COLUMNISTS : Keep it together
Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/224912/
Idon’t know much Shostakovich. Although I
recognize his name and know a few details of his life,
I’m not really familiar with the Russian composer’s music. So it was a treat last week for us to sit in the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville and hear the University of Arkansas orchestra perform Shostakovich’s 10 th symphony. If the 10 th is a good indication, Shostakovich’s work is hard to label. The 10 th symphony ranged from dreamy and understated to blaring, even brazen cacophony. With that last sentence, I’ve used up most of my musical vocabulary already. But if I can’t always fully articulate my appreciation of what I’m hearing, I know when I like a piece of music. This hour-long symphony was a treat. I marveled at the talent of the young musicians in the symphony and, at moments, I just sat back and let the music enfold me.
Earlier, as we walked to the arts center from the parking lot, we heard a different kind of music. A couple of the nearby night spots on or close to Dickson Street were in full roar, with rock bands pounding away in the early evening. I fought off the urge to head in their direction, kick back and absorb their music with a cold beer in hand. That would be a classic Dickson Street moment. But we had tickets to the concert—another experience that’s been classic Dickson Street since the arts center opened there in 1992.
The crowd that heard the symphony was substantial, but by no means was the 1, 200-seat auditorium full. Which seemed a shame, as well as a pointed reminder that there are those who think the arts center has outgrown its location and either must be expanded or moved.
Some are already treating expansion as the secondbest option. The same kind of thinking is also in play in the discussions about what to do about the present site of Fayetteville High School. The school now occupies a unique site next to the University of Arkansas that’s mutually beneficial to both educational institutions. Citing progress, powerful forces are lining up to move the high school and sell the old location to the university.
Much has been made of what the high school will lose if it moves farther away from the university. The symbiotic relationship won’t survive, at least in its present form, if the high school moves elsewhere. Still, the powers that be seem intent on moving the high school, while the best suggestion to date has been to expand the school at its present site and plan for a second school elsewhere when growth makes it necessary.
The pitfalls for the high school in moving are real enough. But it wouldn’t be alone in suffering from the divorce. If the university buys the current high school site, it loses a nearby partner in education—a junior partner, but a partner nonetheless. And future university students will foot the bill for the $ 60 million asking price for the property by having to pay substantial tuition increases. That won’t help education, either.
A move by the arts center would hurt the university, too. Especially if the arts center moves out of town, as other powerful forces would like. One of the original reasons for the arts center’s establishment in Fayetteville was to provide a performance venue for the university. The concert last week was just the latest opportunity for the university to showcase its own talent before an outside audience. If the arts center did indeed move elsewhere, the present location might conceivably continue to provide a site for university performances. But distance takes a toll. The crowd that showed up for the concert wasn’t all from the university. It had the benefit of the arts center’s ongoing promotion of its offerings, not to mention the center’s staff and volunteers who helped make the concert a success. All that would be lost if the arts center moved. This is purely speculative, of course. No decisions have been made—or so we are told. I don’t live in Fayetteville, but I’m a frequent visitor. There’s so much going on in the vibrant university town that it’s hard to stay away for long. Fayetteville isn’t just the university. It’s a complicated mix of many influences, from those raucous bands blasting away in the night to the quieter strains of a Russian composer’s creation. The web includes a uniquely situated high school and an arts center physically and psychically embedded in the community. Fayetteville stands to lose much by changing those relationships. The university stands to lose, too.
—––––– • –––––—George Arnold is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s northwest edition.