UNC Greensboro has opened the Jeanne Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice at Tate Street and Gate City Boulevard. Its 40-foot LED wall is built for film, dance and research.

UNC Greensboro has opened a new building for film, art, design and research at the corner of Tate Street and Gate City Boulevard.

The Jeanne Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice held its ribbon cutting on Monday, Nov. 2. The university announced the opening in a UNCG news post on Nov. 3.

The university calls the center the flagship of its Millennial Campus Initiative. It is meant for projects that bring together faculty, students and people from outside the university.

What is inside

UNCG said the building holds:

  • a light-filled central space called the Hub
  • makerspaces
  • technology-equipped studios
  • an immersive studio with a curved, 40-foot-long LED wall

The LED wall is the headline feature. UNCG said it is one of the largest and most accessible in the Southeast. Combined with markerless motion capture, it lets the university film and stage work in three dimensions for teaching, performance and research. The university described it as a Hollywood-scale virtual production wall in a publicly accessible university setting.

Two guests look down from a second-floor balcony into the Hub, a two-story open space at the Tannenbaum Center where people gather around catering tables.
The Hub, seen from the second floor of the Tannenbaum Center. Photo: UNC Greensboro University Communications

Who it is named for

The building honors Jeanne Tannenbaum, a 1964 UNCG graduate. The university said her gift helped make the project possible. She is a longtime volunteer and donor who has held leadership roles at UNCG, including in its recent Light the Way campaign.

“For generations to come, the Jeanne Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice is a powerful example of how one person’s belief in this University can create opportunities that will benefit countless others,” UNCG Board of Trustees Chair George Hoyle said at the opening.

Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. said the center was “founded on a simple but powerful belief: that creativity, dialogue, and emerging technologies can help us better understand our world and shape its future.”

Mayor Marikay Abuzuaiter was among the city and university leaders at the ribbon cutting.

Who is already using it

Two programs are running in the building:

  • Tannenbaum Made, an incubator for work across disciplines. Its first group includes ethnobotanist and Grammy-winning musician Justin Robinson. He is working with filmmaker D.L. Anderson and UNCG’s Genetic Counseling Program on “German Soul,” a documentary that uses food to explore his family history.
  • PROTOTYPE Faculty Fellows, four UNCG faculty members from dance, media studies, interior architecture and genetic counseling.

UNCG said the fellows will hold public events so people can see their work in progress and contribute to it.

What it means for you

The center is not only for students. UNCG said it was built for partnerships with people outside the university, and the faculty fellows’ events will be open to the public.

The opening announcement gives no dates for those events yet. Our things to do in Greensboro listings will carry them once UNCG posts them.

UNCG’s news post has more photos of the interior and the LED wall.