Our Watershed Moment: A Campaign for an Innovative Arts Center

Our Watershed Moment

A Campaign for an Innovative Arts Center

Introduction The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe has been supporting local artists and bringing the world’s newest and most cuttingedge cultural experiences to our city for the past 16 years. Fifteen hundred local, national, and international artists of all disciplines participate in the annual Festival—16 days of nonstop wild creativity and daring performances enjoyed by an audience of over 30,000 last year.

Philadelphia’s Premier Contemporary Arts Center A permanent home and year-round facility will allow Live Arts to be the region’s premier presenter of contemporary performance and developer of new work. Live Arts is primed to support more artists, reach more audiences, and bring more art to Philadelphia from around the world. Our new center’s groundbreaking design creates a welcoming social environment by embedding arts and culture in a fun and vibrant atmosphere. The center will animate the Philadelphia waterfront and provide Live Arts with new revenue streams to help maintain expanded programs.

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+ 225 seat theater with flexible/retractable seating + Rehearsal studio to elevate artistic development for local and international artists

+R estaurant/bar with a commercial kitchen +P rofessional office and meeting space for administrative headquarters

+O utdoor plaza for performances and audience interaction

+P ermanent Festival hub

Revitalize the Waterfront We will convert the High Pressure Fire Service (HPFS) building into a contemporary arts center, preserving the memory and history of the structure.

This pumping station, built in 1903, once protected Center City Philadelphia from catastrophic fires. It will now serve as a cultural anchor of the city’s waterfront revitalization. Located directly across from the new Race Street Pier and in close proximity to Old City, this facility will become a year-round destination for visiting and local audiences to experience thrilling contemporary arts performances.

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Facility Overview

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FESTIVAL NO. 15

2011 PHILADELPHIA LIVE ARTS FESTIVAL + PHILLY FRINGE

SEPTEMBER 2–17 LIVEARTS-FRINGE.ORG 215.413.1318

Presented by

“

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I love the spontaneity and uniqueness of the art and entertainment that is offered.

You can’t have any more fun anywhere else!

—Deborah Oliver, Festival supporter and attendee

The Theater

The Studio

Year-round programming allows us to present a greater number of world-class contemporary artists. The space is fully accessible with retractable seating, high ceilings, and large windows creating a beautiful backdrop of the Ben Franklin Bridge. The theater is designed to embrace a full range of performances from shows like Pig Iron Theatre Company’s reimagined Twelfth Night, or What You Will to the miraculous acrobats of 7 Fingers.

The multi-purpose space will serve as an incubator for new work by local, national, and international artists.

Moveable seats will create an informal performance space for readings, workshops, and works-in-progress showings.

Features Include

+ 225 retractable seats + Ceiling height: 30’ + Room dimensions: 50’ x 32’ + 1600 square feet + State-of-the-art lighting, sound, and video

Photo: Pig Iron Theatre Company

Features Include

+ 75 moveable seats + Multi-purpose space + Room dimensions: 32’ x 26’ + 832 square feet

Live Arts Brewery (LAB) Original work is created through the year-round LAB residency program, which encourages artistic research, experimentation, and creative development by providing production resources to innovative artists. The studio will be frequented by both local and visiting artists eager to share their work at free monthly salons.

The Festival Bar Join us for a drink after the show! The restaurant/bar will serve as an outlet for creative discussion between artists and audiences. Decked out with cast iron pipes and pressure gauges, the bar design preserves the historic character of the High Pressure Fire Service building. The restaurant/bar will also host cabaret-style performances, comedy, and music shows year-round.

Features Include

+ Capacity: seats 125 + Room dimensions: 70’ x 40’ + 2800 square feet + Commercial kitchen

A Premier Rental Facility The Delaware River waterfront near Old City is optimal for high-profile receptions and events. The flexible facility’s design has four discrete spaces—studio, theater, restaurant/bar, outdoor plaza—and moveable walls can transform the interior into one open space. This location is ideal for weddings, corporate functions, receptions, parties, luncheons, and post-performance gatherings.

FeatureS INCLUDE + Interior capacity: seats 275 + Outdoor plaza: 4000 square feet + Versatile set-up: retractable seating and moveable walls can connect entire floor

+ Large windows provide natural light

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The Live Arts Festival acts as a beacon both collecting great work from afar and shining light on the rich artistic community thriving in Philadelphia.

