localmatters
03.07.12-03.14.12 SEVEN DAYS 16 LOCAL MATTERS
Will Burlington’s Next Mayor Spare Memorial Auditorium? By K e vin J . K elle y Photos: courtesy of Kevin J. Kelley
SEVENDAYSvt.com
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rinal connoisseurs will tell you that two of Burlington’s best are to be found in the downstairs men’s room of Memorial Auditorium. The imposing porcelain beauties date from MemAud’s opening 85 years ago. It may take a gimlet eye to appreciate some of the louche features of a building that its former overseer, Burlington City Arts director Doreen Kraft, describes as “an old, gray battleship.” In fact, some observers view Memorial Auditorium as decrepit, depressing and dangerous. And, regardless of how it’s appraised aesthetically, the new mayor is going to have to decide whether to tear it down and build a new civic arena in its place — a relatively hassle-free option since MemAud isn’t on the historic register — or spend at least $4 million just to maintain the building at its current “funky but functional” level. That’s how Andy Snyder, assistant manager of the street-level clay studio in that building, views the three-story structure, which he considers “a great gift.” Snyder is one of half a dozen fans of MemAud who were spinning and shaping pots in the sunlit studio last Saturday. “This is an excellent space for us,” Snyder declares. Upstairs, hundreds of shoppers seemed happy to be there, as well. They were browsing and buying root vegetables, preserves, cheese, pasta, meat and craft items from 58 vendors who had set up stands for the semimonthly winter farmers market. “It’s perfect for us,” market manager Chris Wagner says of the gym, where an average of 1500 locals come to shop and socialize on 13 Saturdays between early November and late April. “We’re happy here.” Burlington teens like MemAud, too. They come to shows as well as to after school programs and music and dance camps that take place in 242 Main, the downstairs performance space that director Richard Bailey describes as “the longest-running all-ages club in the United States.” Bailey, 43, says he first came to 242 Main as a student in 1985, the year that then-Mayor Bernie Sanders inaugurated it as a much-needed teen center. In MemAud’s third-floor loft, the Jeh Kulu dance and drum troupe gives lessons in the arts and culture of West Africa. A downstairs annex adjacent to the BCA-run pottery and printing studios is also available for smaller-scale performances. As a member of MemAud’s broad constituency, Bailey wants to see the building upgraded, not gutted. “It’d be nice to have some ventilation in the summer,” he says. “But please don’t strip
Farmers Market at Memorial Auditorium
A lot of shows did very poorly at Memorial in the past 10 years. That’s partly because people imagine it being a bad venue for certain performances.
D oree n K ra f t
away the personality and the memories. Memorial’s an incredible backdrop to Burlington’s history.” Built in 1927 by local architect Frank Austin, the nondescript brick hulk at the corner of Main and South Union streets is dedicated to the memory of Burlington’s war dead. Writing in the Burlington Free Press in 1928, Mayor C.H. Beecher
extolled the new 20,000-square-foot civic space, which accommodates 2500 spectators. “Burlington now claims the largest and best equipped auditorium in New England north of Springfield, Mass., and is making a successful bid as the leading convention city of northern New England,” Beecher declared. That was then. Thousands of
Burlingtonians fondly recall seeing stars such as Bob Marley, B.B King, Bob Dylan and Leontyne Price perform at MemAud in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Some of them have gone on to have kids who have more recently attended dubstep raves featuring Nero and Skrillex. Today, the auditorium books about 30 large-scale events per year, says Alan