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By Sarah Bzdega

Imagine a dance performance in an art gallery, film crews collaborating with a theatrical troupe and musicians composing songs for dance and theater performances.

This is only the start of what would be possible with a downtown cultural arts center, say the leaders of five local nonprofit organizations, who started working toward such a facility in May 2007. Their project may be gaining momentum.

“I think this is a revolutionary idea, especially for Des Moines,” said Eric Wickes, executive director of the East Village Arts Coalition, one of the parties involved. “Not a lot of cities in the country are doing what we’re doing, because most other facilities even close to this are more focused on one genre, like a performing arts center, music venues or theater venues. We’re trying to put it all together and put this synergy under one roof.”

The EVAC, the Drama Workshop, the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition, the Iowa Motion Picture Association and Hurley & Dancers filed articles of incorporation to form Visual & Performing Arts Des Moines in November. The founders also are working on a business plan and will soon apply for 501(c)(3) status. The umbrella nonprofit will begin raising funds for the project and manage the facility once completed.

Through grants from the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation and Iowa Arts Council, the group also brought in Minneapolis-based Artspace Projects Inc. in December to consult on the feasibility of the project. Its preliminary report suggests that now is a good time for a project like this downtown, said Kent Newman, president of the IMPA, given the number of people working and living downtown and the completion of the Downtown Des Moines Planning Project report.

“I think there’s been a lot of rhetoric on the part of Des Moines city leaders that these are the things that we need and are ready for,” he said, “so I hope people will see this as something that we’re offering to the metro as a great asset. It’s something that will help more young people stay here and probably attract more people as well.”

The concept

The cultural center would combine theater, film, dance, music and visual arts into one shared space that would feature a 150- to 200-seat, 3,800-square-foot theater.

The proposal also includes two additional flexible performance spaces, two classrooms, a scene/construction shop, dance and recording studios, a video and editing facility and office space for all member organizations. The center could rent out retail space to an art supplies shop, framing shop, or restaurant and bar as well as have a conference room, dressing rooms, studio apartments for artist-in-residence programs or guest performers, and live-work lofts.

“The idea is that the theater alone probably wouldn’t make it,” said Amedeo Rossi, executive director of DMMC, but by providing other amenities, especially office space that many nonprofit arts organizations need, the center could generate enough support to sustain itself.

The founders plan to hire at least two staff people to manage the center and part-time workers to staff a shared ticket office. Organizations would pay a set fee to become a member and give a percentage of their ticket sales to VPArts in return for office space and priority status on all shared space. The business plan has a preliminary annual budget of around $300,000.

Jeff Rohrick, president of the Drama Workshop, got the ball rolling by presenting the idea to the other four organizations and is now actively trying to get other groups involved. “I just wanted to find a way that a lot of these groups could work together collectively to use one space,” he said, “so it wouldn’t be such a financial burden on one group.”

A former Los Angles resident, Rohrick has seen similar facilities there and more recently has followed the success of the Hennepin Center for the Arts in Minneapolis, which houses more than 15 nonprofit arts organizations under one roof.

The biggest challenge for VPArts is finding a suitable space. The group has toured a handful of warehouse sites, but most are tied up in housing projects or have options to buy already placed on them, and most are priced over $1 million.

One of the best options, Newman said, is the Rumely Building at 104 S.W. Fourth St., but J&T Development LLC submitted site plans for a housing development to the city of Des Moines on Jan. 14. VPArts is waiting to see if the project receives historic tax credits, which could determine whether the housing project moves forward.

Based on similar projects across the nation, VPArts’ success depends on getting the building at low or no cost, Newman said. Options include persuading the city or a developer to donate a building, connecting to a housing project, or raising money to buy an existing building or construct one. VPArts is working with architect Kun Nong, husband of Hurley & Dancers founder Kathleen Hurley, who is drafting a plan for how the facility might work.

“Our goal is we wouldn’t have a real onerous debt, whatever we get into,” Newman said. “We want our operations to be able to cash-flow, so that we can focus on the programming and the contributions that that would make.”

The possibilities

A project like this might be more economically effective than larger buildings that leave governments or organizations with huge debts, like the Iowa Events Center, the founders say. Having the activity of several arts organizations in one location could generate more traffic in the vicinity as well.

“Rather than bringing a great show from New York City to the Civic Center (of Greater Des Moines), these are going to be homegrown productions from people who live here, work here, and I think sort of stimulating that creative economy we’ve heard a lot about,” Newman said.

“Des Moines currently doesn’t have an art center with events scheduling towards adult productions,” Hurley said.

The facility also is a way for the Drama Workshop to reinvent itself by giving it an affordable theater. “The problem you find,” said Rossi, who also is on the Drama Workshop board, “particularly with theater space, is there’s very little space to do theater, and it’s expensive, so to create a new home really gives new life to the direction of where it’s going.”

All of the member organizations see this as a way to have a greater presence downtown, with formal office space and to grow their organizations.

The IMPA believes the new center will allow it to hold more formal training sessions for people in the film industry with a permanent meeting space. The East Village Art Coalition is looking forward to having permanent gallery space, and DMMC is attracted to the recording studio and other amenities it could offer its members.

Hurley, a former professional dancer from New York City, believes the new facility would help her expand her troupe from a handful of performers. The group has been able to practice at the colleges where many of the performers teach, but she said a home base would allow dancers to offer classes outside the schools and hold two dance performances a year.

“In Des Moines, it’s hard to find a place that you can affordably rent and hold a performance,” she said. “It’s cheaper for me to take the dance company to Minneapolis.”

Plus, it would lead to more collaborative multimedia performances, which could also make VPArts more attractive for grants.

Still, potential donors to the project might need some convincing, Newman said. VPArts is talking to Bravo Greater Des Moines about possibly conducting a survey of Des Moines residents to see how much they would be willing to spend for art and what cultural things interest them, and a survey of artists to see what they need.

“We want this to be very realistic,” Newman said.