Save the Davis Center for the Performing Arts « Columbus Underground Messageboard

Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion » Art & Artists

Save the Davis Center for the Performing Arts

[22 posts] [12 contributors]

Topic Rating:

(Total Ratings: )
Rate this topic:

Started 3 years ago by kitoba
Latest reply from Coreroc

Tags:

12 Next »

ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
Login to Send PM

Apparently the Davis Center for the Performing Arts is one of the proposed city cuts. I don't know if there are any other Davis Center alum (other than me and ZAS) on the boards, but if so, please check out this link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48699363544
Pam Welsh-Huggins wrote
I write you this evening not as a music director, but as a mom who can't imagine life with kids in Columbus without the Davis -- which is on the chopping block under Mayor Coleman's proposed 2009 budget. I hope you will forgive this long email message, in which I appeal to you to help save the Davis Center for the Performing Arts and offer you some ways to help -- right away!!

Posted 3 years ago #
teamtim
Columbus
Login to Send PM

I'm planning on speaking at coincil on Thursday.
If it weren't for the 7 plus years that I spent there, I certainly would not have turned into the person I am today.

Posted 3 years ago #
roy
Downtown
Login to Send PM

From the FB link, here's how to help your kid craft a phony letter:
* Kids' Letter-Writing: "Handwritten letters from kids are golden." If your kid thinks best at the keyboard, have them write a draft on the computer; proofread it with them; then have them write it by hand. If kids are little, have them draw pictures, which you can send snail mail or scan into emails. Tug at those heart-strings!

Posted 3 years ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
Login to Send PM

roy wrote From the FB link, here's how to help your kid craft a phony letter:
* Kids' Letter-Writing: "Handwritten letters from kids are golden." If your kid thinks best at the keyboard, have them write a draft on the computer; proofread it with them; then have them write it by hand. If kids are little, have them draw pictures, which you can send snail mail or scan into emails. Tug at those heart-strings!
yeah, 'cause I'll bet nobody at city council has ever heard of such a clever and subtle ruse... :roll:

Posted 3 years ago #
Brant
Gahanna
Login to Send PM

What's in jeopardy of closing? The Davis Youth Programs, or the Performing Arts Center itself? Or both?

Posted 3 years ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
Login to Send PM

The Performing Arts Center is my favorite venue in Columbus. I can't imagine it closing?
http://www.davisprograms.com/rent.cfm
http://www.sixstring.org/

Posted 3 years ago #
Zachery Allan Starkey
New York City
Login to Send PM

The Davis Discovery Center saved my life.
It was the first place I ever went where I met other kids who shared my interests. From the ages of 12 to 15 I went there every Saturday for acting classes, dance classes, singing classes, playwriting classes, costume designing classes, everything imaginable. As a kid growing up in the rough West Side, the Davis Center gave me a safe place to explore my creative interests without worrying about having the shit kicked out of me by the less than tolerant teenagers who populated where I grew up.
I was also in many many of the Park Playhouse Teen Theater productions (Wait Until Dark, Tartfuffe, Tommy, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and several of my best and closest friends I met at the Davis Center.
The Davis Center is an invaluable resource to the youth of this city, providing a a safe haven where children from all parts of Columbus and come together and express creativity, as well as learning many valuable life lessons. The Davis Center made me who I am today, and without it, as an adolescent, I would have been lost.
I am only one of many people whose lives have been touched and changed in a positive way by the Davis Center, and everything should be done to save the Davis Discovery Center. If it closes, the youth of Columbus will suffer an incredible loss.

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
Login to Send PM

Is there any chance of private support?
Maybe an alumni benefit?
It's kind of sad looking at the cuts being made and realizing how much of it affects Columbus' future generations. Hopefully some of the private sector organizations can step in to fill the gap.

Posted 3 years ago #
BCNation
Franklin Park
Login to Send PM

Zachery Allan Starkey wrote If it closes, the youth of Columbus will suffer an incredible loss.
I have to agree with this. Where are our children going to go? And their children? But, that is not 100 percent of the story. Because, the Davis Center/CPAC/Players/etc., according to a wall post on said "Save the Davis" group, "provides performance space for several local theatre, dance and music troupes. These are groups that will not be able to find space elsewhere. If the facility closes, the city will displace several arts organizations and the loss of income and art to the community is much larger."
I was in my first show @ Davis when I was 11, and did shows until I was 18, pretty much. I was involved @ Davis, like 75 to 80 percent of my time during middle and high school, so it pretty much consumed my life between the ages of 11 and 19. If we lose Davis, there won't be another place to replace it.

