THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509080260
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY XIAOHONG ZHANG SWAIN, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Chesapeake's first bid for a grant to design its dream fine arts center didn't materialize. But the city isn't giving up.
An application for the grant will be re-submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts in early November, according to L. Randy Harrison, the city's arts coordinator.
``I did not feel badly,'' said Harrison, who took charge of the presentation of the application. ``The review process is very competitive. Very few grants are given to design fine arts facilities.''
Grants awarded by NEA range from $12,000 to $50,000, Harrison said.
She said the feedback that she obtained from a staff member of the NEA was very positive.
``He said the review panel was really heart-broken over not giving Chesapeake this grant,'' she said. ``Members of the panel said that it seemed from the application that we had tremendous support for the project. They feel that with or without a grant, this project will absolutely happen.''
Harrison said the panel liked the ``get-things-done'' attitude in the presentation and they encouraged Chesapeake to reapply.
Harrison and members of the Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission submitted the application early this year in collaboration with Tidewater Community College. According to the application's presentation, the future fine arts center would include a 1,000-seat theater, classrooms for students and corporate training, gallery spaces and studios for WFOS, the city's public radio station, and WCTV-23, the city's cable television station.
The proposed location of the center was on TCC's Chesapeake campus. The college would donate 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of land for the building.
``The grant reviewers' only concern was that the site seemed to be in an isolated area,'' Harrison said. ``They wanted the location to be more toward the town or the city.''
Harrison said that the application probably didn't explain clearly that Chesapeake doesn't really have a downtown area.
``This is about as much city as we can get,'' Harrison said. ``I guess we just have to emphasize more what Chesapeake is. The city doesn't have an urban quality, but people's desire for arts is growing.''
Harrison said the fact that the city has a new City Hall, a new library and new court buildings demonstrates the ability of the city to accomplish major projects.
Rufus Banks, chairman of the Fine Arts Commission, shares Harrison's view that the city should have an arts center.
``The city has the need to have an arts center, so our people don't have to go to other cities to see the arts,'' he said.
As for the proposed location of the arts center, Banks emphasized that the Fine Arts Commission has not made a definite decision.
``I want to make it clear that we have not chosen the site,'' he said. ``We feel TCC campus will be an ideal location. The college has the land, and people have the knowledge of where the college is. But we have not closed our minds on other locations.''
Banks didn't specify the other locations under consideration.
Meanwhile, Harrison has requested copies of awarded design grant applications from NEA so that she can study ways of improving Chesapeake's application.
Harrison said the city will conduct a public survey to address ``who are we'' and to give the residents an opportunity to express their desires for arts activities. by CNB