PRESS ARTICLES

Date Title
11/4/92 Arts center will strengthen local economy

Reprinted from THE MIAMI HERALD
The Readers' Forum

To The Editor:

I agree with the Oct. 28 Herald editorial Arts Center: The Overture which supports the Performing Arts Center, but I find an omission that is most important for the community and has specific application to the efforts to rebuild our hurricane-damaged homes and depressed hopes.

To thrive, a community depends on jobs and optimism. If we have strong employment, we hold out options and opportunities, especially for those who may have lost everything during the hurricane.

Employment takes a lot of forms. Bankers, airline attendants, store keepers, service positions associated with tourism, migrant farm workers, newspaper reporters and editors, football and tennis players, and violinists and ballerinas - to name a few categories - represent jobs.

While we associate the performing arts with glamour and entertainment, it is important to understand how cultural activities contribute to our community's economic foundations. For instance, there are 88 chairs in an orchestra, plus the conductors, music arrangers, composers, booking agents, music instructors, fund- raisers, secretaries, receptionists, stagehands, janitors, administrators, accountants, and lawyers needed to put on a symphony performance. Equivalent numbers of people are involved with opera and ballet. Still others are included in educational components.

All of these people fill jobs. Their numbers grow as one considers the operation of a hall and the typical requirements of managing real estate. The combination of all these workers form a base of economic activity exactly like an industry. They earn wages that are spent locally, reinforcing the cycle that adds even more jobs.
The benefits are countywide. Entertainment for residents and visitors is part of our quality of life. That alone might be reason enough to support the Performing Arts Center.

However, the arts now produce a multiplier of $60 million annually in Dade County, and the arts center potentially could return hundreds of millions of dollars each year. That's one reason why we can give, generously, to this project. The return only holds good things for all of us, especially in this time of rebuilding.

So unlike the editorial, I do not think that there are choices to be made between rebuilding and developing the Performing Arts Center. They are one and the same, and each is better for the sensitivity brought by the other.

This is a project where we can all work together to build a landmark - a clean industry - signifying this community's excellence, pride, and spirit.

Sheila M. Anderson

Miami