Suburban arts centers ... Are they worth it? (More Local Spending in Minnesota...)

Minneapolis StarTribune (aka The Red Star) ^ | 4/21/10 | Jon Bream - Staff Reporter

[MplsSteve]

Lorita Powell couldn't erase the smile on her face. It wasn't just comedian Sinbad's performance that made her beam; it was also the new Burnsville Performing Arts Center, where he'd performed.

"This is wonderful," said the longtime Burnsville resident as she showed off the town's new $20 million jewel to a friend from St. Paul. "What a great asset to the community. I'm proud to be in Burnsville."

Ask anyone who has been to the sparkling new facility and its 1,000-seat main theater, and they will gush like a Twins fans at Target Field. But the bad news has been inescapable: In its first year, the 16-month-old arts center lost $533,599 -- about 20 percent more than projected.

In the past two decades, arts centers have been cropping up all over suburbia, from Hopkins to Hudson, Wis. With its cultural Taj Mahal, Burnsville is confronting a challenge other Twin Cities communities have faced: how to make a pricey, publicly funded arts center work. That doesn't necessarily happen in a year or two, or even three.

But, ultimately, is it worth it to have a multi-use arts center in your suburb?

"Most definitely," said Gene Winstead, mayor of Bloomington, where a $7.2 million arts center was built in 2003.

"What should a city do?" said Winstead. "Provide public safety and public roads and a parks system. I view the center for the arts as a form of park and rec."

[MplsSteve]

I'm not opposed to the arts - not most it anyways. But I'm just not sure that some of these grandiose arts centers can be justified - especially when they bleed red ink like they do.

Regarding Bloomington's art center (a suburb I grew up in), it is immediately attached to the new city hall which was built at the same time as the arts center. There are many in Bloomington who thought that the city needed a new city hall but not one as grandiose as the combined city hall/arts center is.

While it's clearly understood that these type of projects are not immediately self-supporting, I get the distinct feeling that they rarely ever do. Perhaps funding for these types of projects should come from the private sector instead of viewing it (as Bloomington's mayor said) asn extended form of park and rec.

Comments or opinions - anyone?

[MplsSteve]

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[pnh102]

I am so sick of local governments claiming to be "broke" or otherwise strapped for cash when they always seem to have money to finance or subsidize this kind of thing.

If someone likes an arts center, let them pay for it out of their own checkbook.

[libertarian27]

Let me guess...their mantra before it was built was:
“If you build it~they will come”

Stuff like that is really touching in movies.....

[Svartalfiar]

holy crap that thing sure looks pretty nice! and expensive :/

“In its first year, the 16-month-old arts center lost $533,599 — about 20 percent more than projected.” And then add the $20M to build it...

[vpintheak]

NOT WORTH IT.

[WOBBLY BOB]

In its first year, the 16-month-old arts center lost $533,599 -- about 20 percent more than projected.

But all that matter with leftards are intentions.(This is all "unexpected".)

[toast]

In Woodbury a private donor ponied up some money.
They made the auditorium on the new high school extra nice and named it an arts center with her name on it.

[LachlanMinnesota]

Is it really culture if the government has to run it? It sounds more like forced culture that would not otherwise be supported.