners. Wrapping around the corner is the American National Bank Teaching Kitchen. This is a fully equipped kitchen where all of our culinary arts classes are held. All of our classes are taught by local professionals and we provide a wide variety of cuisines from cultures all around the world. This space also doubles as a break room for PACE and our partners during large events. This floor also hosts The Hawks Foundation Community Hub. This hub is an easily accessible space used by all 5 of the non-profits here at the Hoff Center. Eventually, PACE will start to rent out cubical space to other arts based non-profits in Council Bluffs.
American MIdwest Ballet This is the MidAmerican Energy Dance Corridor. This entire area is ran by American Midwest Ballet, our resident professional dance company. This corridor is home to two large dance studios. Notice the beautiful ceiling pattern that mimics the "Movement" pattern that is also present in our theater house. American Midwest Ballet is the largest professional dance company in the midwest, and they work with professional dancers that work all across the nation. Notice the sculpture made out of used shoes of the dance company, and the picture of American Midwest Ballet's founder. American Midwest Ballet's dance corridor also sports two large dressing rooms and a costume shop. American Midwest Ballet designs all of their costumes in house.
NANCY S. Benson Arts & Education Floor This is the Nancy S. Benson Arts & Education Floor. This area serves as a gathering place for parents and families during and between classes and rehearsals. This floor has three large classrooms where we teach a variety of classes like art, ceramics, dance, theater, music, and more. This floor also has 5 artist studios, a glass studio, and 2 kilns to fire all of our glass and clay pieces in house. The 5 artist studios are available to artists at a subsidized rate, similar to Hot Shops in Omaha. The artists that take residence here are asked to teach 2 classes per year to help build our educational offerings.
PACE STUDIO ARTISTS PACE has 5 studio artists that work here in house. These artists are Buck Christensen, Jeff Koterba, Ann Brugenhemke, Susan Woodford, and Kent Hertz. The first studio belongs to Buck Christensen. Buck is a photographer who has captured some amazing images of Council Bluffs and other places of Southwest Iowa. Next is Jeff Koterba. Jeff is a talented cartoonist, writer, painter, and musician. Jeff has worked with the Omaha World-Herald for 23 years prior to coming to the Hoff Center. Further down the hall we reach Ann Brugenhemke's studio. Ann is an amazing painter. She primarily paints with oil on canvas. After Ann is Tim Guthrie's studio. Tim is a master sculptor, painter, and film producer. Tim is the newest artist to join PACE in the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center. Lastly is Kent Hertz's studio. Kent is a master video and music producer. Kent has worked with many popular artists through his tenure, and now works with a ton of local non profits to further support the arts.
Anne & JOhn P. Nelson Exhibition Floor Welcome to the Anne & John P. Nelson Exhibition Floor and the last stop on our tour. This floor is dedicated to local artists. It's meant to be a flexible space where the community can proudly display their work. This space is meant to be used for anything from a normal art gallery to event venue. Almost every wall you see in this space is actually movable. On permanent display here are the Cornroom Mural pieces by Grant Wood. These pieces were originally on display at the Chieftan Lodge before being taken down. In one of the pieces you can see a barn similar to the one found in his most famous work, American Gothic. Also on permanent display are the Odyssey proof sculptures done by artist Albert Paley. These four scupltures are the original proofof-concept models made by Paley to present to the Iowa West Foundation. For drivers passing under the South 24th Street bridge, the sculptures tower up to 100 feet above the interstate, establishing a true sense of place.