The Gallo Center is downtown Modesto's main performing arts venue, opened in 2007 on the site of an old department store. The 1,200-seat Mary Stuart Rogers Theater and the smaller Foster Family Theater host touring Broadway shows, the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, opera and ballet, comedy nights and lectures.
The building is striking by Central Valley standards: a warm sandstone-coloured exterior with a curved glass lobby that lights up at night. The Gallo wine family funded much of the construction, in line with their long-standing pattern of investing in Modesto rather than the more glamorous wine-country addresses they could afford. Check the calendar — there is usually something on most evenings.