MODERN TIMES
Art Hobson
ahobson@uark.edu
NWA Times 24 November
2007
Whither the Walton
Arts Center?
I
love the WAC. It has enormously
enhanced my family's life and Fayetteville's quality of life. There's been a nasty rumor that it
might move to Bentonville. It's
true that Crystal Bridges, the Bentonville art museum that's planned for
completion in 2009, has on its long-term master plan an approximately
3,000-seat performing arts center near the museum. But the WAC will stay in Fayetteville. Furthermore, we could build a
3,000-seat performing arts center in Fayetteville rather than in
Bentonville. Here are the
details.
The
WAC's original name was the
"City of Fayetteville/University of Arkansas Center for the
Arts," but before opening in 1992 it was re-named the Walton Arts Center
to honor a gift from the Walton Foundation. The original funding came from the city and the university,
with additional funding later from the Walton Foundation. The city and the university own the
WAC, and it cannot be moved elsewhere without the approval of both the city
council and the university's board of directors. Such approval is highly improbable if the new location is
outside of Fayetteville. So the
WAC (both the building and its name) isn't leaving town.
The
starting point of the rumors is that the present 1200-seat auditorium cannot
accommodate large Broadway shows or big name stars because 1200
reasonably-priced seats cannot offer enough income for such expensive
productions to be profitable.
Thus, if we want these large shows in Fayetteville we'll need to build a
3,000-seat auditorium. Given the
population growth and the wealth of Northwest Arkansas, it seems likely that
such an auditorium will be built in this region within the next decade. That auditorium could indeed be built
in Bentonville, or it could be built here. I doubt if both cities would build such a facility.
Building
the new larger auditorium in Bentonville would actually have several advantages
for Fayetteville. Personally, I'm
a sucker for Broadway shows, and my wife and I attend many of them at the WAC,
but I don't see a lot of my Fayetteville friends there. On the other hand, when we attend
symphony concerts, jazz performances, plays, or dance performances, the WAC is
full of Fayetteville folks. These
classier performances, rather than Broadway productions and big-name stars, are
preferred by our city, and they fit just fine into the present WAC. If a big auditorium goes up in
Bentonville, we'd lose the big performances but we'd gain an arts center more
devoted to the fine arts, and more geared to Fayetteville and University of
Arkansas interests.
On
the other hand, to keep the big productions here, we'd have to plan a
3,000-seat auditorium quickly, before Bentonville develops irrevocable plans
for such an auditorium. I can't
imagine that both cities would build one.
Where
would such an auditorium go? One
location that's inevitably mentioned is out on I-540. This would be a disaster. Who wants to drive out to a four-lane (soon to be
eight-lane) highway to see an arts performance? There would be no restaurants, no bars, no city streets--no
real life--nearby. It would
contribute mightily to sprawl, and detract from the heart of our city. I probably wouldn't drive out to I-540
even to see "Movin' Out," one of my favorites that Marie and I saw a
few years ago on Broadway.
Any
new auditorium should go on or near Dickson Street to make the maximum
contribution to city life. I see
no obvious reason why it couldn't go onto the present property, either on the
same block with the WAC or across the street in the parking lot. A complete performing arts center would
need three auditoriums, sized small (500), medium (the present auditorium), and
large (3,000). All three would fit
easily onto the block where the WAC is now, were it not for the WAC's
inefficient and sprawling orientation to the street. Perched high up at a 45-degree angle with Dickson and West
Streets, it consumes far more space than it needs to, it fails to honor the
street by being at street level and directly facing the street, and its little
unusable (except for the rose garden) green spaces are aesthetically
meaningless and clash with the more urban surroundings. I hope that future architects will take
note of this mistake and not repeat it.
Although
it's not obvious that Fayetteville either needs or wants a 3,000-seat
auditorium, the WAC definitely does need to replace the tiny Starr Theater with
a comfortable 500-seat auditorium for plays, jazz concerts, and other smaller
performances.
More
parking is essential. Before the
present flat parking lot was built, I was one of several folks calling for that
lot to have multi-story parking with a smaller footprint, but more parking,
than the present lot, perhaps with shops around the outside. But planners were short-sighted and we
ended up with a flat concrete wasteland.
Now it appears that a multi-story garage will go in south of the WAC,
spanning Spring Street. It's
dearly needed now if not sooner.
The future of the WAC is a very big deal. We need to think hard about that future, and allocate the resources needed to make it viable. You can find a list of the WAC's 20-member governing board at waltonartscenter.org (click on "About Walton Arts Center"). Five represent the university, five represent the city, and ten are "regional appointees," mostly from Wal-Mart and other business interests. Contact them to discuss your views of the WAC's future.