When Marc Hagenlocher, director of operations and events of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California, toured with the venue’s insurance carrier and broker in the wake of sustained damage from the Tubbs Fire that spread throughout Northern California, he heard a refrain that the facility would not open until 2018.
Tsk, tsk. Never underestimate the resolve of those in the public assembly venue industry who want to work as quickly as possible to be a salve to their hurting community.
“That was not going to be acceptable to us,” Hagenlocher said. “Aside from the east end of our building and the East Auditorium, I don’t know the lowdown on all the damage we sustained. A separate 3,000-square-foot facility is a total loss. Our sculpture garden and sculpture walk which is an outdoor large scale exhibit is about one-third completely totaled, one-third damaged, and one-third unscathed. When you look at what’s around us, this facility shouldn’t be standing. It’s just mind-blowing. Still, we knew we were going to be open and ready to deliver.
“The community is looking to us as a place for healing and a sense of normalcy. We are absolutely committed and driving to get this place stabilized, get it presentable, and get our doors open.”
While the facility was open on November 6 for limited use, the curtain went up in earnest on November 9 with a Shopkins Live! Shop It Up! performance that evening. A concert by the group Air Supply will follow on November 11.
Indeed, the Burbank Center has come a long way in a relatively short period of time.
“I live about a mile or so from the center in a development that was one of the affected communities,” said Rick Nowlin, president and CEO of the venue. “The fires started around here somewhere late in the evening about 9 pm on October 8 and then a lot of evacuations began taking place the next morning, which was a Monday.
“The fire started in the evening and thankfully nothing was going on at the center. The first responders were able to put it out. Marc and I were talking by 4 that morning about the fire and just where everything stood.”
Nowlin said that of the 140,000 square feet some 40,000 square feet was seriously impacted, most notably an educational building that called the Anova Center for Education that is a school for some 130 autistic children. That building was destroyed and the students are now in temporary facilities scattered about the Greater Santa Rosa and Windsor area.
“Our auditorium is also a total loss,” Hagenlocher said. “We have three theaters, including the 1,600-seat Ruth Finley Person Theater where we do most of our programming, the Carson Cabaret with about 200 in an open floor configuration, and the East Auditorium of 400 seats that is a total loss.”
Hagenlocher has spent most of the past month at the facility meeting with city officials, the Army Corp of Engineers, and others as they scrambled to get the venue back in an operating mode.
“The scale of this really is unprecedented in California,” Hagenlocher said. “It’s the biggest wildfire ever with six digits of square acres. Everyone is directly affected or has an employer or friend or family. We lost five percent of the Santa Rosa housing stock. In a city of 170,000-something people, to actually lose five percent of the housing stock is devastating.”
Hagenlocher noted without a hint of exaggeration that the fires that impacted the venue will become a case study for what can happen.
“Every year we get the emergency responders to come out,” he said. “Being a facility like ours, our event staff is quite used to call 911 for various things for all sorts of emergencies that happen on the property. We invite our first responders, whether it’s the sheriff’s department or the fire department, to talk with our staff about the what-ifs. I will tell you that never in any of those talks did they ever imagine this being a what-if. It was almost always like, if you have a fire within the facility, what do you do to get people out? When do you decide to evacuate?
“Sometimes that comes with its own risks being a big enough facility that we might have a fire alarm on the far end when does that evacuation get triggered? Those are some shades of grey in learning to have staff start thinking about those things. What happens often is things go on autopilot and the staff knows what to do even though it’s not clear cut where you check one box or another. It’s various shades of grey, but they never would have told you … about something so far beyond the wilderness area that comes into town and has this kind of reach. None of them.”
Nowlin expressed thanks to his colleagues in the industry who have contacted him by email and other means asking if there was anything they could do to help. “Our entire team led by Marc has been just incredible in working with local authorities to get the organization moving forward and back on track,” he said.
