In Fort Wayne, IN, the arts are an active part of the downtown redevelopment. One of the anchors to this involvement is the new Auer Center for Arts and Culture, which is aligned with our vision of integrated partnerships.
These partnerships are both traditional, such as the ballet, an arts gallery (Artlink), and the administrative offices for Arts United, as well as non-traditional, including a small business partnership with Pembroke Bakery and offices for Fort Wayne Trails.
We have also formed a Cultural District Consortium with our organization, the city, our CVB, and our Downtown Development Group that has a presence in the building. Its focus includes development of business, activities, and public art within the downtown core.
The center’s concept includes fully-integrated business services; financial, insurance, IT, phones as well as shared common space and business service staff and operational space. It is also structured with the objective of changing the operation and relationship of the arts with the community and its development.
The Auer is a community center with activity focused less on events and more on active arts and cultural space. Our model defines arts in a very broad manner, but has high-quality traditional arts at the center.
This approach to building community allows the arts center to be an economic and social catalyst. The space includes related for-profit small retail allowing us to help identify and encourage small creative business. Patrons have become built-in consumers and help turn the space into an active center not just hot and cold pockets of people centered only on events.
The consolidated aspects of fine arts institutions and civic partners within the center, is not only less expensive, it is good business. Very little is gained in areas of finance, facility management, and administrative services in a non-integrated model except control.
We have benefitted from new ideas while dollars that can be better used for mission elements are spent more efficiently. The center itself was a creative reuse of an existing building in the heart of a traditional arts corridor.
The buildout was done employing a design build strategy where architects, contractors, trades people, and artists worked through the use and design of the space. This allowed for problems to be solved as we built with end use goals driving those solutions. It kept the budget low, allowed for reuse of materials and a fantastic functional end result.
Making arts a good business example included making the Auer center a “community” center, not just an arts center.
In doing so we have created vibrancy, interest, and an opportunity for the arts to lead partnerships that benefit everyone in the community — art is not just for art’a sake in Fort Wayne — it is fast becoming a tool for our future growth.
