We’ve tried for some time now to sound the alarm on big changes in the works for Charlotte’s arts community, changes that may not be for the better. Now those changes are coming into sharper focus.
For several years now it has been clear that the massive push for new Uptown performance spaces might have ripple effects. One of those just might be an end to Spirit Square as it now exists — perhaps as it has existed since it made the transition from First Baptist Church to performing arts center back in 1980.
Bottomline, all of the city and county’s and Arts & Science Council’s eggs are now in the $160 million Wachovia Arts Complex. Spirit Square’s performing and arts space will soon stand in direct competition with the new spaces. That can’t be good. Then there is the cost angle. Will arts groups be able to pay for the upkeep of the new spaces as is the official plan? Will that take away from the actual production of art? We keep asking that, and no one seems to want to answer.
And it is great that Mecklenburg County Commission Chairman Parks Helms is suddenly so worried about the best, most profitable use of Spirit Square real estate. Better late than never, Parks, to get serious about money. But does that concern also extend to the old Afro-American Cultural Center site? There does not seem to be any great rush to get that site into the hands of developers as the new center rises on Stonewall.
Then again, maybe the county can just pay $400,000 over market value for the old site, like the county did for the Grace AME Zion Church. Just because Parks said it was worth that much, naturally.
His business focus seems to come and go.
