EDMONDS – This city of beautiful vistas that has built its reputation on the arts will soon have a sparkling new gem to showcase.
Construction will begin in September on an $18 million remodeling of a former school into a state-of-the-art performing arts center.
When completed in October 2006, the Edmonds Center for the Arts is expected to enhance the image of Edmonds as a suburban arts Mecca. The city already has an arts festival, two live theaters, a ballet company, a symphony orchestra, several art galleries, a monthly art walk and numerous public sculptures.
“We expect the center to become a regional beacon for the arts, which is a great thing,” said Jeff Stilwell, who with his wife, Manya Schilperoort, owns the Kindred Circle art gallery. The couple also organize the Third Thursday Art Walk.
“It’s going to become a great nexus for supporters and practitioners of art,” Stilwell said.
The auditorium of the former Puget Sound Christian College at 401 Fourth Ave. N., which was added to the former Edmonds High School in 1939, has been used for many years by the Edmonds-based Olympic Ballet Theatre and Cascade Symphony Orchestra. The college left in 2000 and sold the campus to the Edmonds Public Facilities District for $4.1 million.
Now, with comfortable seating, better sightlines, improved lighting and sound, backstage improvements, a lobby with food and drinks, and its own parking lot, the center is expected to draw even more performances and patrons, said Terry Vehrs, chairman of the Edmonds PFD board.
Discussions have taken place with the Paramount Theatre in Seattle about performers there adding a date in Edmonds, Vehrs said.
“The whole idea was for us to be a regional center,” he said. “We’re looking for it to be used often by others.”
The arts tend to build on themselves, said Stilwell, a playwright.
Since the art walk began four years ago, “we’ve seen the very real difference in the quality of art and how it’s increased,” he said.
More people are seeing the artworks, “which inspires artists to reach greater heights,” Stilwell added.
Building on that creative reputation has long been discussed as a way to attract newcomers and increase the city’s tax base. Despite Edmonds’ status as the second-largest city in Snohomish County, it has a relatively small business base. An ongoing debate has occurred about how to reduce the property tax burden on city residents without damaging the character of downtown.
The arts center could be the city’s biggest step toward capitalizing on the arts.
“There definitely will be synergy that happens with it. We will be the arts hub,” Vehrs said.
Jennifer Gerend, economic development director for the city, said the center could be a big draw.
“An active cultural base really adds to the desirability of a city for residents and businesses,” she said.
Gerend added that she has been mentioning the arts center when talking to businesses about coming to Edmonds.
After the arts center plan got rolling three years ago, the city included in its comprehensive plan a concept for an “arts corridor” along Fourth Avenue N. from Main Street to the arts center. Details have not been developed, but the idea is exciting, Gerend said.
Helen Wilkins, director of Olympic Ballet, plans to be at the groundbreaking ceremony of the new center Sept. 16. She ran the ballet company with her late husband, John Wilkins, until his death in 2003. He had pushed for an upgraded venue in the city.
“John will be kicking up his heels at our groundbreaking, and thrilled that this vital arts community is getting its own theater,” she said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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