The adjacent outdoor space at the new performing arts venue to the north of Guadalajara will bear the name of an altruistic expatriate couple from the United States.
The University of Guadalajara’s Conjunto de Artes Escenicas (CAE) has christened the event space the Agora Jenkins, after the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation recently granted the facility $US2.5 million over the next ten years.
The foundation was created in 1954 by William Oscar Jenkins, originally of Tennessee. Jenkins and his wife Mary moved to Monterrey in 1901 and then to Puebla in 1906, where they ran a clothing factory. The Puebla-based foundation has over the decades granted scholarships to promising students, funded rural schools and provided monetary assistance to university cities around the country, among other things.
The CAE was inaugurated with all due pomp and circumstance last week with a concert by famed Spanish tenor Placido Domingo. A state-of-the-art performing arts space to rival the older Teatro Degollado in the city center, it forms part of the larger Centro Cultural Universitario, which also includes the state library and the Plaza Bicentenario.
In addition to the new sobriquet, the Agora Jenkins will sport a large screen to broadcast simultaneous performances occurring inside the CAE’s three salons.
For more information on the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation, go to fundacionjenkins.com. For CAE’s schedule and ticket info, go to conjuntodeartesescenicas.com.