—Nichole Canuso, 2009–2010 LAB Fellow and founder of Nichole Canuso Dance Company

Project Team

Antonio Fiol-Silva Principal, Wallace Roberts and Todd Project Architect Greg Hill Partner, D³ Development Owner Representative and Development Manager Gabe Canuso Vice President of Development, D³ Development Owner Representative and Development Manager Philadelphia Theatrical Supply Theater Design Consultant

Leadership Team Nick Stuccio Producing Director Carolyn Schlecker Managing Director

Financials Expense PHASE 1 $800,000 Acquisition and closing costs $3.5M Construction (Base Building/Theater/Office) $535,000 Soft costs Photo: Cyrus mccrimmon

$4.8M

PHASE 2 $315,000 Construction (Bar/Restaurant) $600,000 Faรงade and window restoration $300,000 Outdoor plaza $400,000 Artistic and building reserve funds $1.6M Total Project Cost: $6.4M

Income $1.1M Individual support received to date $1M Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) support received to date $2.2M Institutional support received to date $4.3M raised to date (67%)

As of 8.13.12

September 2011 Schematic Design Complete ($3M Raised) May 2011 RACP Support ($1M)

July 2011 Agreement of Sale with the City of Philadelphia

2011

June 2012 Construction Begins ($4.5M Raised)

2012

December 2014 Phase Two Completed ($6.4M Raised)

December 2012 Phase One Completed ($4.8M Raised) February 2013 Opening of the Theater, Office, and Studio

2013

2014

2015 Anticipated Timeline

Ways of Giving We welcome your interest in helping Live Arts build a contemporary arts center on the Delaware River waterfront.

Gifts of $1,000 or more will be acknowledged in permanent form at our new home. Donors will also be recognized in select organizational materials.

Gifts can be made in a number of ways: + Pledges: Live Arts encourages pledges over several years.

While most are paid over a three-year period, a limited number of longer-term pledges may be arranged.

+N aming Gifts: A number of naming gift opportunities are available within our new contemporary arts center. We would be delighted to discuss the possibilities with you.

For more information, contact: Nick Stuccio, Producing Director The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe 919 North 5th Street Philadelphia, PA 19123 215-413-9006x12/nick@livearts-fringe.org

Photo: Courtesy of improbable

“

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We believe there is an enormous amount of bleeding-edge art that’s yet to be created here and brought to Philadelphia from around the world.

—Richard Vague, Board President

Board of Directors Jennifer Bohnenberger, Vice President Program Officer, Independence Foundation Lisa P. Young, Acting Treasurer Partner, Ernst & Young, LLP Conrad Bender, Secretary Technical Director, MC3 Productions and Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe Mark Dichter Partner, Morgan Lewis & Bockius Anthony P. Forte Partner, Saul Ewing LLC David Grasso President and CEO, Grasso Holdings Leonard C. Haas Company Member, People’s Light & Theatre Company Gail M. Harrity Chief Operating Officer, The Philadelphia Museum of Art Liza Herzog, J.D., Ph.D. Director of Research, Philadelphia Education Fund David Hoffman, CFA Brandywine Global Investment Management Kevin Kleinschmidt Bernadine J. Munley, Esq. Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellot, LLC

Maria Papadakis Philadelphia Personality, Media Contributor, Spokesperson Ajay Raju Managing Partner, Reed Smith Hal Real Founder & President, World CafĂŠ Live; Co-Founder & President, LiveConnections.org Peter C. Rothberg Associate Broker, Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT Stephen Starr Owner, STARR Restaurants Holly Stichka Strategic Account Manager, CISCO Nick Stuccio Producing Director, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe Audrey Claire Taichman Proprietor, Audrey Claire and Twenty Manning Restaurants Marty Tuzman President and CEO, Jenkintown Building Services, Inc. Tricia Wellenbach President, Sandcastle Strategy Group Paul Wright Managing Member, Beyond Frequency LLC; National Director, Project Open Voice, Comcast

Image: lisi stoessel

Richard Vague, President Private Investor

Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe ready to buy its own building August 28, 2011 | By Howard Shapiro, Inquirer Staff Writer

Used with permission of Philadelphia Inquirer Permissions Copyright© 2012. All rights reserved.

T

he actors are setting up shop, as are the dancers, comics, acrobats, clowns, musicians, and uncategorizable others—some from around America, others from across the sea, many from zip codes all over the area.

Every Philadelphia performance space is taken—as well as spaces not normally used for performance. And if you find an unaccountably unclaimed set of stage lights, better keep it to yourself.

It’s all in preparation for one of the nation’s powerhouse arts festivals—one that has never, itself, had a permanent home since its founding 15 years ago.

Until now.

The Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe—16 days and nights of sometimes experimental and risky, sometimes outré and bizarre, and frequently striking work—opens Friday, its organizers hoping this is its last nomadic season. The festival management has signed a letter of agreement to purchase a red brick hulk of a building at Race Street and Columbus Boulevard, 10,000 square feet of space with a 30-foot ceiling that will allow high-flying circus acts as well as earthbound dance, theater, and other performances.

Moreover, the place will have what festival producing director Nick Stuccio has craved for some time: outdoor and indoor space for events, social interaction, and food and drink.

