Greensboro plans to give Piedmont-area big-box performing arts centers – the ones that work almost exclusively with bus-&-truck imports that compete directly with local performing arts organizations – like DPac – a run for their money. For details, see this Greensboro News and Record article.
And unlike DPac and Raleigh’s Big MAC (as in the Memorial Auditorium Complex). Greensboro will set this up the right way, for the first time in NC, as far as we can tell: they will have a non-profit advisory board of arts professionals involved in managing and running the facility, instead of butts-in-seats conventioneer types (as in Raleigh) or carpet-bagging managers (as in Durham). For details of Greensboro’s exciting (proposed) approach to running a performing arts center for performing arts people (fancy that!), see this earlier News and Record article.
Recent arrivals in the state may not realize that a non-profit corporation populated by arts experts was at one time in the works for Raleigh. Instead, due to politics and favoritism, what is now known as the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts has become more and more expensive and harder and harder to get into for many of our local performing arts organizations.
Here’s hoping Greensboro leads the way and really does do it right!
