WAC expansion plan details still months away
Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2008
There's still no word on the specifics of future growth plans for the Walton Arts Center, including potential relocation sites.
Terri Trotter, WAC interim president and CEO, and Curt Rom, a city of Fayetteville appointee on the arts center's board, gave the WAC's yearly report on the 2007-2008 season to the Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday night. Rom ended the report stating that the future growth of the WAC rests on the results of a feasibility study that will be completed by the end of the year.
"That will provide a launch pad for us to make future plans," Rom said.
He added that when the study is complete and the board will start planning for the future, he expects it will start a capital campaign within five years to raise money for a new facility to grow the arts in Northwest Arkansas. He said the facility, wherever it ends up, should be completed five years later.
"It's a long-term process for the long ride," Rom said.
As for the year in review, Trotter said that the number of tickets sold for events at the center went up substantially.
"We expect to end the year with a surplus, mostly because of strong ticket sales," she said.
The sales allowed the WAC board to do something it's never done before: set up a financial reserve account.
Trotter informed the council of the three major goals the WAC board has for the next three years. She said the board wants to increase the number of active ticketbuyer accounts from the current 17, 000 to around 19, 000, increase the money earned per seat from $ 24. 37 to $ 27 and grow the amount of participation by Washington and Benton County elementary and middle schools in the art center's events to 100 percent.
Rom informed the council that the center invested more than $ 300, 000 in backstage and technical upgrades. Performers and audiences will enjoy things like a new stage, a new orchestra pit lift and television monitors in the balcony and main lobbies.
He also informed the council of a brand new public art exhibition being displayed outside the Walton Arts Center from Oct. 13 to Nov. 16.
The exhibition, known as "Slow Dancing "created by David Michalek, is a series of 43 larger-than-life, hyperslow-motion video portraits of dancers and choreographers from around the world.
The videos will be projected on three 12-foot by 24-foot screens on the front of the Walton Arts Center and will be visible to pedestrians in the vicinity.
"This is a free public art installation for everybody. We think this will be a major draw to arts in Northwest Arkansas," Rom said.
High profile performances at the center for the 2008-2009 season include the season opener on Sept. 5 featuring a performance by comedy troupe Second City," Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"on Nov. 17 and "Monty Python's Spamalot"on Dec. 16.
Rom said Fayetteville would also host the first stop for the new hit children's musical "The Magic Tree House," which opens on March 7. The performance will feature an appearance my Mary Pope Osborne, author of the popular book series the show is based on.
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