Columnist Susan Snyder: Center site takes the spotlight

Friday, May 23, 2003 | 9:18 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

The stage is set.

All the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation has to do now is raise $170 million and build a world-class performance facility on five of the 61 acres Las Vegas City owns near downtown.

City Council members approved a measure Wednesday that allows the foundation to build a state-of-the-art performing arts center as long as it sticks to deadlines. A preliminary scheme calls for opening the doors in 2007.

Now all the private, nonprofit foundation has to do is raise $120 million for construction and $50 million for an endowment to cover operations the first few years.

"This is a project that would be easier not to do," Don Snyder, foundation chairman and chief officer of Boyd Gaming, told the council. "It takes people from all areas of the community pulling together."

Afterward a few people still seemed to be pulling in different directions. Some quietly. Some not so.

"You better work with everyone in the arts community. I've lived here all my life, and I know people in the casino industry. We'll put an injunction on you if you don't," a woman hissed at Hal Weller, Las Vegas Philharmonic music director, as both walked out of the council meeting.

Creepy. She smiled the whole time. Las Vegas is a small town with 1.5 million people.

Weller has been working closely with the foundation board on the proposal, which has drawn fire from critics who wanted it placed near Summerlin. But the downtown proposal has the blessing of Summerlin developer Howard Hughes Corporation, which mailed a letter saying so to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

The center is to provide a home for Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Nevada Ballet Theatre and the Nevada Opera Theatre. Afterward, opera director Eileen Hayes said she hopes all local performing groups are brought into the fold long before the curtain goes up. Nonprofit turf wars in Las Vegas can be pretty ugly.

"Everyone needs to be involved," she said.

Hayes was thrilled about the center and its goals. But she fears longtime arts donors will redirect contributions to the center, cutting support to such groups as her 18-year-old opera.

"We're all living in very difficult times," Hayes said.

Times when some cities are closing down cultural groups.

Orchestras in Tampa, Fla., San Jose, Calif., Colorado Springs, Colo., and San Antonio have closed this year, a recent New York Times News Service report says.

Symphony musicians in Houston and Baltimore faced pay cuts. Kentucky's Louisville Orchestra is $800,000 in debt, and Pittsburgh Symphony is $2 million in the red, the report says. Even the New York Philharmonic is asking for emergency donations.

Weller is saddened by such reports, but not afraid of it happening here. A 100-year-old orchestra supporting a $40 million budget carries baggage Las Vegas simply doesn't have. The philharmonic's budget is barely $1 million.

"Our orchestra is fortunate in that it's young. We're still in a growth mode," he said.

Growing pains sometimes hurt a little. But there will be no curtain calls if the cast of characters remains divided.