Symphonic Shorts

Miami to get new Performing Arts Center...Maybe...

After twenty-one years, it looks like the Performing Arts Center of Greater Miami might actually get built. In December, Miami-Dade County Commission approved the $255 million contract, after numerous debates and escalating costs.
The Center is slated to open in the fall of 2004, and it will be the new home of the Concert Association of Florida, the Florida Philharmonic, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, and the New World Symphony. It will contain a 2480-seat  opera-ballet theater and a 2200-seat concert hall, designed by architect Cesar Pelli and fine-tuned by acoustician Russell Johnson. It will be built on land donated by Sears and Knight-Ridder on Biscayne Boulevard north of I-95.

Funding will come from $40 million in private donations, as well as interest from government bonds and hotel bed-taxes. In the few years since the project was originally approved, costs have risen from an original estimate of $168 million to the current estimate of $255 million. However, strong tourism and new hotel construction has produced more tax revenue than the county had expected, providing more public funds for projects such as the Arts Center.

Nonprofits Pumping up the Economy in Dallas


Recent reports show that nonprofit cultural organizations contributed $704.4 million to the north Texas economy in 2000. The largest money-generators were $222 million from museums, $126 million from music performances, and $98 million from the theater. "No great city has good business sense without parallel artistic sense," says Dallas Business Committee for the Arts founder Raymond Nasher. This reinforces the conclusions of an earlier study showing the arts to have a $3.9 billion impact on the New England economy.


News & Announcements

The Florida Philharmonic has announced the resignation of Executive Director Elizabeth Hare and the appointments of Robert Calvert as Director of Development and Pam Deardon as Education/Outreach Director and Chorus Administrator…

Grants

The Estate of Lois L. Deicke has donated $1.18 million to the Florida Philharmonic, as well as an additional $1.18 million to the Broward Performing Arts Complex and to the Youth Orchestra of Florida...

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