Former University President Terry Sanford dreamt of building a performing arts center for North Carolina to rival any in the nation. Now, his dream may be realized in the University's own backyard: Downtown Durham has made the short list of sites proposed for the center.
The steering committee for the Performing Arts Institute of North Carolina narrowed the number of potential sites to five Sept. 10. Four of the five sites are within Durham-one in downtown Durham, within walking distance from the University-and the fifth is just outside the city limits.
Tom Drew, a member of the steering committee, explained that although the proposed $100-million center would serve the entire state, it will be situated in the Triangle area due to its central location and traditional support of the arts. "It's hard to find another area that can touch over a million people.... You've got an area near several universities that is culturally rich and an audience that is easily attained," he said.
The center would house classrooms, performance halls, dormitories for artists-in-residence and office space for arts organizations. It would also host a variety of events including chamber orchestras, traveling Broadway shows and local productions.
Drew said the institute would be on the grand scale of such cultural institutions as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Lincoln Center in New York City. "Sanford wanted a magnificent resource for the arts," Drew said. "The South has had a regional inferiority complex, but those kinds of thoughts never entered Sanford's head. His question was always: 'What is the best we can be?'"
Although all five sites are located in the Durham area, the city of Durham applied only for the downtown site; the others were proposed by private entities. Ted Abernathy, Durham's economic development director, said the downtown site would fuel the area's economy by generating residential and retail growth and expanding the need for office space.
"The location downtown lends itself to synergy-hopefully we'd see a ripple effect. The center has the potential to be a catalyst for that part of the city's revival," he said.
Adjacent to the site is the undeveloped American Tobacco property-a former factory that contains more than 1 million square feet of unoccupied space-which Abernathy said could be developed into retail space.
Kathy Silbiger, program director of Duke's Institute of the Arts, said, "[If] it does happen, I hope that it will be located in close proximity to the Duke campus, because it could help to augment the woefully inadequate performing arts facilities we have on this campus, if the management structure could allow for a substantive partnership with Duke."
The idea of an arts institute was conceived by Sanford in February 1997, when he began assembling political, academic and business leaders to guide the decision-making process. He initiated dialogue with the arts community and worked on hiring consultants and staff for the project.
Thirteen sites-offered by public and private entities-were offered to the steering committee. The project was temporarily postponed after Sanford's death last April, but the committee then decided to go forward with the plans. The next step, Drew said, is choosing an architect, which will be done by October. Drew added that the committee has only raised about $300,000 of the $100 million it needs. The final site will be selected in December.
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