The FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre opened in 2015 as the anchor of downtown St. Catharines' regeneration. The complex holds four performance spaces — the 775-seat Partridge Hall, a recital hall, a cinema, and a black-box dance studio — and shares the building with the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University.
The programme runs jazz, classical, dance, indie rock, comedy, and the occasional national-tier touring act. The lobby and the building's brick-and-glass facade have made the centre the visual centrepiece of the city's revived downtown core.