Leo J Welder Center For The Performing Arts

About the Center

The Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts is the realized dream of many. In 1992, the Victoria Community Theatre Board of Governors determined that the theater had outgrown itself and needed a new site. After an extensive search, VCT selected the abandoned Dunlap's Department Store building on the corner of Main and Goodwin streets as a likely candidate for renovation.

The board gathered information and created documents and drawings to support fundraising efforts, but the theatre's performance schedule didn't allow time or resources to secure the purchase of the building.

In 1994, a group of medical administrators and doctors moved forward to purchase the building and to expand on the theater's goal by creating a performing arts center.

Victoria Performing Arts Center, Inc. was formed to carry on with the plans and fundraising. The group's goal was to bring the arts to downtown Victoria, revitalizing the historical district of the community while improving the quality of life for the entire crossroads area.

Groundbreaking was held in November 2001 and the Center was dedicated in December 2004, twelve years after the first vision.

Originally named the Victoria Performing Arts Center, the building was given a new name in remembrance of a prominent local rancher, businessman and philanthropist who died in 1996. Leo J. Welder was a member of the Victoria Performing Arts Center Board of Directors. Robert J. Hewitt, Jr., Chairman of the VPAC Board said that "he [Leo] was one of the instrumental individuals who brought the idea of a performing arts center forward into the community's conscience."

Ownership of the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts was transferred to Victoria College in June 2012, and the Welder Center is now owned and operated by Victoria College. Theatre Victoria and the Cultural Council of Victoria also call the Welder Center home.