02/08/2005
Reprinted with permission from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Big gifts put symphony nearer hall
By Tom
Sabulis/Staff
tsabulis@ajc.com The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra said Monday that significant donations announced this week have put it one-third of the way to its $300 million goal for a dramatic new concert hall. The ASO now is looking at state and local governments to ante up another third. The first $100 million has come mostly from ASO insiders led by Home Depot co-founder and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank --- who recently contributed $20 million, adding to the $15 million gift he made in 1999. With more than $60 million in private solicitations pending, the orchestra also is looking to public funding. "We've been in direct conversations for some time with the governor, the mayor, [Fulton County Commission Chairman] Karen Handel and all our federal delegates, " said Paul Hogle, ASO vice president for development. But there has been no formal request for public money. "We're aware of their need for more funding, " Derrick Dickey, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said Monday. "However, it comes at a time when we're still working hard to simply meet our current education and health care needs in the state budget. They understand the ball is in their court to make a very strong business case for state funding." If fund-raising efforts go according to plan, Hogle said, "it's not inconceivable" that the symphony can break ground in 2008 on the Santiago Calatrava-designed concert hall at 14th and Peachtree streets. That would mean an opening date sometime in 2011 or beyond. The symphony will unveil the superstar Spanish architect's vision for a 2,000-seat hall at a news conference Wednesday at the Woodruff Arts Center. At this stage, ASO officials said they are ahead of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which took 15 years to raise $274 million for Walt Disney Concert Hall, which opened in 2003. "We've gotten twice as far as L.A." in just five years, Hogle said. Clearly, there's still a long way to go. Longtime Atlanta fund-raising consultant G. Douglass Alexander, who helped run the High Museum of Art's $130 million expansion campaign, said raising $100 million is admirable. But it will take a huge effort to finish what the symphony calls the largest fund-raising campaign ever undertaken by an arts group in the Southeast. "What they've done is very impressive, " Alexander said. "But do they have the ability to finish it?" A campaign the size of the ASO's typically requires a lead gift of 20 percent, he said, which would be $60 million. Blank's $35 million is the largest donation to date. "At the end of the day, " Alexander said, "they're going to have to have some gifts over $35 million to be successful." While not addressing specific requests, Hogle said he believes there are plenty of significant contributions yet available to the ASO. "We have not yet visited with any of the leading foundations in Atlanta, " he said, "or any subscribers and donors beyond those on our board." Public funds for the arts have been relatively scarce in Georgia, although in the mid-1990s the Legislature granted $17 million to help build the $75 million RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus. The state has already granted the ASO a sales-tax exemption on construction materials valued at $7.5 million. Elsewhere in the nation, new symphony halls have received significant help from local governments. The $265 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, received $75 million from state and city sources. Disney Hall got more than $5 million each from Los Angeles County and the state of California. Closer to home, Cobb County has committed $57 million in hotel-motel tax revenue over 20 years to finance construction on the Cobb Energy Centre for the Performing Arts at the Cobb Galleria. The construction cost is $111 million for the Cobb complex, which will present a range of popular commercial entertainment --- from Broadway musicals to rock and country music concerts. The Atlanta Symphony's new hall is being built primarily as an acoustically divine shrine to live symphonic and choral music. Blank expects the public announcement of his gifts to inspire other contributors. "We were so encouraged that our original $15 million gift could serve as a catalyst for the campaign early on, " Blank said in a statement. "And we are confident that this additional [$20 million] contribution will continue to encourage others to join in making unprecedented commitments to this generation-defining project." One potential source for a major gift is the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, which typically makes donations after a campaign reaches a significant level of community participation. The foundation is less interested in donating seed money than coming in at the end to help polish off a campaign. Woodruff Foundation president Pete McTier could not be reached for comment Monday. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive officer of the Coca-Cola Co., said Coke's $10 million gift is "a long-term investment" in Atlanta and the arts. "Our contribution to the Symphony Center project is the continuation of long-standing commitment our company has had to the cultural, educational and economic growth of the city of Atlanta, " Isdell said, "and one to the ASO that goes back some 60 years." With heavy hitters like Blank and Coke behind the symphony, even outsiders say the job can be done. "There's money to do what they want to do in this town, " Alexander said. Major contributions to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's new concert hall:
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