What a lovely place! I recently took a bead making class here and it was thoroughly enjoyable from…read morestart to finish. It was difficult picking just one class because there were so many of them I wanted to take. Lawrence Arts Center has so much to offer all age groups. My class was a human hodge podge of ages and experience. The building is stunning. You are immediately taken in by the color collections and the great use of space and light of this building. Everywhere you look there is alluring and interesting artwork. Even the elevator interior is adorned with colorful sunflower art. This is a happy place, a very happy place. The classrooms are spacious and light. They have all sorts of cool equipment for the students to create their artwork. The instructors are all very knowledgeable and experienced in their craft. I was very impressed with the accommodations provided. There is ample parking and a parking garage is located across the street. There is no issue with access. All in all this is a terrific asset to the city. If you have some time on your hands and find yourself downtown, this is the place to be!

I'm not a particularly artistic person, but we stopped in here on our trip to Lawrence. I was very…read moreimpressed with the building, sleek and clean. I was also impressed by the sheer number of programs they boast here from theater and singing, metal working, pressing, painting, sculpture, etc. Many of these can be seen on display in the galleries about the building. They also have early school and learning centers attached. It makes for a very cool place for the arts crowd to gather.

The 3-star rating is in large part due to safety concerns in this venue, as parts of the interior…read moreare stunning, and the film festival held there was entertaining and pleasantly educational. This beautiful old building is surrounded by scaffolding so you can't really see its architecture, but I didn't see any renovation happening outside or inside, where the walls are covered with gorgeous murals, other detailed artistic painting, and intricate hanging light fixtures. The old-but-comfortable theater-style balcony seats are covered with red velvety fabric. It's a visual feast. However, renovation inside is massively needed, especially for safety concerns. When the lights were turned out for the films it was almost pitch black, with no modern-day dim "safety lighting"...not even enough to navigate if you needed to. And right in front of each balcony seats there's flooring maybe 1' deep for your feet to rest on (not enough), which then drops precipitiously almost another 1' to the next level of floor that you need to reach to walk in or out of the row! While this creates a clear view of the stage for every row of seating, it's very dangerous. To get into the row you need to step down to the lower section to walk across but there's nothing to hold onto except the arm of the seat on the end, and I needed the help of the willing hand of the kind person seated there to feel safe. The stairs to the balcony could accommodate 3 to 4 people across, but you have to be on the outer edge to have a hand railing. One woman tripped at the top of the stairs to the balcony and slammed very hard into the backs of our seats, and her popcorn rained down everywhere, including on us. I don't remember how wide the space is between that last step and the seats, but it seems there wasn't enough, or much demarcation visible between the last step and the floor. We were all rattled by the impact, the noise, and the popcorn, but she was able to get up with help and get to her seat. I'm do remember thinking it would be easy to fall there, and I was glad I wasn't the one who did! The main level has no fixed seats, just very uncomfortable-looking wooden chairs set up in rows. That didn't seem like a good time during a 3-hour film festival! There were two pretty decent bathrooms available on the that floor, and I was told there was one on the balcony level, but I couldn't see it. However, I wouldn't have even tried to navigate from the dangerous seating set-up in the dark to get to any bathroom! The only open concession area was on the main level, in a small dark niche, and unlike modern theaters, there was no food, just beverages (including cocktails), candy and popcorn. The high prices on those were the most modern thing in the building! The eight or so short films in the festival were all human-interest stories of one or more persons and their interactions with and adventures in nature. All were inspiring and interesting, all had some scenic nature and landscape views, and I think all included water elements. But none were quite what I expected, as I had learned about the "Wild & Scenic Film Festival" at a viewing of the stunning panoramic "Wings Over Water" on the Extreme Screen in Union Station in KC a few nights before. Wild and scenic nature at its finest! This fundraiser for nature and environmental causes was well put-together and organized by volunteers, and I think very successful, because as far as I could see, the theater was packed, and many people had attended it for years! Water One was the main sponsor, joined by many other generous partners. Raffle tickets were sold for one lucky person to win a large kayak, and everyone received a free ticket for a prize raffle with a plethora of good items, including several wooden bird and bat houses, nature-and-on-the-water clothing items, quality t-shirts and water bottles, and many more worthy prizes winners could choose from. I was one of many lucky free ticket holders, and very happy with my surprise gift bag containing a soft "There is no lemonade without water" t-shirt, a WaterOne recycled plastic bottle that claimed it "kept 1,085 plastic bottles out of the environment," and a small zippered clip-on pouch full of First Aid essentials!

Many good memories at Liberty Hall over the decades, but if I'm keeping it real, there are better…read moreplaces to catch a show. In college, we used to rent movies here where you could find a collection unlike anywhere else. I saw movies here, using a phone flashlight to navigate the pitch black upstairs seating. I saw shows here, and the location on Mass is second to none. Came up a few weeks back and it felt good to be back here, but also.. sweatier than I remember? The place was packed and it was almost impossible to move. The sound from the band was AWFUL, I wondered if it was all the mixing board or what. I think the reality is we were under an overhang and it causes the bass to echo and reverberate. The show ended up being pretty decent, but I wasn't loving the vibe necessarily. I think if you are catching something here, getting ticketed seats upstairs is the way to go. All in all, it's fine, but I won't be scrolling the website here to find the next show to see.

They charge $4 ... for water. That's ridiculous. Do they want people in their venue to dehydrate?…read moreAhhhhhh!

Recently went to see Sleep Theory, the show was great, but this place has been going downhill. It…read morecould really use some updates, and they need to rethink the prices.