Needs study of
valley’s arts facilities
will proceed
The
study is estimated to cost approximately $40,000, half of which will be
paid by the City of Sun Valley and half by targeted donations from
citizens.
By
GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer
Sun
Valley Mayor David Wilson told Sun Valley City Council members Thursday
that the city plans to contribute $20,000 toward a recently revived
study to determine whether a new arts complex is needed somewhere in the
Wood River Valley.
The Sun
Valley Arts Foundation, a group raising funds for and promoting the idea
of building a new arts campus in the Sun Valley-Ketchum area, is moving
forward with a "non-site-specific Needs Assessment" to
ascertain the need for new arts facilities and the adequacy of existing
sites, Wilson said.
Scheduled
to be performed by the Duncan Webb Group of New York City, the formal
Needs Assessment is scheduled to begin Sept. 18 with interviews of local
city officials, arts administrators, artists and residents, Wilson said.
The study
is estimated to cost approximately $40,000, half of which will be paid
by the City of Sun Valley and half by targeted donations from citizens
to the foundation and the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.
Wilson
said the foundation so far has raised about $36,000 for the study,
including the Sun Valley donation—which has been approved by the city
council as part of the city budget—and pending checks from the City of
Ketchum and the City of Hailey for $5,000 and $1,000, respectively.
"They’re
going to get there," he said of the foundation.
The
non-site-specific study was commissioned by the SVAF in late August,
after it abandoned the idea of conducting a study to determine whether
an arts campus would be suitable for location specifically on a
five-acre parcel along Sun Valley Road that is owned by the city.
Dan
Drackett, chairman of the SVAF, called off the site-specific study last
month in response to substantial opposition from the public to
development of the city-owned site.
However,
upon doing so, Drackett said that backers of the arts-campus proposal
were possibly interested in moving forward with the non-site-specific
study.
Wilson
announced at the meeting Thursday that city officials have tentatively
discussed using the five-acre site for public events such as the Sun
Valley Center for the Arts’ annual wine auction. The events would be
held in tents, and no buildings have been proposed as part of the idea,
he said.