Minnesota Shubert Center receives
$11 million from Legislature
The Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center took a giant leap
forward Sunday, May 22 when the Minnesota Legislature approved $11 million in bonding
to help Artspace Projects build the new arts center in downtown Minneapolis.
The Legislature’s action means that the capital campaign for the Minnesota
Shubert Center has now raised $24.5 million, slightly more than two-thirds of
its $37 million goal.
“We couldn’t be happier,” said Kim Motes, the Minnesota Shubert
Center’s Director. “We have long needed a significant investment
from the state, not only for bricks and mortar but also to help people see that
this project is real. Now it’s time for the philanthropic community ?
corporations, foundations, and individuals ? to step up and make the same commitment
so that we can complete the fundraising phase and get on with the important
task of creating this important new cultural institution that will benefit so
many.”
When completed in the Fall of 2008, the Minnesota Shubert Center will be the
flagship for dance in Minnesota and the Minneapolis venue for the Saint Paul
Chamber Orchestra. It will also be a statewide resource for arts education and
technology. In addition, it will be a home to some 20 arts organizations, including
Ballet Arts Minnesota, Illusion Theater, James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Chorale,
Minnesota Crafts Council, Minnesota Dance Theatre and School, VSA Arts Minnesota,
and Zenon Dance Company and School.
Motes praised Rep. Kurt Zellers (R-Maple Grove) and Sen. Linda Higgins (DFL-Minneapolis),
the House and Senate authors, respectively, of the legislation that put the
Minnesota Shubert Center into the bonding bill.
“It never would have happened without them,” Motes said. “They
worked hard, and they worked effectively. They were wonderful.” Because
of Zellers, she noted, the Minnesota Shubert Center was the first arts project
ever included in a House bonding bill.”
“We were fortunate to have bipartisan support from legislators all across
the state,” noted Stacey Mickelson, Artspace’s Director of Government
Relations. “Both Democratic and Republican legislators recognized that
the Minnesota Shubert Center will benefit students throughout Greater Minnesota.
They wanted to help make it happen.”
Zellers said he led the fight for bonding in part because of the Minnesota Shubert
Center’s acclaimed arts education program, now in its third season, which
uses interactive Internet technology to link artists in the Twin Cities with
students throughout Minnesota.
“I was delighted to lead this effort in the House,” Zellers said.
“As a boy growing up on a farm in North Dakota, I didn’t have access
to the arts. The Minnesota Shubert Center’s program for delivering arts
education across the state is critically important to kids. The fact that the
program is already reaching 25 communities made it a lot easier for me to convince
my colleagues that this project is real.”
Although the Legislature’s action won’t become law until the bonding
bill is signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has the power to veto specific line
items, his approval of the Minnesota Shubert appropriation is expected. It was
Pawlenty, Mickelson pointed out, who secured $1 million in planning money for
the project a year ago after a conference committee eliminated all funding for
arts projects.
“That planning grant allowed us to fire up the design process as we move
toward making the Minnesota Shubert Center a reality,” Motes said.
Located at Sixth Street and Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, the Center
will be a three-building complex consisting of two historic structures, the
1910 Shubert Theater and the 1888 Hennepin Center for the Arts, and a new addition
that will connect the two older buildings and serve as the nerve center of the
entire complex. Although it will embrace all the performing arts, the Center’s
primary points of focus will be dance and music.
The Center is a project of Artspace Projects, a Minneapolis-based national nonprofit
real estate developer whose mission is to create and manage space for artists
and arts organizations. The project architect is Miller Dunwiddie Architecture,
a Minneapolis firm that specializes in historic preservation projects.
Release Date: May 22, 2006
For additional information, contact:
Kim Motes at 612.465.0242