Every burnt orange seat was filled at the end of the Edmonds Center for the Arts’ first ever full season. At the end, every single ticket for the richly colored, 700-seat auditorium was sold.
Outside, too, things were crowded. Before and after the Friday, May 30 evening finale, theater goers packed downtown restaurants and crowded downtown streets.
For Edmonds, and its $18.5 million arts gamble, it was a tantalizing view of the possible.
There are plenty of encouraging signs for the ECA. Ticket sales for ECA shows in 2007-2008 exceeded expectations, for instance. Partner organizations like the Cascade Symphony Orchestra love the space, they say. Every group that rented space this year has already signed for next year, too.
Almost 100,000 people will attend various events this year, officials said.
Still, as the ECA prepares to announce its 2008-2009 lineup, there is work to do.
Officials are still trying to raise millions of dollars to pay off the cost of the building’s renovation, which was completed in 2006. Despite some sell-outs this season, the average ECA show was only 54 percent full — a figure executive director Joe McIalwain hopes to raise to 65 percent next year.
“Just like every start up, non-profit or otherwise, we have had our ups and downs,” McIalwain said June 2. “But, as we’d hoped, the community is falling in love with the center and our programs.”
The Smothers Brothers, who played the May 30 finale, generated a lot of excitement. The 1960’s-era music-and-comedy duo sold out a solid three months in advance.
Some audiences, however, were significantly smaller than others. For some classical music acts, less than 25 percent of the house was full.
Finding diverse shows which audiences will consistently support is a learning process the center hopes to grasp quickly.
For a new arts institution rebuilt in a grand structure that has housed a Christian college, a high school and a junior high, however, another necessary priority is selling the ECA itself.
“Our focus has been trying to get the word out about the center,” said Dave Earling, who sits on the Edmonds Public Facility District (PFD) board, an independent government agency which owns and oversees the ECA. “We are becoming successful, and have been successful, in making the communities aware of this project.”
“Communities,” plural, is a key point.
About 65 percent of theater-goers at the ECA come from outside Edmonds’ borders. About 15 percent of its audience is from Seattle, but people come from Bellingham to Olympia and beyond, McIalwain said.
That casts the ECA as an important cog in Edmonds’ effort to bring residents and tourists alike to downtown Edmonds.
The city’s role in the ECA is limited, however. Edmonds guarantees a $7 million construction bond, gives the center about $10,000 annually for the season brochure and appoints members to the PFD board. But, it doesn’t have any direct oversight for the center.
“There is a political connection, but there is no subsidy there,” McIalwain said. “They very generously back the bonds, but we are an independent organization.”
The ECA has a $1 million annual budget, and has six full-time and 12 part-time employees.
It pays for itself through a system of ticket sales, rental agreements and private donations. The stage, conference rooms and an attached gym are rented to groups of all sorts.
The ECA’s primary partners are the Cascade Symphony Orchestra, the Olympic Ballet Theater, the Sno-King Community Chorale and Edmonds Community College.
The ECA is a terrific place for the ballet company, said artistic director Helen Wilkens.
“We had a very, very exciting season there and we look forward to belonging as a resident company in the future,” Wilkens said. “I am just thrilled that (the ECA is) preparing to be totally on the map.”
The remodel helped turn the facility into a first-class stage, said Roberta McBride, president of the Cascade Symphony Orchestra board.
The orchestra has used the building in its various shapes for 40 years. What was once drafty and cold is now acoustically amazing, McBride said.
“We are very pleased with the ECA,” said McBride, who said ticket sales for orchestra shows have grown since the ECA’s founding. “Every seat is a good seat. The acoustics are so much better. There isn’t a place in the hall where you cannot just hear everything.”
The ECA’s goal, of course, is that no matter where theater goers are, they cannot help but hear about the ECA.
“We need to build that awareness,” McIalwain said. “We need to attract audiences to a greater degree so that we can get people here, and get people excited about what we’re doing.”
With its next season growing from 25 shows to 31, McIalwain hopes to take a step in that direction.
Popular acts like George Winston, Don McLean and the Second City comedy troop will be coming through town, he promised.
“We are doing the best we can,” McIalwain said. “It is beginning to pay off, but it has been hard work.”
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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