Making Overtures :
Madison's $100-Million Arts District

Bolz Center alumni play key roles
in Madison's upcoming multi-venue cultural facility.

When Madison businessman Jerry Frautschi announced a $50 million gift in the summer of 1998 to build an arts district in downtown Madison, the entire city buzzed with excitement. A year later, when his additional $50 million gift was announced, that buzz became stunned silence.

"There was an immediate and collective gasp, followed by prolonged applause," recalls Karen Dummer, executive director of the Madison Children's Museum, of the unexpected announcement. "There was so much emotion in that room. I was smiling so hard that my face started to hurt."

Known as the Overture Project, the privately funded initiative aims to promote excellence in the arts and stimulate a downtown Madison renaissance. As with any great gift, however, this $100 million surprise carries with it great responsibilities.

How can Madison arts groups make best use of vastly improved performance and exhibit spaces? How can organizations that may double in size navigate the road to both "bigger" and "better"? How can the many arts groups involved find new ways of working together to extend their reach into the community and broaden their palettes of arts activities? In short, how can the arts organizations involved make Jerry Frautschi's vision a vibrant and thriving reality?

"The Frautschi gift raises the bar for both the visual and performing arts in the city of Madison," says Stephen Fleischman, director of the Madison Art Center, a primary tenant of the proposed new facility. "It presents both great opportunities and significant challenges to all participating organizations."

A remarkable number of individuals facing those challenges have connections to the UW–Madison School of Business. Ten alumni hold key roles in seven of the primary future users of the facility. Three of the 10 are directors of their organizations: Karen Dummer, MA '91, of the Madison Children's Museum, Stephen Fleischman, MA '84, of the Madison Art Center, and Richard Mackie, MA '81, of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Add on project consultants, advisors, and the president of the Overture Foundation itself, and the School of Business connections become an orchestra of voices, each playing a significant part in the overture.

Bricks and Mortar
All of those voices are essential to the project, given the unique nature and scope of the $100 million gift. Reflecting his desire to enable positive change rather than dictate specific results, Frautschi placed only three criteria on how his gift should be used

• to support arts activity
• to do so in downtown Madison, and
• to be used to build facilities for the benefit of Madison and Dane County audiences, arts organizations, and artists.

"Jerry Frautschi was responding to a well-documented need of the Madison community," says George Austin, BBA '74, MA/MS '76, president of the Overture Foundation, the steward organization for the gift. "Early studies had shown the vitality of cultural activity in Madison, but exposed a real need for improved and additional spaces."

Through a broad and inclusive process involving representatives from the arts, government, the wider community and the university, the Overture Project defined a list of priorities for the ultimate arts facility. The initial list generated by the working committee showed a remarkable level of agreement among diverse groups (part of Frautschi's hope for the project was its ability to bring groups together). After a feasibility study based on these recommendations was conducted, the first profiles of the project began to take shape.

While the exact design is still being finalized (world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli was selected as design architect), the completed facility will contain a full complement of new and renovated arts venues. Based on the entire block surrounding the Madison Civic Center, the Overture Project will include construction of two new theaters, the renovation of the existing Isthmus Playhouse, a renovated and expanded Madison Art Center (doubling its exhibit space), and a new 20,000-square-foot home for the Madison Children's Museum. The project also includes community exhibit space, additional rehearsal and support space, administrative offices, a black box performance hall, and other production, construction and storage facilities.

The Business of Art
The challenge for the individual arts groups is to live up to the promise of Frautschi's vision, and to fill these glorious spaces with quality performing and visual arts.

"That challenge calls all of our skills into play, both business and artistic," says Dummer. "Beyond the opportunity to fill the new space with outstanding and innovative exhibits, we need to be just as innovative in strategic business planning, cash flow management, budgeting, staffing and development."

"Both artistically and as nonprofit businesses, our responsibility is to take full advantage of the opportunity," agrees Fleischman of the Madison Art Center. "Our job is to translate this generosity into a facility and a collection of programs that will fully benefit Madison, Dane County and beyond." As Richard Mackie, executive director of the Madison Sympony Orchestra, sees it, "The new facility gives us the opportunity to take our organizations to the next level."

Fortunately, Dummer, Fleischman, and Mackie are no strangers to balancing artistic and business concerns. All received their MA from a School of Business niche program designed to promote this very ability. The Bolz Center for Arts Administration's two-year, multidisciplinary master's degree in business strives "to support and advance the education and training of arts managers, and to celebrate and define the culture of our time." The Center, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, boasts a number of alumni among the staff and leadership of Overture Project organizations. In addition, Andrew Taylor, MA '94, assistant director of the Bolz Center, is a consultant to the Overture Project.

"An on-going motto of the Bolz Center has been that 'the arts must survive as a business to thrive as art,'" Taylor says. "That motto is particularly true here, where the creative potential of the organizations in this outstanding facility is tied directly to their strength and innovation as businesses." Still another consultant to the project with business school ties is Real Estate and Urban Land Economics Professor Kerry Vandell, who is exploring ways to measure the economic and social impact of the new arts district.

Putting It Together
In the words of Stephen Sondheim, "The art of making art is putting it together." That certainly will be the role of the arts leadership over the next several years. The Overture Project could break ground as early as 2001, with phased construction completing around 2005. In the meantime, there is a box full of puzzle pieces that need to come into place.

According to Dummer, those pieces will have to come from throughout the community, not just the arts, if Madison is to successfully step up to the challenge of Jerry Frautschi's gift.

"This represents a real opportunity for the community to step forward," she says. "Whether serving as board members, supporters, donors, or advisors for these arts organizations, the entire community will have a vital role to play, particularly School of Business alumni."

Fleischman underscores this necessary wide-ranging support by pointing to the project's broad implications. He says the Overture Project is not only changing the face of the arts in Madison, it is changing the face of the city itself.

"This is far more than an arts project," Fleischman says. "It is a community-wide endeavor that will have a positive impact on downtown Madison for decades to come."