For all its constant growth in audience-building, fund-raising, and mentoring performers, Live Arts/ Philly Fringe—now a $2.6 million annual operation

Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe

Zon-Mai, Photo by Kevin Monko

known to just about everybody as, simply, the Fringe— has never had a fixed headquarters. Under Stuccio, its various physical components pop up here and there, maybe for a few years at a time, maybe not.

The box office for the festival—composed of Live

“We have to define the place, negotiate with the owner, mitigate the mold, deal with the airconditioning, the rodents—this is usually in some empty building. We have to put about 10 phone lines in. Then we have to tell the audience, ‘OK, folks, here is the new location.’ All of this costs time and money, but mostly it costs energy.

“That can be a fun adventure, but it’s wearing.

What else could we be doing if we didn’t have that? A lot.”

That includes “adding this social component, which is very important to us,” says Stuccio. “Not only the bar, but a place to eat food. If you’re sitting down and want to ponder what show you want to buy, maybe meet your friend at the box office, you could also order a Caesar salad or a burger and have a beer or a coffee. That component is going to make it great.”

Stuccio was envisioning this future as he walked through the High-Pressure Fire Service building— the name is set in stone across two portals—built by the city in 1902 for pumping water from the Delaware River and sending it, with a tremendous boost, to Center City’s hydrants. The city decommissioned the building

Blvd., whose name in the festival guide is “Former Pumping Station.”

The organization is working with designers, architects, a restaurant consultant, and others to rebuild the interior and open some bricked-up windows facing Columbus Boulevard to offer a clear view of the water and the Delaware River Waterfront Corp.’s sleek new waterfront park, the Race Street Pier, flanked overhead by the south-side sweep of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Standing outside the building, Stuccio broke into a grin. “Look at this outdoor space,” he said, staring down what used to be the end of Race Street before it was diverted to run several yards away. This, he said, would be a picnic place for audiences, another area for performance, and the outdoor space festivalgoers say they crave each year when they swarm to the aftershow bar. The space looks onto the entry to the new park across the street.

The project means that the building will be converted to include a box office, all the festival office space, a 225-seat theater, a restaurant, and room for the festival’s artist-mentoring program, called the Live Arts Brew-

in a year’s time, the fates willing, what began 15 years ago in Old City as a bold but small-scale arts festival of contemporary work, ambitiously modeled on Edinburgh, Scotland’s massive Fringe, will declare its own permanence.

Arts, with invited performances backed by the festival, and the Philly Fringe, a free-for-all of artists who essentially invite themselves—could be anywhere. (This year it’s at the Prince Music Theater on Chestnut Street.) The popular after-performance festival bar likewise changes venues. (This year, it’s at the RUBA Club Studios, 416 Green St., in Northern Liberties.)

The 200 festival volunteers may or may not a have a place to stash personal effects, depending on where they are asked to turn up.

The festival also has no stage to call its very own.

Its staff has built temporary theater interiors in rented spaces, as needed; its current main space, with one of those theaters and its offices, is on Fifth Street near Girard Avenue.

“Every year we surface somewhere, and a couple of years, we’ve had the same location. When we surface, there’s a lot to do,” says Stuccio, formerly a Pennsylvania Ballet corps dancer, now a producer with connections around the world.

a few decades back, after more modern ways of protecting the downtown area had evolved.

Inside, the building still houses a mass of huge pipes and pumps, and a great valve that Stuccio pointed to: A handwritten direction on the cranking wheel tells users to turn it 124 times in order to open it and unleash the pressurized water. Stuccio, who has become well-versed in old-building interiors over the festival’s years, led visitors into a crawl space to see the massive underground pipes. (“I love buildings, I’m a typical boy,” said Stuccio, 48, who with his wife, Anne White, has two of them, plus a girl, and lives in Narberth.)

He hopes the festival will be able to move some of its operations in by next year’s performance season, but audiences who attend one Live Arts show this year—a huge, free, festival-long screen-projection art installation by a choreographer and a filmmaker, called Zon-Mai—will have a sneak peek. The installation is inside the building, at 140 N. Columbus

ery (after its current location). The purchase price of the building is $750,000, and the entire project, still in its initial phase, could come to about $5 million, Stuccio said.

The festival has raised about $3 million so far, a third of it state redevelopment assistance that former Gov. Ed Rendell approved and that Gov. Corbett has released to the festival. Another chunk comes from an anonymous donor. The festival will embark on an aggressive fund-raising campaign for the rest.

And in a year’s time, the fates willing, what began 15 years ago in Old City as a bold but small-scale arts festival of contemporary work, ambitiously modeled on Edinburgh, Scotland’s massive Fringe, will declare its own permanence.

“

The Live Arts Festival brings phenomenal programming to Philadelphia, giving us the opportunity to witness some of the most interesting work in the world. It’s an incredible time to be an artist – watching work produced by and within your community alongside international groundbreaking pieces.

”

—Greg Holt, 2010–11 LAB Fellow and member of the Green Chair Dance GROUP

© Jacques-jean tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net