"These are services that we have been providing to the city of Fayetteville and are things that we would like to continue to provide," said Terri Trotter, chief operational officer for the Walton Arts Center.
The Fayetteville City Council is considering a proposal to transfer the money. It's part of a plan developed by Mayor Lioneld Jordan's administration to create a paid parking program in the Dickson Street entertainment district.
The parking program is part of the city's effort to respond to the arts center's desire to create a better experience for patrons who attend events at the 18-year-old facility. A study by the arts center found a high level of dissatisfaction with parking among those patrons.
Jordan's staff estimates the parking program will generate more than $400,000 a year that could be applied to financing a parking deck near the Walton Arts Center.
The new program would transition the public parking lots near the arts center to gated, pay-as-you-stay parking. Fees would also be attached to parking spots on the street, and the city would enforce parking limits by writing citations.
The program is expected to generate about $1 million a year, according to a study conducted by the Fayetteville Parking Division.
City Attorney Kit Williams has told aldermen the city cannot just give public money to the nonprofit arts center. But it can provide funding to the arts center as part of a contract for services to the city and its residents, Williams said.
Any payment of funds should be used for the overall public good, Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan has said. He points to the ticket giveaways the Walton Arts Center already provides for children at the Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club as something parking revenue can help fund. These ticket giveaways amount to $30,400 a year, according to Walton Arts Center documents.
The Walton Arts Center also assists nonprofit TheatreSquared, a local theater company, by subsidizing its rent at the Nadine Baum Studio, an arts center facility across West Avenue from the main building. The Northwest Arkansas Community Creative Center, which offers pottery and other art classes, is also located in the Nadine Baum Studio, and it also participates in the Walton Arts Center rent subsidy program, which costs the performing arts center more than $58,100 a year, according to WAC documents.
Funding some of these endeavors demonstrates "our continued support for having this wonderful asset in our community," Jordan said.
A parking deck would bring more spaces to the Dickson Street area and make them more convenient for Walton Arts Center patrons and others crowding into Dickson Street's many bars and restaurants, city and arts center officials said.
Transferring public funds to performing arts centers is not unusual, Trotter said. Similar institutions, such as the Maui Arts and Cultural Center in Hawaii and the Cincinnati Arts Association in Ohio, have about 7 percent to 10 percent of their budgets supported by local and state governments, she said.
Government support of the Walton Arts Center is less than 1 percent of its $9 million annual budget, according to 2007 tax records, the latest year available. State and local government funding amounts for 2008 and 2009 are "approximately the same breakdown," said Jodi Beznoska, vice president for marketing and communication at the Walton Arts Center.
By The Numbers
Paid Parking Program
Annual budget for Dickson Street entertainment district paid parking program:
Parking Revenue -- $769,059
Citation Revenue -- $201,025
Total -- $997,084
Expenses
Salaries/Benefits -- $104,130
Operational Costs -- $16,285
Equipment Purchase Over Time -- $177,648
Walton Arts Center -- $289,000
Parking Deck Fund -- $410,021
Total -- $997,084
Source: City Of Fayetteville
Leaders in the major cities of Northwest Arkansas are all keenly aware of the arts center's plans to expand. The center's leadership wants an additional facility that will include a 2,500-seat performance hall. The current facility has a capacity of 1,200 seats in its main auditorium.
Fayetteville officials desperately want that expansion to happen in Fayetteville. Williams, the city attorney, has suggested any public money going to the Walton Arts Center should be contingent upon the new performance hall being built in Fayetteville.
"I know that some folks think if we give the money without it being tied to the discussions of future expansion, that we might be giving away the store," said Jordan. "But remember, this is a 12-month agreement, and the City Council can always come back and discuss what happens in the future if the circumstances change."
The idea of tying city money to this sort of guarantee was not part of discussions between the Walton Arts Center and the mayor's office, Trotter said.
And apparently, these discussions are also not happening among city officials in other parts of Northwest Arkansas.
"That has not been discussed," said Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin, when asked if his city might consider a transfer of public funds to the Walton Arts Center if it chose a Bentonville location for its new facilities.
"As far as committing public funds to that, I don't see that in the cards," said Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse.
The deadline for cities and others offering site selection proposals to the Walton Arts Center is Aug. 2. Fayetteville plans to have its parking program in place by the start of the fall semester at the University of Arkansas.
