Staller Center for the Arts, named in memory of Max and Mary Staller, offers a wide variety of world class performances from September through May and presents the Stony Brook Film Festival every July. Over 50 professional performances, as well as approximately 450 events generated by the departments of Art, Theater Arts, and Music, are part of the Staller Center season and are supplemented by those outside presenters such as the Long Island Philharmonic and the Seiskaya Ballet, which presents The Nutcracker.

Since opening in 1978, Staller Center for the Arts has presented an ever-expanding schedule of live music, dance, theatre, and fine art exhibitions in its five theaters and 5,000 square foot University Art Gallery. In 1994, the center introduced 35mm film presentations in the Main Stage Theater, complete with Long Island’s largest screen and a Dolby sound system. The Fall and Spring Semester Film Series brings campus and community the best in art, foreign and popular films. The Main Stage theater seats approximately 1,050, the Recital Hall seats 380, and the three "black box" theaters have a seating capacity from 75 to 225.