Date: July 27, 2004

Sketching an arts block

Works of art usually begin with a sketch. The artist tries out ideas, changes them, tests perspective, starts over. That is how great ideas are born. That seems to be what is happening as the Salt Lake Chamber/Downtown Alliance sketches plans for an Art and Culture Block bordered by 100 South and 200 South between Main and West Temple. The block already is anchored by the Capitol Theatre; a renovation of the Utah Theatre at 148 S. Main would be the centerpiece of the expansion.

Together, the two theaters could accommodate not only the Capitol's resident companies -- Utah Opera and Ballet West -- but could host touring productions. The ballet has put its plans to build a rehearsal hall and school in Sugar House on hold while it studies the downtown proposal. The Grand Theater, which now performs at Salt Lake Community College, has been approached about moving its productions downtown.

In addition, there is talk of building smaller theaters in the former Wells Fargo building at Main and 200 South. Pioneer Theatre Company has been asked about mounting small-scale productions there.

Perhaps satellite galleries of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and Utah Museum of Natural History could be located somewhere nearby. They would complement the new Museum of Utah History and Art, which is renovating a building across Main from the Utah Theatre.

All of this talk is preliminary. This is a sketching process, remember. But the goal of bringing entertainment patrons downtown to revitalize the city's core while providing new stages and galleries is a worthy one.

Most serious art requires a patron, however, and that is the biggest unfilled hole in this sketch. It might cost $45 million just to renovate the Utah Theatre.

Salt Lake County, which owns and operates Abravanel Hall, the Capitol Theatre, the Utah Art Center and the Rose Wagner, is already trying to figure out how to expand the Salt Palace and promote tourism, so claims on hotel and restaurant taxes to fund an Art and Culture Block may have to take a place in line.

Salt Lake City is in a similar place, with the Leonardo and the soccer complex in the works.

So culture vultures are going to have to be particularly creative with their funding proposals.

Taking the long view, Salt Lake County is due for artistic growth. It has been a quarter century since the Bicentennial Center for the Arts brought most of the existing county facilities into being. Adding to them to form an integrated downtown complex is a beautiful vision, but it only makes sense if the directors of the local arts companies believe that the audience exists, and that touring shows won't cannibalize hometown productions. It is ticket buyers who really matter most in this design.


(c) 2004 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.

 
   
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