Arts Participation - Columbia Theatre for the Performing ArtsFirst off, I have to say “Wow!” The energy and enthusiasm of the current staff is exciting. They are in full swing with Arts in Education and the Capital Campaign. It’s an exciting time and their efforts are the beginning of bigger changes for Longview.
I met with Gian Morelli, Executive Director, Deena Martinsen, Marketing/Arts and Education, Helen Gundlach, Development and Capital Campaign Director.
Just some months back, the theatre was having a lot of staff turnover, the API project was just a short theatre program in conjunction with a few schools. Now, the Shakespeare Project is a long-term project, in full swing with events that deepen, broaden and diversify at every turn.
Columbia Theatre’s Shakespeare Project in the schools is a collaborative project between the theatre, its 40 Cowlitz county arts advocates, public schools, colleges and libraries. The project introduces children and young adults to the ongoing diverse interpretation of the plays of William Shakespeare. Columbia Theatre brought in MacHomer which is one man doing all the Simpsons cartoon characters in a live version of MacBeth. MacHomer is one of the many integrated programs that educate and draw in audiences from Cowlitz County.
I see parallels with the other Arts Participation Grantees: the potential revitalization of the historic center of town, working with other interest groups within a small town, the impact of malls in our history, overcoming barriers to participation and the value of having the right staff to pull it off.
Having Deena Martinsen as the Marketing/Arts Education staff member is a great boon. She is well connected with the 40 arts advocates in the county and remembers coming to the theatre as a child. That long-term relationship with Longview is valuable.
Gian Morelli is the new Executive Director and brings tremendous positive energy. Before taking the job at Columbia Theatre, Gian spent an entire day in the local coffee shop. He wanted to get the pulse of Longview. He saw around the “it’ll never happen here” and saw that it is happening. He saw it in the youth that came in with his Nietzsche t-shirt and what other youth had to say. Gian came from the Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin with experience and vision.
Gian has a working group of board members and citizens that are thinking with big minds on the vision for the city’s future and how it fits in with the county and the region. This point in time is one where Longview’s core could shift from sleepy to vibrant and arts education from going along to winning national awards in a few years.
The ways that they reach the community are great examples of how everyone in a small community has to think and work to build participation. For example, at the Public Utility District, the theatre staff put up a display of a beanstalk and a cow to advertise the show Jack and the Beanstalk by Missoula Children’s Theatre. And when citizens drive through the PUD to pay their bills, they get a voucher for the show. The library has a teen center that draws in teens for programs like Tempest Talk. They have an artist-in-residence who graduated from the University of Washington working on the Shakespeare Project. They integrate their programming into all levels of the community. Next summer, the farmer’s market will lead up to the theatre and revive the tradition the theatre had back in the 50s as a meeting place for the town’s youth.
It’s an exciting time for the Theatre and for Longview. The Theatre has the potential as a case study for revitalization.
Background:The 900 seat Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts is located in Longview, Washington. Once a booming town of wealthy industrialists, an hour north of Portland, now a small city waiting for the revitalization of the downtown core. Longview is one of two planned cities in the United States. The other is Washington, D.C. Mr. Long paid for the creation of the city, complete with a lake and a central, wheel-grid in 1923. Mr. Long money came from the timber industry and he saw a need for a city to house the many mill workers who would come and work in the mill. - from the City of Longview.
The Theatre was completed in 1923 and was built for vaudeville performances for a few years. It closed and was opened again in the 1950s as a movie theater. In 1980, the wrecking ball loomed but luckily was saved. The building is owned by the city and in the process of preparing and raising the last funds for the Capital Campaign. They will close in 2009 and the theatre will be upgraded. The original details freshened, new larger bathrooms installed, lighting and other physical improvements that will enhance the architecture and the performances. The $12.6 million includes $5.8 million from the Public Facility District funding bill from the State of Washington.
Site visit and photo Saya Moriyasu, January 2008. | ||||
