A look inside the Pickard Auditorium inside Neenah Middle School. November 7, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
NEENAH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Open since the 1970s, Pickard Auditorium at Neenah Middle School is in need of a facelift.
“There’s been kind of an exploratory phase to look at upgrading Pickard into more modern amenities,” said Jim Strick with the Neenah Joint School District. “It was opened in 1972. Not a lot has been done to it over the last 53 years.”
Upgrades include replacing the original seats, modernizing the lobby and addressing some HVAC issues. The total cost of the work would be between $4-5 million. Funds for the project would come from a community fundraising campaign.
I think there’s a lot of support for it, because people love this facility. A lot of people have performed here and have gone to shows here, and have a lot of pride in it.
But those renovations are on hold, with other pressing upgrades taking priority.
“It’s mainly at our elementary level,” Strick explained. “A few years ago, we built a new high school, and we’ve got a beautiful performing arts center there that we’ve been getting a lot of great use out of. But at our elementary level, there’s still a lot of needs to be done there. So that right now is the main priority.”
Strick said a fundraising campaign for the Pickard was supposed to start last year, but was never launched. It sounds like it will be a while before the auditorium sees any updates.
“At some point we will do that, but right now, we just don’t feel like is a great time to be asking the community. Especially coming off of the high school referendum and with some of the other budget issues we’re facing,” Strick said. “Even though it is a fundraised campaign, at some point, there is still costs to the district that are involved with it.”
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