On Thursday, Jan. 4, the public had the chance to experience the new Edmonds Center for the Arts officially for the first time.
On that night, the center’s executive director, Joe McIalwain, wanted people to do just one thing: enjoy the moment.
That moment was a special one for many people who have watched as the $18.5 million renovation and remodel project has transformed a very wide and very cold junior and senior high school building into a warm and inviting center where diverse entertainment can be enjoyed, basketball games can be played and another chapter can begin.
That diverse entertainment kicks off with jazz great Al Jarreau on Jan. 6. The center’s leadership believed Jarreau’s style of music, fun and upbeat, was what was needed to kick off the new season.
“He’s got a great personality and his music and his energy is perfect for that evening,” McIalwain said.
The Edmonds Center for the Arts has been unofficially open since fall. It officially opened its doors for the first time Thursday for a free public ribbon-cutting ceremony. Guests mingled, noshed on treats and checked out the intimate 700-seat auditorium, complete with Dale Chihuly art in the lobby and a 68-foot ceiling of deep red fir in the auditorium.
McIalwain said keeping the old building, which once housed Edmonds junior and senior high schools and Puget Sound Christian College, was a goal so that the connection people had would not be lost. Now, the building’s charm and history is what remains.
“It’s just a totally different experience,” McIalwain said. “People who were in there before were just blown away and first-timers are still equally excited about what they see.”
Besides the beauty, the Edmonds Center for the Arts is offering a diverse first season underscored by the center’s goal of bringing in talent with an international flair.
The plan for the center has always been to partner with local groups such as Olympic Ballet Theatre, Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Sno-King Community Chorale and Edmonds Community College. In the spring, the college is planning on putting on “Cabaret,” the first musical to be done on the center’s stage using the new orchestra pit and “all the bells and whistles that come with the theater,” McIalwain said.
But with all these partners, the pressure was on for the center to have standout seasons, ones that would offer a diverse palette to set the center apart from, yet compliment, its partners.
“We need to have our own identity,” McIalwain said. “That’s the way we’ll set ourselves apart, by offering a broad spectrum of arts.”
That spectrum includes the Brazilian band Ache Brasil, the drumming ensemble TaikoProject, the Juan Sanchez Ensemble and the duo of Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and American guitarist Dennis Cahill.
The Edmonds Center’s first season wraps up with the Edmonds Jazz Connection on May 26. McIalwain guessed that during the center’s first year, 80,000 people will have either attended a show, gone through the building, played indoor soccer in the gym or had a meeting in one of the building’s meeting spaces.
The center also will have created 15 new jobs, five full-time and 10 part-time. And as the year progresses, so will the center’s private campaign to raise the $2.8 million needed to finish the project. Part of that money will be raised through the seat campaign, where patrons can buy one of the 600 remaining seats in the auditorium for $1,000.
McIalwain also hopes that people come to the center to expand their cultural worlds.
“I want to try to encourage people to come and see some things that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise have thought about seeing,” he said.
Theresa Goffredo is a writer for The Herald newspaper in Everett.
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