DATE: Tuesday, July 8, 1997                 TAG: 9707080304

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   58 lines

CHESAPEAKE IS FEELING OPTIMISTIC ABOUT FINE ARTS CENTER AN ARCHITECT WILL BE CHOSEN TO CONDUCT A STUDY OF COSTS AND LOCATIONS THIS SUMMER.

Crowded schools. Traffic-choked roads. Salty tasting water.

Facing such challenges, fast-growing Chesapeake has spent little time debating funding for the arts.

Now, arts organizations and city officials are hoping to build a cultural center in Chesapeake.

The city has received proposals from five architectural companies hoping to perform a feasibility study for the arts center, said L. Randy Harrison, Chesapeake's fine arts coordinator. Chesapeake will select an architect to perform the study this summer, she said.

The Fine Arts Commission also recently applied for a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to pay for that study. The commission will learn the NEA's decision in 1998. The NEA will provide half the grant money; Chesapeake would match the other half.

The study will recommend a location for the arts center, as well as determine how much such a facility would cost to build, Harrison said. The arts center has not been included in any city budget.

But if the center is without funding, it is not without influential supporters.

Mayor William E. Ward hopes to see the fine arts center get off the ground before he leaves office in 2000.

The Chesapeake Consortium for Arts and History, a private, non-profit group, has made the fine arts center its top priority, said consortium co-chairwoman Helen Spruill. The consortium plans to ask federal and state arts agencies, as well as businesses, for donations.

But money is tight in Chesapeake. The city is facing a $19 million budget shortfall over the next two years.

And this is not the first time Chesapeake has investigated building a cultural center.

A study Chesapeake commissioned 10 years ago recommended building a fine arts center at the Chesapeake campus of Tidewater Community College, which has reserved land for a future arts center, said Tim Kerr, Chesapeake campus provost. Nothing was ever built.

The issue has been ``on the back burner,'' Ward said. ``I'm hoping to get it back on the front burner.''

Although a fine arts center would cost millions of dollars to build, supporters say it could fuel economic growth by making Chesapeake a more attractive place to live or locate a business.

``Chesapeake needs a fine arts center to round out the community,'' Spruill said. ``When we are looking for economic development, one of the things people ask about is, `What are the facilities for the fine arts in Chesapeake?' Unfortunately, we are not able to say we have anything.''

Spruill said she's optimistic that the city will succeed this time.

``There are enough people involved in this project, from the arts commission to economic development, that this is going to happen,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Mayor William E. Ward would like to see a fine arts center get off

the ground before he leaves office in 2000.

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