This past Fall was the 50th anniversary of the beginning of The Center of the Creative and Performing Arts. The first Creative Associates recital was presented November 13 1964 and the first Evenings for New Music concert was performed on November 29th. The Center survived until 1980. Approximately 120 musicians came to Buffalo as Creative Associates from 1964 until its close. They presented about 700 musical works on 124 Creative Associate Recitals and more than 400 works on 173 Evenings for New Music concerts. About a dozen of the musicians who came to Buffalo as Creative Associates later joined the faculty of the UB Music Department, including three from the first class: Jan Williams, Sylvia Brigham-Dimiziani, and Laurence Bogue.
The current exhibition in the Music Library provides the historical background of the founding of the Center by Lukas Foss and Allen Sapp. The exhibition contains documents, clippings, concert programs, and photographs pertaining to the creation of the Center and its first class of Creative Associates.
An online summary of the exhibit contains the full text of the Rockefeller Foundation proposal written by Lukas Foss and Allen Sapp for the creation of the Center.