What do you think about a performing arts center in Columbus? Do we need one? If we had one, what kind of performances and events would draw you there?
Those are among the questions local leaders want to know as they explore the possibilities for a performing arts center in Columbus, and they are asking for your opinions.
If you haven’t already, take 10 minutes or so to fill out the survey at surveymonkey.com/r/columbusarts. You have until Friday to do so, and the more people who respond, the better local leaders will have valuable information as they consider whether our community should pursue a performing arts center, and if so, what that should look like.
The Republic’s Brian Blair reported on the survey last week released by The Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County. Blair has been covering the arts in and around Columbus for a long time, and as he reported, there have been discussions about the possibility of a performing arts center here at least since the 1990s.
To be sure, our community has established venues. The Commons hosts some performing arts events, as do the auditoriums at Columbus North and East high schools, and there are more intimate settings such as Helen Haddad Hall, to name a few. But each of these has limitations in some regard, from space to scheduling conflicts.
So the Heritage Fund turned to Theater Projects, a globally recognized venue planning consultant, to handle the survey that, as Blair reported, “asks questions such as how often respondents attend events locally, how often they go outside the community for events, and whether they would attend more local events if there were a dedicated arts venue for such.”
However you may answer those questions, we urge you to take the survey. This act of civic participation can help ensure that performing arts center plans are pursued responsively and responsibly.
Heritage Fund President and CEO Tracy Souza told Blair that the organization launched the survey without expectations or preconceived notions of what the results might be. And local officials know that this is not an “if you build it, they will come” situation. That’s why public input of this sort is the first step, and among the most critical, in determining what future steps might be.
“If there is a business case to be made for a performing arts center, this is the kind of feedback that will be important to know,” Souza said. “We don’t yet know if we actually need a performing arts center.
“We’ve always heard lots of opinions about whether we actually need one, but we don’t actually have a lot of specific data. And if we do need one, there are questions such as ‘How big should it be? How big should its market be?’ … And that’s where we’re starting.”
As of late last week, Blair reported 357 people had replied to the survey, and surely more will have after his reporting helped spread the word. But you can help with that, too, by participating in the survey and encouaring others to do the same. The more people who respond, the better the data will be on what are significant questions for Columbus, now and for future generations.
