Madison, Wisconsin, is set to open phase one of its new $205-million arts complex, beginning this Saturday. Everybody who is anybody will be there during its full opening week of free and paid performance/exhibit activities (I’ll be there too, even though I’m not anybody).
For those that want to dig deep into the unprecedented single-donor gift of $205-million in a county of about 450,000 people (that’s about $456 per man, woman, and child in the county, mind you), our city paper had a somewhat cloying but otherwise nice special section on the project’s history, its donor, its architect, and such.
It’s easy to be cynical about the state of the arts, the business models at work, the funding infrastructure, and the disconnect of some arts organizations from their audiences. But in the face of such a glorious gift, and in the breathtaking new public space it created in my hometown, I’ll admit that all cynicism is off at least for this week. There’s a cool new place for arts and culture in the world. In the grand scheme of things, that still feels like a good thing.
