About Central Lakes Community
Performing Arts Center
Our Mission
TO CREATE an environment where local performing artists can develop their craft.
TO SHARE with our community diverse, high-quality arts programming;
and
TO GROW a community of practitioners and lovers of the performing arts.
How We Started
In 1968 the theatre program at Brainerd Community College began under the direction of instructor Bob Dryden. That program, a student-and-community-based theatre, flourishes to this day. The program saw the addition of two theatre spaces, the Chalberg Theatre and the Black Box (renamed the Dryden Theatre). In 2006 Patrick Spradlin started the Cultural Arts Series. In the first two years of operation it featured staged readings of plays, local poets and musicians, and a locally produced film festival. As the popularity of the Series grew, so too did the organization supporting it. The designation of the Central Lakes Community Performing Arts Center in 2012 as an arts affiliate of the college assured the continued viability of both Brainerd Community Theatre and the Cultural Arts Series.