Cultural Council Agenda and Packet 2013 09 19

Home Browse Search

Dear Julie, Thanks for your note about scheduling the Arts Center. As you may know, the four resident arts groups have been requesting that scheduling be done in coordination with a governing committee that includes a representative from each of those groups. While a similar process failed in the early years, we believe that failure was a result of the composition of the governing committee (i.e. representatives not connected with the resident arts groups). Our arts groups have evolved since the early days of the Arts Center. We believe we have the organizational skills and abilities (collectively and within each arts group) to provide the coordination and collaboration that ensures the Arts Center achieves its highest and best use...offering art and cultural activities to our community via our offerings as well as those of emerging art/cultural groups from the community. To demonstrate our willingness to take on the task, representatives from all five SCFD organizations (CenterStage Theatre Company, Coal Creek Theater of Louisville, Louisville Art Association, Louisville Cultural Council and The Art Underground) met and developed a calendar for 2014 reservations. This was a very positive process, and we found that we were able to resolve any conflicts, leaving each group well satisfied with the final result. We also involved Old Town Cinema in our discussions to ensure that their interests were met and included in the calendar. The calendar that the arts groups created is attached to this email and is the complete calendar, containing both blocks of time and individual dates. As you can see, the theater groups, which have the most extensive use of the building, have been able to retain the same volume of reservations as they have had in the past. The Art Association has added two 3 -day workshops to be held on week days and have moved some of their one day workshops from Saturdays to other days to resolve some of the weekend conflicts. The Cultural Council has reserved timeslots for the Coffeehouse and Chamber events although those specific offerings could change with the major turnover of LCC members which is expected in January. The Cultural Council has added a Wednesday night lecture series (four events) to respond to SCFD's request that they add science - related offerings, plus three additional reservations for Old Town Cinema to host screenings of films developed by local teens in workshops (the workshops are hosted by The Art Underground). This broadens the demographic reach of Cultural Council offerings. On another note, we were surprised to see that you intend to open private rentals at the beginning of December. We believe this remains an unresolved issue that should be addressed in the new arts use policy. Allowing the general public to make reservations for private events so far in advance constricts the availability of the space for new art and cultural opportunities that arise during the calendar year. The problem is further exacerbated by the policy of offering very low rental fees for the use of the Arts Center, fees that unfairly compete with local businesses in our community that provide event space for rent as part of their business.