County supervisors today will be asked to ratify the recommendation of the Finance and Government Services Committee to advance plans to develop an eastern Loudoun arts center with a $500,000 allocation.
The county staff members and representatives of the consultant group Page on Jan. 14 presented their final report following a two-year study of options to provide more space for the performing and visual arts.
The study team developed three options of different scales, ranging from an arts campus that would include a concert hall, two theater spaces, arts workshops and galleries with an outdoor plaza to a community arts center that would have a multi-purpose performance hall along with arts workshops and gallery spaces. The projects came with a price tag of between $219 million and $158 million, with annual operating costs ranging from $5.2 million to $4.8 million.
After a failed vote to endorse the larger campus model, the committee backed the middle option, a “scaled performance and visual arts facility” that would include an 800-900 seat multi-purpose performance hall, a 300-350-seat black box theater, art gallery space, and art making space at a projected construction cost of $181.3 million and $4.7 million annually.
Only Supervisors Koran T. Saines (D-Sterling) and Committee Chair Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) supported the campus option.
“I’ve always leaned to more going with the higher number and the bigger venue for various reasons,” Saines said. “You know we’re not talking about building this next year, or the year after that, or in three or four years. This is going to be further out and as we get further out, we know our population growth is going to continue to most likely increase. If we were to go smaller, it would already be outsized in some aspects.”
A larger project also could provide more cost-sharing opportunities to partner with other organizations, he said.
Briskman said building a dedicated concert hall was important.
“One of the main reasons is Loudoun Symphony and meeting Loudoun Symphony’s needs because they are a driver for tourism and other businesses,” Briskman said. “I also think that we can always scale down, but once something kind of gets in the [capital improvements plan] and gets planned, it’s really hard to make it bigger.”
Supervisor Matthew F. Letouneau (R-Dulles) said he was concerned about diverting resources from other critical needs without knowing more about the design and how best to position the project to leverage outside partnerships.
“When we get down to the brass tacks of the CIP, it will be very difficult for me to put $200 million into this instead of a high school or $200 million into this instead of several of these interchange projects that I believe are life safety issues that we aren’t funding currently,” he said.
Supervisor Kristen C. Umstattd (D-Leesburg) agreed, and also raised concerns that such a project would be duplicative of other arts spaces including school auditoriums or the 5,000-seat Ion Arena in Leesburg.
“For me, it’s always going to tend to be the less expensive option is the better option,” she said, offering support for the smallest option. “If I were going to support this at this time, that is probably what I would be interested in.”
County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) said she that a greater investment in the arts is needed and that she supported the scaled performance and visual arts facility option as the right approach.
“I also want us to remember that we’re just starting down this path of having art in Loudoun. We are further behind almost everyone else,” Randall said. “This is the beginning of art centers or art places. This is is not the end. It’s the beginning. We have time. We will do things that are larger, but I also wouldn’t want to try to get something larger right now and delay what we can get because of the cost.”
The motion to support the scaled option and allocation of $500,000 for design work passed 3-2 with Saines and Umstattd opposed. The full board was scheduled to review the recommendation at its Jan. 22 meeting.