Entertainment -- at what cost?

Here's an issue that Nashua NH seems split evenly on: should we have a new Performing Arts Center? The Nays point out that we have the 1500 seat Keefe auditorium at the Elm Street Middle School (which was the High School back when Hector was a pup...) and the smaller 14 Court Street Theater right downtown with a couple hundred seats, a facility cleverly fashioned from a Fire Engine building dated 1847.  The Yeas counter that we have two workable venues that need some updating and that a new facility will be VERY expensive. What we all can agree upon is that we currently have a lot of arts in Nashua, even if all of them aren't right downtown: ballet, symphony, chamber music, flute choir, excellent theater companies for young people, as well as visiting productions from outside the city.

Almost all of us can picture the new Performing Arts facility, even before any architect renders it:   it will be dramatic, beautiful, inspiring, luxurious, high quality, in short, wonderful. A real asset to the City. But where will we put it? How will we pay for it? Whose responsibility will it be? And how will it tip the balance of arts as we now know it?

Not too long ago, the city of Daytona Beach achieved its long-standing dream of a glamorous arts center perched at water's edge in downtown Daytona. It was a creative partnership with Daytona State College (base for a Dance program and company), the City of Daytona, and the town philanthropist, Tippen Davidson of the Daytona Beach News Journal.

The first thing people noticed was that the prices for performances went up - WAY up. $15 - $20 shows were now $40 to $60 or more. The second thing that happened was that the small theaters and theater companies started to wither. They couldn't afford to present at the new facility, and sources of support for their smaller theaters were now redirected to the big show in town. The last I knew, the death of Mr. Davidson and legal issues at the News Journal threatened to put the facility into bankruptcy and the community college took it over.

Maybe this is a case of "Be careful what you wish for."  A palatial facility that has been funded with bonds or ongoing high mortgage is not ideal. A functional facility that we can afford will simply compete with Manchester's Verizon Arena and Lowell's Memorial Auditorium.  Maybe an assortment of smaller venues - a jazz club, a trendy boutique movie theater/meeting facility, a branch museum, would do just as much to draw people to downtown and encourage dinners and a night out. And these could be projects in the private sector. We already have creative businesses like Studio 99, a music venue, studio and lessons source, along with the many restaurants and bars offering live music.

Is the big Performing Arts Facility a "must-have" to cement a city's reputation as "vital" and "successful?"   At what cost?