A Gofundme page has been established on the venue’s website. Nowlin said that it has not been pushed a lot and has not been actively promoted, but it does exist. He noted that during the past month the venue has been able to accept mail and make daily deposits although most of the staff has been working offsite from home or in temporary housing for those evacuated from their residences.
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Before Michigan State University and the University of Georgia played a recent exhibition basketball game at the SMG-managed Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a check for $339,448.90 was presented to representatives from the American Red Cross. The game became a sudden and last-minute addition to the schedule with the intent of raising funds to support disaster relief efforts.
Proceeds from the game will be collectively donated by both the universities and SMG/Van Andel Arena to the American Red Cross, with the funds being split equally between Georgia’s designated Red Cross – Georgia Region and Michigan State’s designated Red Cross – International Services. After tickets sold out almost immediately, SMG, MSU, and Georgia staff received confirmation that the event would be a worthwhile endeavor.
“We had confidence that the West Michigan community would respond to this event in a big way, and they certainly lived up to the expectations,” said SMG Regional General Manager Richard MacKeigan. “It had to come together very quickly, but the quality of the event paired with a great cause made this something we really wanted to be a part of.”
“We know West Michigan loves their Spartans, and we were certain that this community would jump at a chance to support communities recovering from recent disasters,” added Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority Chairman and MSU alumnus Steve Heacock. “It’s a gratifying feeling to see the success today.”
With news of the possible event breaking on Monday, October 23, it left only six days to bring together what typically takes months to achieve. “I can’t say enough about the staff on all sides for making sure this event happened in such a short span,” MacKeigan said.
Organizers had to plan everything in a very limited time frame, including securing a basketball court for the game and having it arrive in Grand Rapids on time. Michigan State volunteered to bring their floor for the game, and without the necessary transportation to have it delivered, Meijer stepped in to donate semi-trucks and cover expenses to haul the court west to Van Andel Arena.
Both teams pledged to cover their own transportation and operational costs as well in order to achieve a maximum donation total possible from the event.
Steve Romer has been named as chief operating officer for Byron Bay Bluesfest, Australia’s premier contemporary blues and roots music festival. Bluesfest showcases music from around the world annually on the Easter-long weekend on 120 hectares at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, just north of Byron Bay, NSW. Bluesfest presents more than 200 performances with various stages over five 12-hour days, as well as camping for up to 6,000 people, five licensed bars, more than 100 food and market stalls, undercover food courts, beer gardens, and children’s entertainment.
From a modest crowd of 6,000 when it began in 1990, Bluesfest now attracts an audience of more than 100,000 and is regarded as the foremost destination festival in Australia and renowned for being a safe, fun, family-friendly event.
Romer holds the same role for associated companies including Bluesfest Touring.
Romer has worked in the live music, sport and entertainment industries for 30 years and was most recently the past Chair and CEO of the Venue Management Association (Asia Pacific). He has held a wide variety of senior management roles including stints at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Sydney 2000 Olympics Satellite Stadiums, and with amusement park operators Macquarie Leisure Trust (now Ardent Leisure) and Village Roadshow Theme Parks.
“I am excited to be joining the team at the iconic Bluesfest Byron Bay, and look forward to working closely with Festival Director Peter Noble,” Romer said.
“We are proud to make the announcement that Steve is joining the Bluesfest group of companies, and will be overseeing operations across the annual festival in Byron Bay, Bluesfest Touring and the company’s land holdings,” Noble added. “Bluesfest has become a major player and I believe the recent additions to our dynamic team of Steve and Simone Twiss as chief financial officer will allow us to continue confidently into the future. I am also announcing that I am moving to the position of executive chairman and will continue to focus on booking talent as well as acquisitions that will take Bluesfest into an exciting new era.”
Romer officially begins in his new position on November 13
The Fox Theatre Institute (FTI) has awarded over $85,000 to four immediate need projects under the organization’s newly-created Urgent/Emergency Need Grant, a part of FTI’s expanded funding efforts to support historic Georgia theaters.
