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In search of angels

As it looks to a new era, The ArtsCenter wants help seeing its future

By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer 

Wanted: Dreams. Specifically, dream up an ArtsCenter. Then, bring your visions, ideas and imaginings to 300 East Main Street on Oct. 21.

That’s the task The ArtsCenter is asking anyone in the community to take up as part of the center’s effort to get the discussion rolling about how best to build a bigger and better center for the arts.

Anyone who has spent time around The ArtsCenter director Jon Wilner knows he can be quite animated when he’s talking about strengthening the connections between the center and the community. Picture that in overdrive, because that’s the gear that he and the staff at The ArtsCenter are in right now.

The session on the 21st isn’t to simply pay lip service to the concept of outreach, Wilner said in a recent interview. “We know that having the community involved is essential to our success.”

With growing revenue and community support, the center has managed to double its business in four years and has built up its development and support staff. That’s helped put to rest long-held concerns about the financial stability of the center.

“I think we’ve shown a commitment to fiscal responsibility in a way the community can support,” he said, including plowing back some of the money into more scholarships for students.

The question for the center is now more one of how to manage the growth and where to put all the programs. The goal, ultimately, is more space. But Wilner said the task for now is to listen. Really listen.
He knows the way some organizations handle something like this is to trot out a drawing of a new facility and announce a capital campaign. But the community is The ArtsCenter’s lifeblood, Wilner said. And because of that, the community has to have a hand in imagining what could be.

It’s no longer a question of whether the 33-year-old center can get bigger. It is bigger, and growing by leaps and bounds.

“We’re not saying, ‘Help us build it and they will come,’” Wilner said. “The point is more, ‘Help us build it because we are bursting at the seams.’”

Part of the plan is to have room to expand “process-oriented arts education programs,” a.k.a., learning programs aimed at children and youth. The Youth Performing Arts Conservatory is the prime example. A couple years back, a study by the center identified a strong need for programs for youth in drama, dance and music. Last year, the center set up the first such program — a dramatic arts conservatory. Wilner and staff budgeted a modest $22,000 in tuition from the program. It took in $105,000. “At one point, we had more than 200 kids enrolled in the program,” Wilner said, adding that there is similar demand and potential in the music and dance programs. With a strong teaching talent pool in all the arts, there’s no shortage of educators and interested professionals to teach. There’s just no place now to launch the programs.

As a performance space, the center is also faced with a challenge. Its 350-seat Earl Wynn Theater puts it in a middle ground that makes the ticket price for larger national acts too high. The Dr. John concert earlier this year was a sell-out, but, in order to break even, tickets went for $50.

“We want Dr. John, but we don’t want $50 ticket prices,” Wilner said. “One thing that’s been consistent with us is that we want to be a community arts center and not have to charge Memorial Hall prices.”

Adding capacity would help reduce prices for the big acts. There’s also a strong need, he said, to create a smaller performing space so that more concerts by local acts can happen.

So, if you want to get involved, the invitation is there: a center for the arts; a place for learning for young and old alike; a place for performances by local and national acts; an ArtsCenter of, by and for the community — dream it up; help make it so.