Performing arts centre faces two big hurdles

Armchair Mayor column published in the Kamloops Daily News Jan. 21, 2012.

One of the big topics of dinner conversation at the Kamloops Convention Centre tonight promises to be the idea of a new performing arts centre. It would be pretty hard to avoid it — the Big Three arts groups are hosting the fifth annual Mayor’s Gala for the Arts.

Two of those three, namely the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra and Western Canada Theatre, are pivotal to hopes for a new centre. With the symphony now on board, it would seem the vision has some legs.

Yet, Western Canada Theatre’s support remains, outwardly at least, tepid. As much as a new theatre would be a nice thing, there’s that niggling matter of the Sagebrush Theatre. Board members worry about what will happen to the Sagebrush if a new centre is built.

Which leaves the best chance for success the construction of a new centre without WTC. The symphony and other groups could enjoy the new centre, leaving WCT hunkered in the old Sagebrush.

That would also solve one design challenge — trying to build a theatre (more likely two theatres, one with about 1,200 seats and another with 300 or so) that works well both for orchestral music and for drama. The acoustics needed for each are so different that any facility accommodating both uses must necessarily compromise with something that’s second best.

A second issue (aside from money) promises to be just as contentious as who will partner. There’s a bias at City Hall, shared by the symphony, in favour of building a new centre in the downtown area as part of a “cultural district.”

It’s a concept that confuses the walk-in attraction of an artsy-fartsy shops-and-boutiques zone with drive-to facilities.

We can do without more traffic in the downtown core, but there’s no inherent value to collecting major arts facilities in one neighbourhood anyway. And land, of course, is scarce downtown.

An exciting possibility exists just across the river at the north end of the bridge. The Henry Grube site has plenty of land for what could be an award-winning design looking out onto the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers. It’s an architect’s dream, with lots of room for parking to boot.

Think Sydney Opera House. One can imagine the Kamloops Centre for the Arts (or Meeting of the Waters Centre for the Arts) imposing itself on the views of the thousands who cross the bridge each day, a postcard structure that would become the very symbol of Kamloops.

Imagine it as you look across from Riverside Park, or from the upper reaches of the South Shore.

Just as there’s no good reason arts facilities should be clustered to the benefit of one part of town, there’s no reason at all that the North Shore should be excluded. What a glorious statement of unity it would be.

And, it’s completely doable. The land can be transferred, and most of what Henry Grube is currently used for could be accommodated in a new centre that focuses on music but is designed for other pursuits as well.

There are lots of reasons to say no to something, but this is one with lots of reasons to say yes.

If we’re going to talk about a vision for a new performing arts centre, then let’s get some real vision going, instead of limiting the discussion to old assumptions about partners and locations.