The ramp-up to a new cultural facility is an exceptionally complex dance, between project proponents, public officials, public opinion, and private donors. What will we build? Where will we build it? Who will pay for it? And when are those payments due?
That dance just entered a very public phase in Richmond, Virginia, after the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation acknowledged to the mayor that it won’t meet a July 1 fundraising deadline. The group was to have raised $93 million by that date to support the development and construction of the new Virginia Performing Arts Center.
Problem is, the city support to the project seems contingent on that deadline being met. And now Mayor L. Douglas Wilder is suggesting the arts foundation has violated its earlier agreement:
”What happened with [former City Manager Calvin D.] Jamison and [former Mayor Rudolph C.] McCollum is one thing,” Wilder said. ”This is something brand new, totally new, and we’ll deal with it accordingly.”
A fascinating addition to the debate comes on the website of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which allows reader comments to its published articles. The comments posted to this story give a real flavor for public sentiment on both sides of the argument.
It’s always fun to see a complex project described as a “dance.” The metaphor seems to turn up when the “dance” is difficult–nobody is sure of their part, the whole thing is off rhythm, and someone’s toes keep getting stepped on. This dance is a far cry from a tightly choreographed ballet or a seamless glide around the ballroom, and timing is everything in tap or jazz, so it can’t be that. Only at its experimental edge (or in the mosh pit) is dance a chaotic and lurching energy vortex that defies rational explanation…much like a cultural facility building project.
Arts administrators who want to learn something from the dance world should check out contact improvisation. As the name suggests, the basic elements of this dance form are contact (communicating with another person) and improvisation (not knowing what’s coming next). Playing with weight and momentum, partners explore shifting and spiraling flow of movement, in which the point of contact between them is constantly changing. At any given moment, there may be a leader and a follower, or two leaders or two followers. A partner may be a base of support one moment and be “taking a ride” the next. The dance develops an organic rhythm, following the ebbs and flows of both partners’ energy and attention. As this conversation in movement unfolds, there are moments of grace and of awkwardness. Experienced practitioners of the form know that while you can develop skills and strength in this form, the dance will always offer something you’ve never encountered before…and that’s the fun of it.
Mr. Taylor,
Has anyone, at your school, been closely watching the Virginia Performing Arts Center debate?