The strength of any community hinges upon the success of its public institutions. The social function of the public courthouse and the town square as the cornerstone of public life in the early twentieth century has arguably been transferred to the public art institutions of the early twenty-first century. In the case of the Mill Center for the Arts, the idea of a performing arts venue merges with the community center to form a dynamic locus of contemporary cultural identity for the local populace and the larger region. The Mill Center design extends the topic of ‘performance center’ into the secondary and tertiary civic roles of the building as a community center. The architectural expression is a celebration of both the cultural performance of the everyday and the exceptional performance of art.