A LOOK AHEAD: The Clayton Center for the Arts in 2010
In case you missed it, we’re breaking down the conversations we had in last Friday’s edition of Weekend with various movers and shakers in the local entertainment scene to give you an idea of how entertainment in 2010 is shaping up. Today: The Clayton Center for the Arts, the brand new building on the Maryville College campus, and an interview with Marketing Director John Cherry.
Perhaps no other venue, organization or entertainment possibility holds more promise for Blount County in the new year than the Clayton Center for the Arts, set to open its doors this month after a long period of construction.
According to Marketing Director John Cherry, organizers and Maryville College officials plan to use the first few months of 2010 to showcase the facility’s grandeur, elegance and possibilities.
“I think in our first three or four months, the people of East Tennessee will see a very good sample of what they can expect in a full year season,” Cherry said. “We knew early on that the Clayton Center would not be able to be the single venue for a specific art form. There’s the Ryman (Auditorium, in Nashville) for country music and obviously famous museums for art. What we were looking to be was a place where no matter what your favorite art genre is, you can find a sample of it over the course of a season at the Arts Center.
“That’s why we have a children’s production and a high school orchestra production scheduled for February, and for our grand opening a choir performance, a big name in country music and the big gala with dance, music and theater. That’s why we have a piano concert scheduled for a Sunday and a film festival on a Monday. When you add all three art galleries that will have works on display when they open in late February or March, we hope to be a little bit to everyone, no matter what your favorite art form is.”
In planning one of the venue’s first public debuts, Cherry said, planners sought to book a name would resonate with local residents — and pay tribute to the region’s Appalachian legacy. Securing bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys for an April perfformance is a point of pride, he added.
“One of the first things we knew we had to get in the first couple of months was a bluegrass show,” Cherry said. “Appalachian music is unique to our area, and we have a tremendous number of bluegrass performers in Blount County and Tennessee. To get a good bluegrass show in the early months was one of our priorities.
“We also want to scratch the itch of all the art forms that we possibly can. That’s why we’re bringing in a puppet theater in May, an a cappella pop group after Ralph Stanley and a big name like (country star) Jo Dee Messina (performing March 26). But when I came on board in October, our executive director (Robert Hutchens) told us that we had to get something bluegrass.”
The $47.3 million fine arts complex consits of two separate buildings connected by an outdoor plaza. The main facility boasts a grand foyer with 40-foot ceilings, the 1,200-seat performance hall, a smaller theater for in-the-round shows and rehearsal and practice rooms. The secondary building holds community and student art galleries, classrooms and administrative offices. It will, Cherry said, be the centerpiece of the campus.
“We’re hoping, obviously, that the opening of this center will help Maryville College,” he said. “The Fine Arts Department — this is their home. They lost two buildings when construction began, the Fine Arts Building and Wilson Chapel, and now that they’re moving in, they all will be represented in this building on a daily basis. For perspective students to have these performance spaces belong to their curriculum is just phenomenal.
“There are very few colleges the size of Maryville College with 1,100 students that have this kind of facility for their arts departments. Sharing it with Jo Dee Messina, (vocal-pop group) Ball in the House and (the children’s musical) ‘Chasing George Washington’ is going to be a great opportunity for Maryville College arts students.”
Ticket prices for the new facility’s upcoming concerts have not been set, but organizers hope to keep many of them — especially for the Ralph Stanley performance — affordable to families on a modest budget. The center’s new website will go online Jan. 15, Cherry said, and individual ticket prices will be announced then.
“For concerts like Dr. Stanley and Jo Dee Messina, we’ll typically have three prices — seating in the orchestra pit, which can be raised, will be one price; the main part of the house will be another price; and then the corners of the house will be a third price,” Cherry said. “Much of it will depend on what it takes to bring the show to the stage, and of course the desires of the artists that some tickets be priced at a certain level. But we want people to see these performances without breaking their budgets.”
As for the rest of 2010, Cherry added, center organizers await plans for the 2010-11 academic year, which runs from September to May, before finalizing additional performance dates.
“The college organizations and departments will establish their performance dates during the month of January, so on Feb. 1, we’ll start to work in earnest on filling the rest of the performance calendar,” he said. “We have several genres we want to get in there, and we’ve identified a short list of what we’d like to go after — things like another bluegrass show or a Broadway style of performance. We’re hoping to announce the major elements of the 2010-11 season during the grand opening weekend.”