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Carmel’s Palladium performing arts hall will have a new name.
The Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday that it reached a 10-year philanthropic agreement with two Carmel families. As of July 1, the 1,500-seat hall will be known as the Payne & Mencias Palladium. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Carmel residents Eric and Leah Payne and Ron and Suzanne Mencias are longtime supporters of Allied Solutions Center and co-chaired its annual Center Celebration gala in 2021.
“This community is so fortunate to have a facility like the Palladium right here in our backyard,” Suzanne Mencias said. “Our family has enjoyed an amazing variety of performances and experiences on this campus, and we’re so very proud to support the center’s mission.”
Jeffrey McDermott, CEO of the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts, said the agreement will strengthen the Center’s financial position, provide more flexibility in booking national and international artists and support the continued expansion of educational programs while making them more affordable and accessible to underserved groups.
“We’re a nonprofit organization, so this money goes right to the heart of our mission,” McDermott said. “Most of our education programs are either free or highly subsidized by us, and so this sort of community support from individuals and corporate partners really gives us the ability to do that.”
The Palladium, which opened in 2011, is the largest of three venues on the Center’s campus. It is the primary home of the annual “Center Presents” season, and it hosts performances by the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, Indiana Wind Symphony and other arts groups. The building also hosts educational programs, public meetings, political debates, school commencements, weddings, business conventions and U.S. naturalization ceremonies.
“It’s been important to our family,” Leah Payne said. “We’ve been frequent visitors, and just want to continue to see Carmel have that cultural component and entertainment component.”
Ron Mencias serves on the Center’s board of directors. Eric Payne was a founding member and former chair of the board, serving for 10 years, and he also served on the board of the Great American Songbook Foundation. They are wealth management advisors and managing directors of the Payne & Mencias Group at Merrill Lynch.
The other venues that make up the Center’s 6.5-acre campus are the 500-seat Tarkington theater and the black-box Studio Theater.
Last year, Carmel-based Allied Solutions LLC became the naming-rights sponsor of the Center for the Performing Arts. McDermott said the Center will continue to look for naming-rights opportunities for other buildings, stages and spaces within the performing arts organization.
“I think what the Paynes and Menciases have showed is it doesn’t have to be a corporation,” McDermott said. “It can be individuals, and that’s something that is not uncommon around the country.”
Upcoming performers scheduled at the Palladium include Emmylou Harris (April 3), Itzhak Perlman (April 17), Black Violin (April 26) and Marty Stuart (May 1).
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