The Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center hosts more than 200 events each year, attracting more than 150,000 patrons to a diverse mix of dance, music, comedy and family performances by artists from around the world.

Includes five subscription series each season: Cabaret, Wit & Wisdom, Dance, Sunday Afternoon Concerts and the WOW! Series, plus a variety of single events. More than 400 presented artists have performed, including Garrison Keillor, Lily Tomlin, the Kronos Quartet, Clint Black, Joshua Bell and the Capitol Steps, Also is home to performances by campus departments, community groups and Musical Theatre West. The Dalai Lama spoke there in 2011.

Designed by architect Don Gibbs, with a capacity of 1,074 seats and a stage area modeled after New York’s David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Houses a permanent lobby display of awards and memorabilia of world-renowned musicians and siblings Richard and Karen Carpenter, who majored in music at the school in the 1960s.

Cultivates lifelong learners with the free education program, Arts for Life, working with CSULB departments and faculty to offer interactive, hands-on community activities for all ages.

Recipient of a 2011 Creative Campus Innovations Grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and the Doris Duke Charitable Trust for “The B-Word Project—Banned, Blacklisted and Boycotted: Censorship and the Response to It.” ▲