For the theater or historic performing arts venue to receive an Urgent/Emergency Needs Grant, the historic venue must have found operational needs that require immediate action to save the structure itself, or unanticipated delays that hindered the venue’s ability to maintain its current programming and economic health. The Urgent/Emergency Need Grant is one of four grant funding categories through FTI – including Urgent/Emergency Need, Historic Structures Studies or Planning, Technical Assistance and Services, and Preservation Grant – all of which allows up to $500,000 of much needed statewide grant subsidy.
“Awarding urgent or emergency funds are a top priority for FTI,” said Adina Erwin, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Fox Theatre, Inc. “Historic venues can find themselves in great financial need and we are fortunate to be able to respond with non-matching grants for immediate funding. In our first year implementing the urgent and emergency funding, we found four key performing arts venues to support, ensuring their patrons ongoing access to the arts. We are continuing to accept applications, and we hope to continue to fill in gaps of funding to support Georgia’s important architectural and cultural landmarks.”
The following historic theaters or performing arts venues have been awarded Urgent/Emergency Needs Grant through FTI:
Conyers Rockdale Council for the Arts (CRCA), (Conyers, GA), Amount to receive: $11,348 – CRCA opened to the public in Oct. 2000 and is home to dozens of productions each year, including a long-standing relationship with the local theater company. FTI funds allows CRCA to replace its 17-year-old HVAC unit in time for the theatre to continue its scheduled programming.
Festival Hall, (Greensboro, GA), Amount to receive: $19,640 – Festival Hall, formerly the Greene County High School Auditorium, serves as a Greensboro community landmark for local visual arts as well as theatrical and musical performances. Due to years of layering of materials, the stage has become dangerous for performers. With the grant, the stage will receive a new floor safe for performers and theater staff.
DeSoto Theatre, (Rome, GA), Amount to receive: $20,000 – Downtown Rome’s 1929 Historic DeSoto Theatre is the only remaining historic theatre left in Rome. Although state-of-the-art in 1929, the grant will allow the DeSoto Theatre to upgrade its original fire safety features.
Theatre Albany, (Albany, GA), Amount to receive: $34,393 – Theatre Albany opened its doors in 1932 and is one of the oldest arts organizations in Albany. With FTI funding, repairs will be made to the historic façade of the building recently damaged by severe tornadoes in early 2017.
“The Fox Theatre Institute provides needed financial resources for historic theatres who have struggled to find partnering, supporting, or matching fund programs,” said Leigh Burns, the recently appointed director of the Fox Theatre Institute. “Currently, no other organizations in Georgia provide grant assistance specific to theater preservation, and notably direct funding that does not requiring a match. For many treasured Georgia historic landmarks, we are the only option to staying operational while making necessary repairs to ensure audience safety. The organizations that utilize our funds are the lifeblood for our downtowns, and spur community and economic development for their hometowns, and often the broader Georgia regions.”
As part of the Fox Theatre’s ongoing commitment to Georgia’s historic theaters, the FTI grant program seeks to provide significant economic and cultural impact to local communities across the state. FTI’s Preservation Grant Program and Historic Preservation Services have supported 15 projects totaling more than $360,000 in maintenance and physical improvement efforts across Georgia over the past nine years. FTI is part of the Fox Theatre’s overall strategic plan to further increase its impact and outreach.
Since the launch of FTI in 2008, the Fox Theatre has committed more than $1 million to the overall program, including ‘Fox in a Box,’ a free interactive curriculum-based resource for area elementary schools; Georgia Presenters, an innovative statewide talent booking consortium; and Preservation Grants to encourage preservation of historic theatres with outside funding not readily available elsewhere.
The 2017-18 FTI grant season launched on May 1, 2017 with the Hampton 70: A Celebration of Colonel Bruce Hampton concert, in which a portion of the tickets sold benefited FTI. The all-star music celebration raised over $50,000 in the one-night only event.