Posted 3 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM

BCNation wrote If we lose Davis, there won't be another place to replace it.
How can you be certain of that?

Posted 3 years ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
Login to Send PM

Zachery Allan Starkey wrote The Davis Discovery Center saved my life.
It was the first place I ever went where I met other kids who shared my interests.
Yes it was much the same for me. What years were you there, ZAS? And how about you BCNation? I started at the Davis in '89, when it was still at Franklin Park and was there through '93 when I graduated HS. I was always a crap actor so I never got cast in many shows, but I had my own play produced there by a stellar youth cast sometime during that time span.

Posted 3 years ago #
heresthecasey
OSU
Login to Send PM

Walker wrote
BCNation wrote If we lose Davis, there won't be another place to replace it.
How can you be certain of that?
Sassy! :o
But really I think that losing the Davis would be a blow to Columbus, I hope the money can be found for it somewhere if the city just cant come up with it.

Posted 3 years ago #
roy
Downtown
Login to Send PM

Touching story!
Davis-supporter dad and 11 year old son came to city council meeting. The kid lay on a seating bench in the hallway with his eyes closed--don't tell Cleve Ricksecker--while his dad wrote the kid's 'remarks' in a spiral notebook.
When they were called to speak the dad introduced his son and shoved the spiral notebook in front of him and the son read exactly what his dad wrote including the part about how the Davis Center had helped him learn about 'honesty.' The boy was very engaging and seemed quite capable of sharing his own actual honest thoughts but evidently dad didn't think so.

Posted 3 years ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
Login to Send PM

I was just interviewed by 10 TV --as a direct result of my post here --and should be on the 6 o' clock newscast speaking in support of the center.

Posted 3 years ago #
Zachery Allan Starkey
New York City
Login to Send PM

kitoba wrote
Zachery Allan Starkey wrote The Davis Discovery Center saved my life.
It was the first place I ever went where I met other kids who shared my interests.
Yes it was much the same for me. What years were you there, ZAS? And how about you BCNation? I started at the Davis in '89, when it was still at Franklin Park and was there through '93 when I graduated HS. I was always a crap actor so I never got cast in many shows, but I had my own play produced there by a stellar youth cast sometime during that time span.
I was at Davis from 1994 to 1997. I was a pretty decent actor, and I had some pretty good roles (Tartuffe in Tartuffe, Roat, the main villain in Wait Until Dark, Mr. Fezziwig in Scrooge, Nazi Soldier Number One in Tommy, others). I always enjoyed creatng a character and coming up with make up ideas. Sometimes I really miss acting and I have considered going back to it.
Davis taught me a lot of not only theatre, but life, and I met kids from all over the city there. I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for Davis.

Posted 3 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM

kitoba wrote I was just interviewed by 10 TV --as a direct result of my post here --and should be on the 6 o' clock newscast speaking in support of the center.
Nice! :D

Posted 3 years ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
Login to Send PM

Here's the broadcast
If anyone knows how to download the file or can determine the direct link, I would appreciate it.

Posted 3 years ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
Login to Send PM

kitoba wrote I was just interviewed by 10 TV --as a direct result of my post here --and should be on the 6 o' clock newscast speaking in support of the center.
You or another supporter might want to contact the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, Ohio Citizens for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council and maybe United Way and the Columbus Foundation. Have to think there is funding out there, probably just not from the city. Shoot me a PM if you need any contacts.

Posted 3 years ago #
Brant
Gahanna
Login to Send PM

Just because the city's Rec and Parks department isn't running things, it doesn't mean that these services can't be provided by other organizations. After all, the building itself isn't going anywhere, even if it "closes."
What if CAPA took over management of the building? They've done a good job maintaining the Ohio, Palace, Southern, and Riffe Center theatres.
Maybe the Phoenix or CCT could expand their educational programs to pick up where the Davis programs left off.
When the Drexel group announced it was "closing" the Grandview Theatre, it didn't take long for someone else to step up and take the reins. This budget cut does not necessarily mean the end of all theatre on Franklin Ave forever.

Posted 3 years ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
Login to Send PM

Under a three-year agreement with the city of Columbus, the Phoenix Theatre for Children will manage the Columbus Performing Arts Center and its youth arts programs.

The 16-year-old company -- using $70,090 from the city -- will work with the community group Friends of the Davis to support the Downtown center (formerly the Davis Discovery Center) on Franklin Avenue as a home for the youth programs and as rental space for a dozen theater, dance and music groups.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2009/04/28/2_DAVIS_PHOENIX_ART_04-28-09_D2_6RDMEN6.html?sid=101

Posted 3 years ago #