It has been close to 30 years since the arts center that would have spanned the Red River was proposed and rejected. I remember well, as a North Dakota State University theatre student, participating in a rally to generate support for the spectacular design by the now world famous architect, Michael Graves. If only...
Perhaps reporters would be coming to Fargo-Moorhead to write articles about how the arts through that building uniquely bridge the twin cities of the north, connecting two cities, connecting two states. If only....
I suppose the reasons for passing on that proposal back then made sense at the time. But since then, that old "let's build an arts center" idea bubbles to the surface every so often and here it is again. Tom Pantera's articles in the Sunday Forum of June 19 addressed, in a fair and even handed way, the current arts center ripple pointing to citizen interest in such a facility. As a representative of the arts community, I appreciate his timely and informative revisit of the efficacy of building an arts center, especially after community arts interests were recently accused of not having offered any ideas.
Last February, members of the Lake Agassiz Arts Council met specifically to determine where we stood as an arts community on the issue of an arts center. As Pantera pointed out in his article, the last feasibility study was conducted 16 years ago.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover great unity among our membership in support of an arts center. We talked openly about what now exists and what seems to be missing. We talked about possibilities. Member organizations whom I thought might say "we have what we need" indicated there were opportunities lost because appropriate venues did not exist in Fargo-Moorhead.
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There were a couple of points our membership made clear. A current feasibility study needs to be done. Most of the venues studied in 1989 are the same venues that are in use today. There have been significant upgrades in some of the public school theatres, but the growth in arts providers in past 16 years has been tremendous. The area population continues to grow, the stability and strength of the economy is impressive.
Things have changed since we dared dream we could have a Michael Graves design that would express the reality born with the creation of the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation. We know there is a lot of pressure for use on the exiting facilities, but we need to measure the extent of that pressure and what an appropriate solution might be. What to build, where to build, should we build are questions we agreed need to be answered.
The Arts Council membership also expressed concern over the cost for using the arts center if it were built. Pantera makes this same point in his article and he quotes Fargo City Commissioner Linda Coates as saying, "What good is a performing arts center if it is going to be a Death Star?" I have seen the plans commissioned by the Jazz Arts Group some five years ago. It is a proposal that strives to make an arts center affordable in the long term. We want to work from reality not a wish list, and we are willing to take on the task of discovering that reality.
As they say in show business, timing is everything. As wonderful as it would be to have people talking about a Michael Graves arts center the way many talk about the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, S.D., the timing wasn't right. But perhaps it is now. Perhaps now is the time for an arts center to become a reality, and perhaps it would be as successful as the Washington Pavilion. Perhaps Fargo-Moorhead can find the right combination of public funding, commercial interests, and arts support to make it happen, finally.
The Lake Agassiz Arts Council supports and will participate in trying to create that bridge between "build it and they will come" and "build it so they can come" if in fact, building it is feasible.
Keeler Olsen, Fargo, is executive director of the Lake Agassiz Arts Council. E-mail admin@fm-arts.com
