Battle Ground Academy News

Battle Ground Academy’s entrepreneurship and performing arts students are beginning to move into their new home, as the school is placing the final touches on the Sondra Morris and Robert N. Moore Jr. ’52 Center for Arts and Entrepreneurship.

The nearly 44,000-square-foot facility is meant to “provide the scaffolding for the skills” of the school’s programs, according to BGA Head of School Will Kesler. As such, the $14.5 million center contains classrooms, offices, breakout rooms, collaborative lobbies, a maker’s space, a board room, 550-seat auditorium and will soon even hold a coffee shop.

About 33,000 square feet of the building, located on the Glen Echo Upper School campus, is new, while roughly 10,000 is renovated space.  The two-story building features high ceilings and an open floor plan to reflect the grandiose nature of the work meant to take place within. About 100 students — about one in three at BGA — participate in entrepreneurship courses every year, and about 25 to 30 take the school’s entrepreneurship capstone course, where their business skills are put to the test with a “Shark Tank” style format. Additionally, both the middle and high schoolers perform two theatrical productions per year, which will also take place in the building.

While construction vehicles can still be found around the building’s exterior, the facility is largely finished. The final touches will be complete by the time students return to campus for the fall semester, but in the meantime, performing arts students are preparing to break in the new stage with its production of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.""