For 35 years, the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts has been a performing arts center, cultural hub and music school in Eugene.
On Saturday, Jan. 17, the community is invited to celebrate a new, fully accessible North Entrance with a ribbon cutting and open house.
KLCC recently took a private tour of the unique, 100-year-old building that is home to the Shedd.
“Welcome! You're one of the first to come in through the new front doors!” exclaimed Ginevra Ralph, co-founder of the Shedd Institute.
I give a thumbs up to the flashy, new, automatic doors.
“Tiffany, this is completely accessible,” Ralph said. “It's going to be open anytime that we're open and that's over 358 days a year, at all hours. Anytime you come to the Shedd, if you wheel in your baby stroller, your upright bass, your wheelchair, your walker--you've got easy entrance and easy access and there's a brand-new elevator that'll get you around the building!”
The Jaqua
We start the tour in the 750-seat Jaqua Concert Hall. Walking in, Ralph explained that this space was once the sanctuary when the building was the First Baptist Church, built in 1926.
“You will recognize names of churchgoers like Harlow and McNutt, longtime city families. Eugene families,” she said. “The First Baptist Church was here from 1926 until we moved in 2000-2002, and the church built a new facility out on Coburg Road.”
Ralph and I stand in the spotlight on the Jaqua Concert Hall stage.
“I think what's really fun about being on stage is that you can see just how close the very last row of the upper balcony is,” Ralph said.
“When we first moved in here, I had my 12-year-old grandson running around listening to a concert rehearsal,” Ralph recalled. “I really wanted him to pay attention and I said, ‘Go find the best seat.’’ And he said, ‘Well, do you like it soft or like it loud?’ And that was such a brilliant response because people really have to figure out for themselves the best seat. And that's what we want them to come and do on Saturday!”
Then Ralph shared a secret about the Jaqua Concert Hall.
“You know, we talked about the nooks and crannies that people are going to be able to find?” she asked. “Well, when we do our musical theater --we really, really, really do have a live orchestra and people don't believe me because you can't see them!”
So where the heck are the musicians during a musical theater production?
“They're up there, up behind the stage, up in the arches,” she said pointing. “And that used to be the organ loft where the pipe organs were.”
So, instead of having an orchestra pit, there is an orchestra loft.
Hobbit staircases, nooks and crannies
Coming out of the Jaqua, one is immediately confronted with a bizarre little staircase.
“We're going to go up one of these hobbit staircases,” Ralph said, “because this one gets us up to the balcony, and also up to the orchestra loft.”
It’s easy to forget which stairs you took to get on any of the four floors of the Shedd Institute. Ralph described some interconnecting parts of the building as a “rabbit warren.”
And now, there are two elevators at the Shedd-- so you kind of need to know where you are going before you get in one.
We walked through the Cole Gallery, which also serves as an artist reception space. After performances, I’ve met many musicians including Shawn Colvin, Buckwheat Zydeco and Dar Williams.
Ralph opened a “hidden” door at the far end of the room. It opens to Sheffer Recital Hall.
“This is sort of the secret room of the building and I hope everybody will come check it out on Saturday,” she said. “It was the small chapel that the church added back in 1962, and it was frankly pretty funky. I thought it was going to be kind of unusable, but it's turned into a lovely little black box theater.”
Ralph said the Sheffer Recital Hall has a lot of flexibility.
“You can take all these theater seating out and put in tables and for dinner if you want to do a lunch event or a dinner show,” she said. “We show a lot of films in here. We do lectures in here. We do student performances in here.”
And when needed, there is a beautiful Steinway on the low stage.
“All of the pianos, and I dare anybody to try to count all the pianos that you'll see in this building, but all have been donated,” Ralph said.
One of Ralph’s favorite Shedd stories is about jazz great Chick Corea.
“He did two back-to-back shows for us and then he said, ‘Can I just stay and practice on this piano? I have to do a Mozart concert next week.’
“It was almost midnight and we just said, ‘Chick, you can stay here as long as you want and play on that piano!’”
Ralph said everyone loved it.
World-famous rolls and yes, a basketball court
Back on the tour, we ventured to the basement floor which Ralph now calls B level. Down a wide hallway we passed 12 classrooms, large, medium and small. The studios have two pianos in each.
Many may not know it, but the Shedd has a full commercial kitchen.
“It is now a restaurant-certified kitchen. We have our own cook-- I won't tell you his name,” Ralph laughed. “We have our world-famous rolls. Everybody knows about them because (people from) 12 or 15 different countries have eaten them and they liked them. So they're now considered world-famous!”
Ralph said dinner service is family-style, with lots of menu variations for dietary issues possible. There’s even a full bar and desserts.
Walking through the kitchen, Ralph and I approach a set of doors.
“Now, this room used to be actually kind of more fun to bring people in when the floor still looked like a basketball court,” she said. “Yeah, there really was a basketball court!”
Ralph said the court was original to the building. “It really is a middle-school sized gym. When we moved in it had two full-on basketball hoops!”
Shedd staff learned that in the 1920s and 1930s, the police station was across the street. Ralph said cops used to come and shoot hoops on their lunch break.
Lost and found
We walk along, Ralph in the lead, taking turns and staircases until finally we are back at the new North Entrance, where we started this tour.
“Well, I hope you felt lost and that you know that you can always find your way out! Just head north and follow the breadcrumbs or use your cell phone,” Ralph laughed. “I do think that coming and exploring on Saturday will really be fun. I want kids to come. I want grown-ups to come. Just come and have some fun.”
Ralph said between classes, rehearsals, various music programs, and performances, the Shedd serves about 75,000 people each year.
The Shedd Institute for the Arts will hold a ribbon cutting for the new North Entrance at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. Afterward, the building will be open for community members to wander around and “get lost.”
“This building is all about building community and bringing people together,” Ralph said with a broad smile. “What's so neat-- is to now have this building for another 100 years-- for the next generations.”
