Mayer Theatre History and Public Memory

Santa Clara University is a Jesuit liberal arts University located in the heart of the silicon valley. However, over the many years since its establishment in 1850, the arts, particularly the theatre department, have fought to maintain their place on this technologically and athletically oriented campus. 

At this moment in time, the university is beginning to plan a new “downtown” for the city of Santa Clara, which would flow right onto the campus, connecting the Unviersity to its surround community. How does this intersect with Mayer Theatre? This plan includes a new performing arts center. 

Therefore, as we sit once again on the precipice of the opporunity to make decisions that will both literally and rhetorically "place," it is important for us to understand, as a community, where Mayer Theatre came from, its history, and how we can escape making the same mistakes that have led to its current, overwhelmingly negative reception by the campus community. In order to do this, I have created an interactive timeline that will hopefully help us examine Santa Clara Unviersity's Mayer Theatre as it has existed in the public memory over time, and serve as a case study for the way that physical space has the ability to invoke or prevent the develpoment of community. 

In the spirit of recognizing the fluidity of public memory, and desiring to include all voices in this archive, we invite you to leave your mark on this dynamic exhibit, by taking the attached google survey to let us know what YOU think about Mayer Theatre -- past, present, and future.