Noting That Westminster Campus is Still Home to Several Performing Arts Groups
To the Editor:
In your Feb 12 article on the town’s plan to hire a consulting firm to advise on the best uses of the former Westminster Choir College campus [page 1], you included the sentence, “The Princeton campus has been mostly unoccupied since then.”
Actually, the campus has been — and still is — home to several local performing arts organizations that rent various facilities on the campus. These include the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra, Princeton Pro Musica Choir, Music Together, and the Westminster Conservatory, which provides private music lessons to adults and youth from around Mercer County.
In addition, several other organizations (both from the area and those visiting from afar; last June, a traveling choir from Montreal performed there) have often used Bristol Chapel and other spaces for periodic performances.
These organizations rely on the spaces on campus for their flexibility, access to easy and available parking, and affordability. And, in many ways, they further the original intent of the campus, promoting music and artistic excellence while fostering community engagement in the arts.
We are thrilled that the town is taking steps to rehabilitate the campus for the community; we sincerely hope they will take the current users’ needs into account while securing Westminster’s future as a beacon of creativity and culture for generations to come.